Warning: What YouTube videos don’t tell you about Monte Carlo / HC Cuba carpeting plants.
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- Warning: What UA-cam videos don’t tell you about Monte Carlo / HC Cuba carpeting plants.
NOTE: To all those that are watching my UA-cam channel, please be aware that there are some younger viewers that will see your comments that you post. If any of your comments contain offensive, vulgar language, name calling of others or myself, discourteous remarks, then I will delete all your comments you have made on my cannel and henceforth.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter,
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to order t-shirts "Anoxic Filtration System"
Dr. Kevin Novak Ph.D.
it's supposed to trap the waste and use it. That's not a problem. You aren't supposed to vaccume carpets. The whole point onf plants is they break down the poop to grow. Just don't over stock. Your tank has a pretty high bio load which is probably why you are having issues.
He's not even having issues, he uprooted the plant lol. Instead of making a big deal out of it, after every decision to uproot he should just come in the next day and gravel vac it. It'll absolutely settle to the ground within a few hours.
Exactly and if you want to vacuum, vacuum above it, just like you do sand.
@@sleepytasmrwhy vacuum sand? Isn’t it supposed to help trap the mulm to feed the plants?
No he could have just lightly pressed over the montecarlo carpet and the derritus would have come out😅😅
He still has to keep up over his tank maintanence.
Your warning is valid but is a little overreaction. Yes carpeting plants trap detritus underneath and within. Same goes for your substrate. Stir your gravel/substrate around and you'll see the same floating waste and detritus in the water column. The key is to do your maintenance regularly. We all vacuum our gravel to remove some of the detritus. Do the same for the carpet plants. You mentioned that you have problems vacuuming your MC because it dislodges the roots. I found a simple fix for that. I got some pliable screen material and wrapped it around the opening of my vacuum tube. I secured it in place with a rubber band to make the screen is tight over the opening. When vacuuming the carpet, I simply push the vacuum tube down onto the carpet with medium pressure and tons of detritus gets pulled out and the carpeting plants doesn't get uprooted because of the screen. Continue this same process over the entire carpet in different spots. It's time consuming but worth it to keep the carpet looking good while removing most of the excess waste.
This was a detailed solution. Thank you!
Awesome tip, thank you!!
I'm not gonna read all of that, but thank you.
Thanks for that it’s a great idea but could you please give me a example of what you use for the ‘pliable screen’
@@colinironfield I just cut out about a 4x4 inch section of the those of replacement screens you would buy for your windows or sliding doors. Then cover the opening and hold it in place with a rubber band.
trim your carpet as low as possible while keeping it healthy, also you can vac it ... and stock bottom feeders. have good flow... and you'll be golden.
In the wild, this is completely natural. Fish waste accumulates at the bottom and the plants helps eat the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. the reason why you have low nitrate is because the plants are consuming it. There is a book, called "Ecology of a planted aquarium" and it explains how you can achieve a balanced ecosystem in your tank to a point where you don't have to run any filtration and water change anymore, just like in Nature..
Thats basically in an infinite amount of water. Not hard to contaminate a small closed system. Good thinking but this is not the same as in the wild.
@@trudeaumustgo1920 No, the book is about how to make that same sort of system work in an aquarium. There are loads of no filter, no water change systems that work once they get going. By no filter I mean just a sponge either in a HoB, or a sponge filter. Those are just to keep water flow, and agitation. An extremely main stream one. ua-cam.com/video/VfAJ3ITS3Nw/v-deo.html
You should probably get some shrimp to clean waste so it does not get out of hand.
Not with Angel fish
Samuel Hodge Or pictus cats.
3 large Discus & 4-5 large Angel fish in what looks like a tall 40 gallon tank? There are more issues here than tank waste collecting under Monte Carlo.
@@chadjohnson438 what size of aquarium do you have to get to have 5 discus?
@@fernystein9516 general rule is 1 per 10 gallons
For a guy that has a PhD(and apparently wrote the book on anoxic filitration), you should have calculated a rough estimate of how much volume your bio and mechanical filtration can support. You've overloaded your tank with fish thus magnifying your water chemistry problems. --- I mean I'm only a geochemist, so what do I know. Right?
Even with calculations, it is irrelevant. How far should those calculation go? One week? One month? Infinite amount of time? Most people in the hobby were advised to change water weekly. He was talking specifically the buildup of detritus for some amount of time that are longer than what whatever normal calculation should provide. I mean, I'm only a hobbyist.
