Vallisneria Growing Rampantly!

[pmb_67]

Evening all!

A while back I had a bunch of vallis in about as low-tech a planted tank as you can get (gravel substrate, no CO2, crap lighting, no interference with NO3 or PO4 except through weekly 10% water changes with London's finest, phosphate- and nitrate-laden tap water) and got pretty good growth. I trimmed it, but that pretty much killed it off.

Two years on, I've re-specced this tank after moving house with Tetra Complete substrate (topped off with a thin gravel / sand mix) and a Renacor cable, but still the same crap lighting and no CO2. Water is a bit softer and less ion-laden these days as I'm using 50% RO, 50% tap and am RowaPhos'ing the tank. Got myself some vallis and crypts, all growing nicely but as you might expect the vallis is starting to overgrow the top of the tank - simple question, what's the best way to cut it back so it doesn't die off?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[plantbrain]

Cut out the old plants, and keep the newer clones/runners.
Be careful, Vals like to melt.
So do not disturb the roots much on the plants you want to keep.

I'd go back to the more lower tech approach, there's no need for PO4 removal, cables etc.
They live here in the USA, the river's source actually come out of an old PO4 mining operation, and the sediment is colder, not warmer, than the water column(as is the case in every sediment I've ever looked at in field studies).
I can show you a river with 10km of these plants as the dominant plant, nice clear water, beaver, gators, otter.......people

The same is true in Texas, and in Brazil as it is in Florida.

Regards,
Tom Barr