Twisted Vallis Growing But Not Looking Great.

[ZoddyZod]

Morning!

I've put 3 twisted vallis at the rear of my tank and although they are all producing new leaves, the older leaves tend to go translucent and eventually break off.

I dont add any ferts as I thought I had enough fish to produce the required phosphate/nitrogen for the small amount of plants.

They are planted in empty tea bags to secure them into the small gravel substrate (keep floating, otherwise).

The lights are on 8hrs a day and I have twin 20w T8s.

I also have a java fern which seems to be doing well (plenty of new leaves, no weak/broken ones)

Is this just normal for twisted vallis, or is my set up lacking something that they really need?

 

[Jallen]

Morning!

I've put 3 twisted vallis at the rear of my tank and although they are all producing new leaves, the older leaves tend to go translucent and eventually break off.

I dont add any ferts as I thought I had enough fish to produce the required phosphate/nitrogen for the small amount of plants.

They are planted in empty tea bags to secure them into the small gravel substrate (keep floating, otherwise).

The lights are on 8hrs a day and I have twin 20w T8s.

I also have a java fern which seems to be doing well (plenty of new leaves, no weak/broken ones)

Is this just normal for twisted vallis, or is my set up lacking something that they really need?

First off, fish produce ammonia which is broken into nitrites and then nitrates, not nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the air we breath making up about 70% of it...

Secondly, nirtrates and phosphates are of course neccessary, but so are trace elements such as calcium and iron. Therefore you should be adding a liquid fert to your water. It doesn't matter if the fert you decide to get has nitrate and phosphate in it or not because as you said, you probably have enough already.

The wattage of your lights is not very useful because we don't know how many gallons your tank is.

The Java fern is doing ok because it does well in pretty much any conditions where there is light and water. If you start dosing a fert then you will probably notice a difference in your java ferns too though.

 

[ZoddyZod]

dont know why I wrote nitrogen.....

Size of the tank is 125L

 

[Jallen]

Ok. It's down to lack of nutrients IMO. Needs a water collumn fertiliser.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Ok. It's down to lack of nutrients IMO. Needs a water collumn fertiliser.

any that you'd recommend?

 

[ZoddyZod]

Ok. It's down to lack of nutrients IMO. Needs a water collumn fertiliser.

any that you'd recommend?

 

[baron von bubba]

First off, fish produce ammonia which is broken into nitrites and then nitrates, not nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the air we breath making up about 70% of it...

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are ALL forms of nitrogen!

just get something like TPN. all ya need apart from the nitrate and phos. which as you say your getting from the fishies.

 

[Jallen]

First off, fish produce ammonia which is broken into nitrites and then nitrates, not nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the air we breath making up about 70% of it...

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are ALL forms of nitrogen!

just get something like TPN. all ya need apart from the nitrate and phos. which as you say your getting from the fishies.

They are nitrogen + hydrogen, nitrogen on it's own is useless for a fish tank, but yeah, they do all contain nitrogen.

 

[ZoddyZod]

just get something like TPN. all ya need apart from the nitrate and phos. which as you say your getting from the fishies.

just ordered some TPN from fleabay......will see how it goes.