Uh I’d love to hear about this calculation, I’m assuming every biochemist on the planet would roughly say the plants totally eliminate the assumption about needing a ‘bio-filter’, as plants uptake ammonium directly, almost instantaneously, thus bypassing any need for a ‘bio-filer’ or any calculus for its capacity...
Nothing died.
Based on what I've seen of his videos, I knew when I clicked this one it was going to be a hoot. I wasn't disappointed. Dude has a PhD and can't solve a problem that people with GEDs have no problem solving. This sort of thing is exactly what shrimp, snails, and various scavengers are made for. I've even seen one guy borrow the idea of microbubble scrubbing from the saltwater folks and use it to lift a mess of detritus from all the nooks and crannies of his planted tank. As one other commenter noted, this is a complete non-issue.
U sound like a loser TBH
From my experience Monte Carlo and HC Cuba loves ADA aqua soil for some reason. I've have HC Cuba on a bonsai tree deco for years, at first I thought it'll just all melt/waste away, but as long as it's dead center of your light source above 30watt led light or higher, it tends to grow and cover the entire top. These two plants only needs to add a bit of potassium weekly after a water change, a constant temperature, and tiny bit of CO2 (around 1 bubble/2 seconds for a 40 gallon tank specifically) adding anything else will do nothing but make it vulnerable to algae.
You don't need to vacuum with that plant as the waste is fertilizer for it. you don't really vacuum planted aquariums besides just changing some water. But if you do want to, its a good idea to put a mesh cover over the siphons intake, you can gently press down on the plant then and get your vacuuming that way.
I couldn’t get that to work very well
This is why a lot of people struggle with algae in their planted tanks because they think plants will take care of fish waste. Plants in aquariums need clean environment. You need to vacuum especially carpet plants to avoid algae.
@@raizinhell1 that's only true for traditional planted tanks not so much for say, a Walstad tank.
@@ichrised Not exactly true, this is one of the things hobbyists fuck up doing Walstad tanks. The idea behind Walstad is low maintenance, not no maintenance. As your tank parameters improve and it age's in you can do less water changes, less vacuuming, etc, etc. But you still need to monitor and maintain the tank as needed.
Yes ideally you want to reach the stage where you can go years without vacuuming but A most people will never successfully reach that stage and B Even then you still have to monitor and get in there as needed.
A lot of people don't use CO2 injection or dedicated plant spectrum lights. Without CO2 and good lights, it is very hard for plants to actually filter the water. I have a 46 bow front, very heavily stocked, including 3 very older red parrot cichlids. The tank isn't even that heavily planted. I run dedicated plant spectrum lights (AI Prime) for 16 hours a day, and inject CO2 for 14 hours a day. I actually have to dose Nitrogen to keep the plants from shedding leaves.
Its like you saying water is wet. Yes aquariums get dirty, plants trap debris, specially mosses and carpets. But every heavy planted aquarium will have that non-issue.
Why I say non-issue, because its easily fixable with a good cleaning team, shrimps and snails. Good aquarium and plant husbandry, regular trimm and using a turkey baster to get all the dirt floating and then just siphon of with your water change.
Just recently I took down a two year old monte carlo carpet, regular maintenance and I had none of catastrophic things you are saying.
Besides the plants love thing, so just keep it under control and your plants and algae eaters will take care of the rest.
To get that catastrophic out come you have to really neglect your maintenance and you dont need carpets to have problems when you do that.
Thanks for saying this, I'm new to the aquarium scene, but love my pond snails and shrimp. I want to carpet my plant now, and this guy scared the crap out of me.
One question, my hc uproots itself, what can i do?
@@fernystein9516 co2 and co2
@@nic0lasc thanks. What are other easier carpet plants?
@@fernystein9516 dwarf hair grass & s. repens...
The plant is feeding on that waste
Not really actually
@@Lloyd_Christmas11 stick an Amazon sword is it
@@Demon_Lord_Coom What does the Amazon sword do??
@@mrsmoonjelly9522 feast on the feces
@@Demon_Lord_Coom this is hilarious
Sometimes, I dig up my front lawn to vacuum all the dirt under it. You won't believe how much stuff gets under there. It's a time bomb, LITERALLY just waiting to explode.
