Help New Val has dark coloration, Monte Carlo not seeming to take

[1_Blake]

Hello all,

This is the first time I am trying a co2 injected planted tank and I can definitely see the results already! It has only been about a month since rescaping and only 2 weeks of co2 and I am seeing tons of new growth. My valisneria has been doing excellent, I have about 10 new sprouts all along the tank from runners however every new sprout and new growth has these dark markings that I don't usually see on Val. The leaves themselves also sometimes seem to be a more brown shade then some of the bright emerald green of the old leaves (that weren't grown in my tank lol). Not sure if this is a specific nutrient that I am lacking or maybe to do with how hard my water is. As I said this hasn't impeded growth whatsoever so I haven't paid it much mind. My Monte Carlo unfortunately is the opposite, with a large number of leaves and sprouts melting and rotting. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong here, because despite popular advice I seem to be having the opposite results. I separated a majority of the stems and inserted them into the substrate individually as recommended, however I left one clump all together as a sort of control group. As seen in the pictures all of the individual stems are showing very little signs of life whereas the clump is still a nice bright green. I am starting to notice some very small sprouts starting to grow up so I figure it may just be a slow process until those start to naturally propagate/carpet. If anyone has any insight into either of these situations I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Unexpected]

Looks like Leapord Val, and those horizontal markings are normal. The swords are converting from emersed and can melt like I'm seeing on those. Triple check CO2 and make sure you are at or above 30ppm and have balanced nutrients in the water.

Can you give us Ca, Mg ppm and what's being dosed? KH?

 

[1_Blake]

I doubt co2 is quite to 30ppm yet because my drop checker is just turning green. I am taking it slow because I figure I have grown plants without it before and so I'd rather slowly work my way up than go high once and kill off my fish. I am dosing Green Leaf Aquariums Dry Mix PPS Pro, however I am leaving out the potassium nitrate because with my current bioload I am usually at 20-40PPM Nitrate. So I am dosing Potassium Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, and Monopotassium Phosphate along with their micronutrient mix. My water is quite hard and I wouldn't be surprised if KH was somewhere between 8" and 12". I'll run a test to be sure when I get home. Interesting that it is leopard val , it was marked and sold as jungle so I guess ill see if they will grow as tall and vibrant as I would like them to. My swords seem to be doing other than the one pictured which is by far the weakest, for whatever reason I'm getting almost no roots off the crown of that one even though one of its two runners had about 10 6 inch roots coming off of it. The monte carlo is the main concern, the only thing I'd like out of my swords is to start growing tall instead of wide. (can't be too picky though any growth is better than dying lol)

 

[Unexpected]

I get being cautious, but starting low on CO2 causes more issues in my opinion. Just spend a day with the tank and get it maxed out. Drop ckeckers are not that accurate and have a 2 or more hour delay from actual CO2 ppm and color change. Monitoring pH is a solid method and is almost instantaneous. Some plants will struggle with high KH, but the best chance is with stable and high CO2.

 

[1_Blake]

Yes I have heard of the drop checker horror stories, which made me even more cautious at first. I was under the impression that due to the high KH the method of checking co2 PPM based off PH would be quite inaccurate due to the KH acting as a buffer. I'll absolutely take a look though and see if my ph drops in any meaningful way once the co2 has been on for a couple of hours!

 

[Kwyet]

If you’re going by pH, be sure to test a degassed sample for your baseline. The Hanna CO2 is useful too, although I’m having a problem with it that I haven’t figured out yet.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Monte carlo has been a difficult plant to get established for me as well. Sometimes it goes great sometimes it just melts away. I am currently working on some that I planted last month and is not doing well. id love to hear from others their observations.

 

[techman81]

My experience with MC is that from tissue culture, 50% making the transition is pretty good. Even from emersed growth, some is going to melt. Once it makes the transition though, It's solid, so you want to try to keep some submersed growth farmed if you can, so it's ready to go for other tanks you might want it. I actually just had better luck with Cuba TC. About 80% of it has made the transition as an epiphyte.