Valisneria in soft acidic water

[seangee]

I can't tell you how many times I almost gave up and chucked it out. In this tank GH=KH=0 and pH <5.5. It has taken ages to take. Usually supplemented by flourish root tabs but last month I could not get any to top up. I substituted with JBL - the vals don't seem to notice the difference but the crypts and hygrophila did not appreciate the change. Managed to find some this month and have them on order.

A turning point may well have been the addition of 8 little otos several months ago. One of my biggest gripes about the vals was their affinity for algae, but they are a firm favourite for the otos - in fact if you look carefully you can see several in this pic.

 

[AquaBarb]

I can't tell you how many times I almost gave up and chucked it out. In this tank GH=KH=0 and pH <5.5. It has taken ages to take. Usually supplemented by flourish root tabs but last month I could not get any to top up. I substituted with JBL - the vals don't seem to notice the difference but the crypts and hygrophila did not appreciate the change. Managed to find some this month and have them on order.
View attachment 103000
A turning point may well have been the addition of 8 little otos several months ago. One of my biggest gripes about the vals was their affinity for algae, but they are a firm favourite for the otos - in fact if you look carefully you can see several in this pic.

Id love some vals or grasses in my tank but they dont fair well for me.

Yours are look good tho

 

[Colin_T]

Giant Vallis doesn't do well in tanks and if you have soft acid water look for the smaller varieties, which seme to tolerate a wider range of conditions and less light.

 

[seangee]

Since that first pic I have been doing a little experiment and adding enough bee salt to my water to bring the GH up to 2dGH. This only affects GH, so my KH is still 0 and pH < 5.5. I did this mostly because I was concerned about the long term effects of using pure RO. I know soft water fish have evolved to be very efficient at using minerals from the water, but it has niggled for a while that there are absoultely none to be had. I don't think the impact on the vals needs any comment - but a battle for domination between the vals' leaves and frogbit roots look imminent

 

[JuiceBox52]

It looks good