You made the negatives of these carpeting plants clear. However, it's quite clear that your tank is quite overloaded with larger fishes with massive waste matters. You ought to have established your carpet first before adding in these fishes; or simply cut your carpet plants into smaller pieces and spread them out in your foreground. This would have easily carpeted your substrate in a few weeks time, and any "debris" in them could be easily resolved simply by trimming the carpets down and some water change. You could also add some snails or shrimps (not recommended though considering how small your tank looks to me whilst being packed with aggressive fishes). You could also have set a layer of sand above (or below) your substrate since these are finer then the aquasoil you're using and are able to better compact the roots to the soil/sand.
Yeah right??? Those are a lot of angels in a small space that cant even swim without bumping into each other! Poor babes
Oh jesus I just saw the discus' too
That’s why you get a filter system that can turn that aquarium over at least 5 times in a hour. That’s filter 101, And to believe your giving tips on UA-cam.
Even besides that, the plants themselves are a filtration system
Keldrath the plants only do so much. There’s no way they can keep up with that much bioload. Monte Carlo is a plant that needs to be trimmed quite often as well. Suction the Monte Carlo while your trimming it to keep from making a mess. The plant bounces back quite rapidly.
@@markgriffin5537 Well yeah that's why you still need a filter and to do regular water changes still unless you're doing the Walstad method, but you don't really vacuum planted aquariums even the gravel itself in them isn't meant to be vacuumed.
Malaysian trumpet snails are fantastic for keeping your carpet and substrate clean, unfortunately the trade off is you will have set snail traps down weekly to keep the numbers down
Another thing that works for dislodging the waste is to get a 30ml+ syringe with a blunt needle , push it into the MC, and blast the water through it. I try not to gravel vac often and rely on blowing out the debris
I’m very late on this reply but some things to remedy this that I did. Malaysian trumpet snails will go in between the roots and get rid of the uneaten fish food and decomposing plant matter. At that point it’s mainly fish waste and not so much detritus. Trim your carpet!! Keep it flat and low and don’t skip your weekly gravel vac to hover right above the carpet. Don’t have a ginormous amount of substrate for the foreground area. Monte Carlos can grow without substrate so there’s no point of having a 2” thick substrate layer. I use a turkey baster and blow water into the plant to blow the waste out and let the filter polish the water before a water change + gravel vac hover. The point is to keep up with the balance and if you have big fish with big appetites. You might have to slide in additional vacuuming schedules on ur carpeting plants. You don’t ever let it build up unless you’re stocking light. I hope you was able to deal with that Cyanobacteria issue and if I was keeping discus, I would not have but only a half inch of substrate.
Great Vid. But, when you plant Monte Carlo there are certain considerations you must take into account. If you don’t have any grazers like shrimp or loaches, then you should stay away from carpeting these kind of plants. I have a Monte Carlo carpet and since I first planted it I got 10 Amano shrimp that are relentlessly picking away at the Monte Carlo. It’s their favorite feeding grounds. They not only eat all kinds of algae off of living plants, but they’ll consume any trappings of left over food or detritus that may get caught up in the plant. If you get a grazer at the very beginning stages of carpeting Monte Carlo you will not have to worry about this at all. If it does get carried away and your filtration can’t keep up, then you will continuously have to uproot the carpet and perform heavy maintenance. Which absolutely sucks. But, planning ahead and thinking these things through in the planting/stocking stage alleviates these problems.
Majesty0507 excellent advice✌️
So I’v had a bit of an idea which might be stupid. What if you made a tray with a mesh bottom, put the substrate and the plant in the tray. Then you could more easily remove the carpeted area to clean it out without uprooting it.
Stumbled across this video today and I'm so glad I did. I was just about to plant Monte Carlo in my daughter's aquarium with the intention of letting it carpet, but never thought about how much waste could gey trapped in. It makes perfect sense now that I think of it, and certainly your video shows the irrefutable evidence of it. Thank you so much for making this video. I know this isn't a recent video of yours, but hopefully like me you're still monitoring the comments on your past videos. Blessings to you!
I definitely will admit it’s quite beautiful but once you trap all that mum and detritus in there and it starts rotting away then if your tank collapses , you won’t know why.
I've glued mine to driftwood, my snails ate most of it but it's doing well in the shrimp tank..
Often times this is why people have bottom feeders or shrimp with this plant, as they get to all of the droppings etc (i know this is very late, but it’s good for If anyone else stumbled on this comment)
same thing happens to substrate, make sure you don't have substrate either or it will trap and break down waste and keep your tank clean. You dont want that. Its better to have the waste float around the bottom where you can see it.
