Vallis Trouble

[Electric Warrior]

HI, so I have a 200L tank that this decently planted up, but my vallisneria americana (natans) is not doing too well. A few weeks back, I posted a different thread about a couple of leaves on my plants turning red all of a sudden (I don't have the red variety of vallis), and shortly there after, those leaves snapped off. The issue is that near the tops of the leaves, some of the plants are going brown, and dying off. I got all of my vallis from the same batch, and I removed any dead/brownish leaves before I planted them. They do seem to be growing, albeit slowly, and they are producing runners, but a lot of the tips just don't look very well. I dose TNC Lite every week, and also use root tabs in my sand substrate, 8hrs of T8 light, and my other plants are doing very well-Amazon swords, cabomba, salvinia natans, etc. Even my red cabomba which I first purchased not knowing its difficult reputation is doing fine, although it takes a bit more work as the very bottom fronds seems to melt away fairly easily, but I remove them every water change. Temp is set at 26C btw. Could it possibly be a bad batch I had gotten, or something else?

 

[Teephphah]

You say that your vallis is still growing and it is putting out runners. Are the mother plants also putting out new leaves? If so, do the new leaves outnumber the ones that are browning? If so, I'd say just pluck off the dying leaves at the crown when you do water changes and don't worry too much about it. Generally, I think the fact that your plants are putting out runners speak well of the health of your plant. But, that's probably not the helpful advice you were looking for though.

The only thing I can think of would be possible leaf damage? I know sometimes either my rubber lip pleco or my farlowella catfish will decide that there's not enogh algae in the tank and take a nibble at my jungle val, and afterward everything above that bite will brown and eventually rip away. Any chance of something like that happening in your tank?

 

[DrRob]

Vallis is a bugbear plant of mine, unless I plant it in my tapwater, which it loves, in my tanks it sulks.

It's said to be picky about not liking soft water, which may be the problem.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Hmm, okay. I do indeed have quite soft water, like 3dKH. My PH is also 6.6, which is perfect for my fish, but not really certain if that all the plants are okay with it, since this is my first planted tank? I was also wondering about my pleco possibly damaging them? I do have one bn plec, but I have only seen him rasping at the vallis once or twice. He definitely prefers to rasp on my bogwood, catappa leaves, and even my amazon swords sometimes. I really haven't ever witnessed him chewing up any vallis, but I can't be sure of everything he is doing when the lights are out and I am in bed!

 

[DrRob]

Tis probably the soft water they're not liking then.

 

[Electric Warrior]

So, does that basically mean that vallis may never really thrive in my tank? Are there varieties of vallis that do better in soft water than the amerciana one that I currently have.

 

[DrRob]

Not really, but there are similar looking plants, such as cyperus heleferi

 

[coolie]

Electric Warrior, are you adding EasyCarbo to your tank or similar products?

 

[Electric Warrior]

Electric Warrior, are you adding EasyCarbo to your tank or similar products?

The only things I am using are TNC Lite, and root tabs. I don't use CO2 or anything.

 

[coolie]

Good, Liquid Carbon kills Vallis.

 

[stu40]

Easycarbo dosed according to the bottle will not always kill Vallis.
It never has in my tank, and i can think of at least 2 other members who have had the same experience.
Flourish Excel on the otherhand will.

 

[PJPJ]

I use Flourish Excel with a Large Vallis without any problems that I can see. Grows to the other side of the tank and is throwing runners all the time.

I use Seachem (Currently) root tabs, I reduce the Phosphorus as it is apx. 3.5ppm out of the tap, add Potassium Nitrate as needed, add TNC Trace as directed and Excel as directed and add some Magnesium Sulphate when I do a water change. It's pretty soft water here in Huddersfield too.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Are you dosing the excel weekly or daily?

 

[Electric Warrior]

Plants are still looking a bit grim. All of the other plants are doing great. It's really mostly the tips of them and upper parts of the leaves that are going brown and dying away. The only other thing I can think of is maybe they aren't getting enough light because my salvinia natans tends to hang out above the vallis on that side of the tank, likely due to the flow of the filter outlet? It has grown pretty quickly and I have had to pluck a bunch out already, but I would say it's covering about 60% of the surface. Light is still getting through though I believe, since the plants are throwing out runners...

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Are you dosing weekly or daily?