Hello! Hoping To Get Some Advice On Monte Carlo Melting, Turning White

hello, I'm having an issue with Monte Carlo melting and turning white. it wouldn't let me put the details in this post saying its spam but I posted everything in a comment below.

 

hello. I would really appreciate some help in diagnosing what issue is causing my Monte Carlo carpet to turn white and melt. My tank is approximately 2 months old. the first three weeks were great and the carpet grew out. then suddenly the plants started turning white and melting within a matter of days. I thought it was due to low calcium and fluctuating co2 levels. due to the melt I had a huge algae issue which I resolved with excel. my carpet is finally growing back but today again I noticed some of the new growth turning white! This happens very fast in a matter of one day. I don't know what's going on at this point.



here are my tank parameters



60 gallon tank running on two oase bombaster 600 thermo

one has a uv sterilizer and the other co2 diffuser and reactor

I have twin star light set at 75% for 6.5 hours a day - afraid to go longer at this point due to dead plant material still dissolving from the initial melt

co2 is yellow - I have only a betta fish and he doesn't mind the high co2 level



I'm using green leaf aquarium ferts for EI dosing using the rotala butterfly calculator.

also using green leaf GH booster

I have some crushed coral in the filter to raise the PH a little bit for when I'm ready to add fish.



GH 9

KH 5

Ph 6.4

Co2 38-60 no fish

Ammonia 0.25

Nitrites 0.25

Nitrates 40



please let me know your thoughts. much appreciated

 

I started dry start and it wasn't going super great. I got tissue culture from bruce plant and they sucked. so then ordered potted from aquarium plants and they grew much better. the tank was growing great and after adding water I had no issues. the cycle completed and ammonia was 0. then in a matter of days many plants turned white. after that algae went crazy so I had to do some drastic measures and used excel. during that time I was doing water changes every other day. I stopped dosing excel about two weeks ago and now doing water changes twice a week.

I have Amazonia version two. no additional root tabs except for what was provided.

the ferts I mix in the gla 500ml bottles.

the drop checker is good, I used different solutions and getting the same result. also using the ph and kh chart gives similar values for co2.

I have a feeling the ammonia won't go down until all the dead plant material is gone, and there is still quite a bit. I just dont want to tear the whole carpet apart as the root structure seems to still be intact and there is a lot of new growth.

but a couple days ago my new growth started turning white again.

I added double the micro nutrient dose yesterday and no expansion of the white plants today. maybe its iron deficiency?

 

I reposted this in aquarium fertilization section. thanks!
https://barrreport.com/threads/monte-carlo-melting-turning-white-advice-appreciated.16894/