Interesting video. Personally, I use a gravel vacuum with a valve on it so I can suck very gently on plants like Monte Carlo or any plant with a good anchored root system that I don't really want to disturb and slow the growth of the plant. If done weekly, I can keep up with the scum that is near the top of the plants without it piling up. A thought for you might be keeping it in small groups patches and remove a patch when cleaning leaving the rest alone. Then do it again to another clump on the next cleaning. That way you'll never have masses of scum building up over weeks and months. I also agree to keep shrimp, botias or other bottom feeding fish to help remove any excess food on the bottom. Too bad there are not any fish that eats poop!
I have an idea to combat the fish waste that settles! Get a mesh plastic screen from your local craft store and allow the plant to root on that ...that way you can easily remove the plant, rinse it separately without destroying the asthetic, vacuum substrate and the lay the plant back done
we can wash monte Carlo every 2 weeks like a real carpet taking out and washing and cleaning the floor, after cleaning fix it again to that bottom of the floor 😁😁 Cheers.....😁😁
I had the same problem with a bunch of foreground plants. I didn’t like the maintenance and how it looked after it was uprooted or how it looks after trimming. I don’t grow any carpeting plants now, just sand and rocks.
Looks like an overstocked tank causing the bio load. If you get the correct ratio of planting to fish you can even set up a no filter aquarium where the plants will deal with the bio filtration. You mention food getting trapped which would also be a common error of overfeeding. If you reduced stocking levels you could put in a clean up crew of shrimp although this might be a risk with Angels and Discus but possibly full grown Amano Shrimp would be o.k. Shrimps are an ideal combination with small leaved carpeting plants and will easily deal with missed food and will also aid bio breakdown of any detritus.
He's some what right folks... anyone with with cory's, shrimp, rope fish, etc this may not be a issue at all but instead its more like a food market and mega breeding's net. I love it. The plants will break it down just don't ever disturb it .
If waste goes into the filter it’s still in the tank system. It’s no difference if it goes to your filter or stays in the tank it’s still in the system and the plants and bacteria will still break it down.
I don’t agree the tank is overstocked. If the water parameters are perfect it mimics the environment of a large body of water, the fish are happy and healthy and will grow. I’m just relaying the info I read. It did make sense to me.
“Literally explode on you”
😭
You have gravel, that's why you had such a problem. If you had sand, the waste is good and will be trapped inside the sand and so will feed your plants, after that your tank is going to be more than stable. No water change, no vacuum.
I wonder what Takashi Amano would say 🤔 Your either going to have one of two scenarios, massive and rapid fauna growth due to detritus consumption which you will have to trim, or what you see here with buildup. The object is to achieve balance. The bio load in this video is dense which leads to excess waste. I’d wager that if the load was reduced, the results would be immensely different. It’s not the plants, the problem is that there are too many fish. Try one or two fish, a few shrimp, and a couple of snails with the scape. I’d be curious as to the results. Especially since for every one of these videos there are ten that show evidence of established tanks with exceptional results.
I pulled some of my Monte Carlo after viewing this vid, I did not have anywhere near that amount of waste. More frequent 10-20% WC by vacuuming just above your carpet (Goldie lock zone) not ripping the carpet up, but enough to pull the waste. The video is factual, and it is true with most (if not all) carpet plants. Although this plant, does have a “aggressive” root structure, its a perfect example of how significant the choice of your substrate is.
This isn't the only video out there that shows exactly what I showed about the Monte Carlo. The only reason I showed it is to show people that there has to be some kind of maintenance done on it to keep it cleaned out because it is a big huge sponge for detritus and fish waste.
It appears you have a cyanobacteria problem there as well, perhaps from the excess nutrients you speak of. You can keep the monte carlo trimmed shorter and gently vac with less vacuum pressure. Trimming always makes it ugly for a bit but the new growth always looks great. Perhaps try using seachem pristine as well to help break down excess waste, turning it into food for your plants, and do regular water changes.
No you would be very wrong. there is no cyanobacteria problems with this fish tank and everything is doing fine you’re misdiagnosing the water quality. That’s the problem in this hobby too many experts think they know more than the expert and misdiagnosed peoples fish and fish tanks to the point they destroy the hobby.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Just trying to be friendly Kevin, what I believe I saw on the bottom left at around the 2:48 mark. Perhaps calling it a "problem" is offensive, "it is present" would have arguably been a better thing to say. Not giving advice to an expert, but when I post a comment it is for everyone, not just the guy that posted the vid. Not trying to know more than anyone, that's no fun. But this is a community. Also not fun to be accused of "destroying a hobby" just for pointing something out that is relevant to the hobby... just do a google image search for "cyanobacteria between substrate and glass". It has happened to me plenty of times. Nothing to do with being an expert. I used a syringe to locally apply diluted hydrogen peroxide and it worked like a charm to get rid of it.
@@hugheymorrow I confirm, that is cyanobacteria. There is also a chemical that kills cyanobacteria. You can buy it here: amzn.to/2VD0sHd
Big thanks for the insight
You could also trim it so you can get a siphon in there
Very good point thank you for sharing
Good video. And good warning. I guess when in the future when I get to try out MC, I will only use it in plant tank, with nano fish with little wast.
Good luck!
So just a thought, instead of trying to vaccumming the Monty Carlo area, how about using a turkey baster and blowing the detritus out on a regular basis.
Just a tip: when you don‘t want little mountains with monte carlo or hcc you have to make sure that your light is strong enough. A strong lightning system helps to make it more like a landscape!! ✌🏼. About 50-60 Lumen per Litre
So let's say that for my 55 gallons i would need 10500 lumens? Where do i get i light like that 🤔
Marcelo Jerez I think daytime is the right address, but u right I have to correct myself. It‘s about 40 to 50 lumen. Anyway, you must have strong light 😅
Plants consume waste That’s what they need to grow It breaks it down and makes it non-toxic and the cleanup crew takes care of the rest💯
Definitely 👍🏻 some shrimp or loaches will do great
Do u need co2?
You see there are ions in our ponds/aquariums that are just not accounted for by the hobbyists and understanding Aquatic Microbiology will go a long way in understanding these ions and the Fishes resistance to these insults is something that is not written in hobbyist books. There has to be a balance between the electrical charges of the waters mass (water is electrically charged) and the animals we’re trying to keep healthy. This is complex water chemistry but it is something that all can accomplish if you just open your minds to new ideas, and there are many success stories to confirm it.
We can probably argue the point over and over again, but the bottom line is filtration systems do have their limits and it’s not the manufactures of such that are at fault, it’s the hobbyist that insist on not being mature enough to just say NO, or absolutely refuses to concede that there are better ways of doing things. Are you guilty of these sins?
I’ve had hobbyist on the internet complaining about my pond/aquarium being so overcrowded with such large Fish, I always tell hobbyist that visit, that this is to show just how powerful the Anoxic Filtration System really is and I do not advocate that hobbyist parrot my actions. Even had a professional Koi judge tell people visiting my pond not to try this with a conventional filtration system because you will be unsuccessful. Conventional filtration systems are great for sewerage treatment facility but are not really intended to sustain aquatic life, but they do. Sewerage treatment plants use a lot of chemicals to aid the Nitrification process along. The chemicals they use are not for sale to hobbyists because of their dangerous nature. Sixty years ago that’s all we had going for us but thing have change and you either lead, follow, are get left behind.
The Anoxic Filtration System was specifically design for ponds and Aquariums and aquatic life, it is not a knockoff of a sewerage treatment filtration system made over for ponds/aquarium use but that of a natural system used for millions of years by good old Mother Nature herself. Remember, conventional filtration systems are only designed to deal with a very limited number on ions that plague our ponds and that number is very limited to Ammonium/Ammonia, Nitrites and is some circumstance even Nitrates but not much more beyond that. The Anoxic Filtration System looks at positively charges ions all the same and does not discriminate and uses all cations and anions as a food supply. Aquatic plants are the same way using cations and anions in equal amounts in order not to have a fatal pH swing.
cool video. I have sand in my 90 gallon never ever clean it, haven't cleaned anything in probably year and a half or 2 years. No water changes, haven't even got in my canister filter. I don't have anything on the bottom no poop no nothing. My parameters are perfect aswell. I didn't over load my tank and I planed very well. Bout to start a new tank. I'm interested in fully covered in plants my other one has a big mound of plants on one side. Ill prob still use a carpet but ill keep this inmind
I know you probably know this and I'm no expert by any means but I think you've got to trim that thing weekly down to the bone and run your Syphon at the same time to suck up the trimmings and detritus
So will old under gravel filters explode on ones tank
The video is six years old, my aquarium hobby started just 7 yrs back, my first planted tank is 4 yrs old. But what you say about detritus trappings and deranged parameters is not true , since I am running the low tech planted tank with just air bubbles only, no filter, bioload is bigger, but both fish and plants are thriving , I do water change every four months, no vacumming, crystal clear water, Father fish changed the concept of aquarium maintenance immensely, create a natural ecosystem, it will take care of everything.
Good info. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Up your bed Vacuuming aside from regular water changes. Yes you'll need to top off, maybe vacuum in sections, So you don't drain too much water, and deplete beneficial bacteria.
Wow. Thanks for that advice... just bought some and paused before putting it in my tank. I'm going to try and do a little 1st and use the turkey baster like Steve Hickling recommended... I appreciate this video, Thanks again
Let me know how that works.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums will do Kevin. Thanks again for the heads up... I was moving ahead full-bore without considering the bio-load. Im glad you gave me pause ;)
Baby steps :D
You know im no one to say but that tank seems a little very overstocked 😂😂
No it really is not. In fact you could have 6 full grown Discus in that tank and that would be fine.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Having a lighter stocked tank makes for easier and less maintenance. Overstocked just really means, more maintenance for clean tank.
@@michaelsanderson8487 well then I suggest you call up Jack Wattley, GABE is the owner and tell him he’s wrong on his videos about stocking levels of aquariums with Discus and Angel fish. Since this guy is probably the number one professional on discus and angelfish keeping in the United States I’m sure you know more than him.
@@michaelsanderson8487 so we’re supposed to listen to you a nobody. NOT! I think I’ll stick with listening to the experts than somebody who thinks they are an expert and has very little experience to back them up or to prove anything you’re saying. When you have 40-plus years experience behind you and written several articles and books on discus and angelfish keeping that I think I’ll listen to you.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Someone deleted comments 😂😂
Thank you 🥰
You’re welcome 😊
Great nitruition for the plant is all I see.
What was shown was clearly too much.
You’re 100 percent correct! I’m having this problem now, extremely disappointing. I don’t slack on maintenance or water changes. I’m going to have to redo one of my tanks
is hair grass better
Great video, thank you for pointing this out, 💯👍👍
No problem 👍
As a saltwater guy (and fresh of course) imo, planted tanks are a lot like reef tanks. To be very successful, you must keep your N way down. In order to do that the plants (and corals) have to make up 90-95% of the tank, meaning very little fish (a.k.a. eaters and poopers) I think you have too many fish in that tank, even though those angels are gorgeous, they are big time E & P's, if you had just a few CUC, i.e. shrimp, snails and just a couple small fish, you'd make it easier on yourself.
Warning evaded.
A very interesting and informative video, That's the 'exact reason' for not having carpeting plant's in my Aquarium. 'Turkey Basters' are worth their weight in Gold for this job!
It’s really not a problem unless and until you go in there and disturb it like that.
Detritus settling out will convert to nitrogen which the bio filter and the plants will use. What’s left over becomes silt and soil.
It’s not like all of a sudden one day the whole thing is just going to shift way out of balance. The ticking time bomb analogy is a stretch.
Could you have used fresh water shrimp to clean it, but as I am typing this I realize you have angels and discus so it wouldn’t work for you, but for someone with a community tank and smaller fish wouldn’t they work?
The same goes for dwarf hair grass. It collects so much waste that it becomes a chore.
If your water isn't cloudy and your nitrates are staying low why are you worried about the sediment? Your sand or gravel is probably also trapping a bunch. You can work to pull it out or you can leave it undisturbed.
thank you and gutted was just about to do this, i wont now! will use larger plants that dont trap rubbish! :D
James Fairfoul just get shrimps or snails and there will be no problem.
I think a mesh film over your water changing funnel will work to get waste out without pulling up the Monte Carlo.
thank you for this idea
Someone else said the same thing... like a small piece of nylon screen. Hopefully, it won't suck any baby fry with it. If there are fry in the tank... just run a wand over it to let the fry know that something is up and they disappear elsewhere. Then you can vacuum the Monte Carlo and other carpeting plants.
I am glad to have read this before I I started to aquascape this 55G that I just got. I am waiting for the weather to stay above freezing for a few days, not only to clean it out before using, but to also run a Full Tank Water Leak Test... 55G is a lot of water even being on the 1st floor over the basement.
Just keep your carpet short and vacuum with a flow control valve... problem solved....
This is where shrimp come in. Its more for them. Snails also do a great job. I have noticed not alot of ppl like them. I feel they key to a planted tank. I have never had issues with what you speak of but then again. I do mot for tge prefect tank look.
Good point, thanks
Trumpet snails will burrow under and clean
I'm not planning to vacuum my substrate because of the ton of snails digging around in it. The way i figure the wildlife will break everything down, and then the plants will absorb it.
Wow nice plants.
Thanks for visiting
The same thing happened to my tank, I'm going to have to re-scape the whole thing now. I've vacuumed so many times and there is still waste.
I have a 200l tank with JBL 1502 and OASE filtosmart thermo 300..., so in theory it turns around my tank 12 times...., but now I dont now to tray or not carpet palnts in my tank
Yess.. u right.. that plant need hight light
What’s your experience with growing Monte Carlo plants particularly without pressurised CO2? Is it still achievable in a tank with ADA Amazonia soil and sufficient lighting without any CO2? I’m currently 4 weeks into growing it using the dry start method and would prefer not dosing CO2 if I can avoid it.
Your results may vary without using CO2 as far as Monte Carlo goes. With highlight it may become algae ridden without it.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums so any plants may develop algae on them if no CO2? I know I have that issue with anubias
Praise the LORD for creating cool fish!
ok
Are there carpeting plants that are not as dense as a Monte Carlo? Would a micro sword be better or about the same in trapping mulm? I haven’t had an aquarium in years and the last one we had had one live plant that was still in the pot from the store. I would like to do better this time and have a few live plants in my aquarium instead of artificial ones I’ve looked into the water column plants but I’d like to add a few plants that can use up some of the waste that seeps into the substrate
I think an experiment to see if a false bottom/under gravel setup with a bulkhead to drain off detritus would be interesting. It wouldn't dirty the water & you could add the water drained off back to the aquarium. Then you could do multiple "water changes" to remove the detritus without having to worry about stressing the fish with large water changes
A bottom drain under an under gravel filter sounds a perfect solution it would effectively wash your gravel through with the pressure of the water above, that’s gotta work surely!
i believe when you look under a glass bottom tank at the ug filter, the area surprisingly looks clean. the detritus is captured and held by plant canopy/roots, so a bottom drain would be pointless. and if you can see a layer of muck there, you should be able to siphon it off through the lift tubes. another way might be to back flush the ug filter through the lift tubes with a hose, but that might take a while and you would need to use dechlorinated water as well.
Why do water changes?
Hmm, what should I order? Oh I know, I'll check the Chinese menu *turns over PhD*
very simple solution: Substrate Filter!!! Also if you have large fish like this guy obviously your food load is going to be heavy and eventually build up so dont keep huge fish if you dont wana trap excess waste. one more thing corys dont eat this stuff but if you have a nice colony of shrimp they will get in there and clean a bit more!
I wonder how possible it is with a dirted aquarium
Firstly, your MC is Absolutely Stunning - so green, dense and lush - making everything that's right about it, wrong with it for the amount of waste these fish are producing. I'd only be using epiphytes and gravel in this situation.
good to know
Probably the high tech guys don't mind using it because they end up replacing the soil after a year or two, plus they don't mind trimming their carpeting plants; that may not take care of the root problem, but then again, the root growth will likely be stunted due to the top trimming. When you let plants mature and get big on top, they start sending out roots like mad.
Hi Kevin. Do you think a good number of small or adult cherry shrimps or dwarf corydoras will be able to somewhat decrease the amount of detritus underneath the Monte Carlo?
Maybe, that’s something that you would have to try. At least it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Some Hornwort coontail might help, it sucks up ammonia , nitrates, and nitrites really well.
Does the same applies for glossostigma elatinoides and other carpet plants?
Maybe a more corse top layer might help, then again this might just allow the waste to settle deeper down too 🤔,
What about using some mesh or a screen to hold the plant down while you vacuum it?
Good idea, I did not think of that.
geeee thanks buddy...
With just a betta fish and 2 snails I dont expect to have this problem …
Thank you for sharing your mistakes, so we can learn from it !
if you grow it in a dirtied tank with a sand cap it will filter and clean itself out by reusing everything back in the system over time. thick anaerobic substrate always helps for longer.
Would you explain exactly how it works and where you get the science to anaerobic substrates always helps? Just saying, anaerobic substrates always create methane gas or sulfide gas. How does any of these help an aquarium or plant growth?
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums go down to your local creek, river or stream and look at the substrate. after the first few inches its anaerobic, if you get a stick and poke in the sand then bubbles will come up in spots. nature has found a way to cope with the breaking down of fish and plant waste all by its self, and yet it is teaming with life, if your tank is aerated like it should be then whatever gas build up will release itself in a bubble that will float to the top and pop. yes I'm sure some if it is released into the water column but you should have enough plants to take it in and not be a stress to the fish. plants use the sulfide and Co2 in the deep substrate through their roots to help growth. I've never seen a team of people gravel vac the local lake or river before so why would I prevent nature from running its course? everything in my tanks are happy and healthy, breeding and thriving. if you want fish to live as natural as possible then make your tank natural as possible. build a food web and self sustaining ecosystem or leave the fish in their natural homes in the wild and not in a tank.
Please let me ask you about some other carpeting plants like Micranthemum (Hemianthus) Micrantemoides known as Pearl Weed, Marsilea Hirsuta, Cryptocoryne Parva and Lilaeopsis Mauritiana. What is their root system like, how durable they are and if they won´t cause problems like Monte Carlo did. Also my question is if I consider placing Monte Carlo on a wood with small holes, will it attach and root into it? Thanks for advice ;-)
they use super glue (the gel form i believe) these days to attach plants to wood.
Wouldn't malaysian trumpet snails help reduce all of the detritus?
What substrate do you use?
Thank you, I love hearing the cons, Im looking for a manageable carpet plant right now
leftover food and fish waste becomes plant food.
Mins never grow much despite many attempts and full Co2 and light and NPK dosing. A small patch of hairgrass I planted is looking great and spreading now but not the HC. It just accumulates algae and dies off. Ive noticed the roots go brown after a while and its over. Even the ones with deep roots arent spreading. Im gona get rid of it and try Monte carlo but not sure how that would work either.
So I have a carpet and I clean mine with a vacuum. I went and bought one of the smallest vacuums I could find so this way the pressure is very low. If that don’t work figure something out because it needs a clean big time
Snails are your friend. They will get in the substrate and under the carpet and clean everything. Shrimp are good too but angels will eat them and they cant reach everything.
Also you shouldn't vacuum your gravel in a planted tank. Thats plant food you are stealing. At most take your hand and fan the bottom water so anything on the surface gets sucked into your filter. If you have a good clean up crew and you are not over feeding you shouldn't have much of anything on the surface anyway.
Its about balance and maintenance .......
Thank You for the video and all the information in it , Too late for me i have some Monte Carlo in the way over i have a good canister filter i hope that helps , Tks again.
You keep saying "IF you don't have the right filter system". Exactly! Make sure you have the right filter system and also, that "waste" as you call it acts as a fertilizer for the root of all the plants in the aquarium; it's the naturally occurring plant food. There shouldn't be an issue with the ammonia and nitrite as the water column itself should, if you have a regularly maintained and correct size filter system, already contain the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that will break down the waste and turn it into way less harmless nitrate from the poisonous ammonia and nitrite. I have a 30-gallon tank and the floor is covered in the carpeting plants (anubias mainly) and in the last 2 years since I started this, I have NOT had the problem you talk about. I have two HOB external filters, each with the capacity for a 40-gallon tank (so effectively I have 2x the filtration I need), regular water changes (20% every 2 weeks or so) and no fish die off, no plant die off and no ammonia, no nitrite and minimal nitrate (but well below the ppm that becomes dangerous) which is the fertilizer naturally consumed by the entire planted aquarium for the plants to grow.
Bro, my garden will take all the fish poop you can make!!
I've subscribed to the Father Fish dirted deep substrate method and let mother nature handle the rest. If you want to fuss with adding this and that that's fine.Bio-Diversity is a wonderful thing and will self balance if not accelerated by overloading the system by constantly pushing it with more nutrients.
No fuss at all, just good science and knowledge. We all choose the path of least resistance and if yours is Father Fish then that is your choice to do so.
What youtube won’t tell about carpeting plants that my bottom fish (beautiful corydoras) likes to stir it and dig the gravel causing them to unroot, every day I try to replant them in vain. I have slow growing grass and I doubt it survives at this rate. But I still love my corydoras they are so cute. But corydoras won’t go well with too delicate bottom plants which are still trying to spread.
Do u ever think its the substrate that’s wash away?
This is coool👍
I would just throw some cherry shrimp in there and call it good. Also; having a trickle tower with some polyester filling makes it super easy to remove waste.
Too bad this guy has a poor selection of fish for the size of that tank lol. Discus and angels will eat up the cherry's.
@@Phaminator525 yeah, you’re probably right.
Just hit it with a turkey baster (gently) before you start vacuuming. The majority of detritus will get suspended and sucked out. Do the same thing with rock crevasses and dead spots. Easy peezy.
This carpet plant made my water stinky smell.
Thank for the info.