Why Are Vals Turning Brown?

[mtv8dmarine]

Any idea why my 2 week old vals would be turning brown slowly? Not all of the leaves mind you but a few on every plant. I'm not using a substrate fertilizer setup but am using fert. pellets and dose an chelated iron and potassium supplement. I'm also running a low light setup with no injected CO2 but I shouldn't need CO2 with my light output per gallon. My amazon swords, anubias nana, anubias congensis, and anubias basteri var. roundleaf, and java fern plants are all ok. My crypt. wendtii has some leaf melt going on but it has since day one at a slow rate which I don't really know if that's normal.

I did just get some Flourish Excel (have to mail order everything since I can't find it locally). Should I dose that or is the carbon too much for my tank setup?

Any advice on the vals and maybe even the wendtii is very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

[haowin]

Hey, cant really help with much other than a bump , bu the leaf melt, does the leaf get paler then the paler part fall off? if it is, ive read it could be getting burnt from your light. as in too intense.

 

[anshuman]

how often do you dose ferts and co2? do you overdose excel? i dose my tank with excel and ferts 3x a week (i have ada amazonia substrate btw)and my Vals are like green jungle there. almost ready for salad.

Post some pics , that will help .

 

[mtv8dmarine]

I haven't dosed Excel yet as I haven't been sure if I should. I'm running low light (1 watt/gal) so I don't do CO2. I use fert tabs which I was reading the instructions to only replace once a month (it's only been two weeks) and dose API Leaf Zone (chelated iron & potassium) once weekly during water change.

In the second val pic it's the vertical brownish leaf I'm wondering about. The vals just aren't really growing at all since I got them. Even the crypto wedntii has grown. Some of the leaves are melting (transparent) if I'm using the correct terminology?

Not all of the wedntii is suffering. Some have more leaf melt than others and some despite the apparent melt are beginning to fill out and get taller.

In the second wedntii pic, do I simply have it planted too deep maybe?

 

[Twinklecaz]

Some of mine looks a bit like that so I'd be interested in any answers you get.

I dose TPN+ and Easy Carbon daily though (prob have just over 1 watt per gallon). Cna overdosing cause it then?

 

[ian]

The first two plants arn't vallis... They are Pygmy chain swords, it is normal for these to melt when newly planted, give them a couple of weeks and they'll be fine.

 

[mtv8dmarine]

The first two plants arn't vallis... They are Pygmy chain swords, it is normal for these to melt when newly planted, give them a couple of weeks and they'll be fine.

Right the last two photos are the vallis. I transposed the name of the first two. Their not the wendtii but the chain swords you corrected me on. Ugh, so many names to try and keep straight. I suppose it comes in time though. =)

I will give these chain swords more time before being concerned.

Any advice I on the real vallis? =P

 

[rdp50734]

A lot of the time when its newly planted it will lose its leaves as they are usually grown out of water ( grown in 1" or so of water). When they are submerged they melt their other leaves and grow new ones that are better adapted to photosynthesis under water and take nutrients from the water column. This is only what I have read and believe to be true.

 

[anshuman]

Okay, i have whole jungle of Vals like that, and I observe when some of those vals have some cut at the floating tips (due to my enthused goldies trying to dash in them) those vals start browing A little. I wont worry much, i also have some brown diatom issue (which settle on floating vals due to more light at top.

You will soon get new runners from this val and those will be bright green, once this vals start taking off , you will have to worry bout removing them, then you can remove those old brownish ones from root, cut only the brown ones, the vals get angry and shoot out new ones.

 

[mtv8dmarine]

ahh ok. Well sometimes it's the simple time told answers that elude us when we first start seeing something amiss eh? =)

I'll consider since the general health of the plants is good, then perhaps it is a submersion shock thing and after a few more weeks everything should be ok. I'll just keep removing the brown vallis leaves and the melting chain sword leaves.

Good news too! I just noticed that on of the chain sword plants has two daughter plants coming in. =)

I have a diatom issue too but I bought 10 otocinclus catfish for my 55 gal. and they are keeping it in check.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I've cut some of my Amazon Swords but I think I did it wrong coz they don't seem to be growing back atall

Doesn't help the fish eat them!

 

[mtv8dmarine]

Great news! Some of the Vallis are growing!

While the existing leaves are slowly dieing in some cases, I've spotted new growth from root runners! This means that some of them are at least accepting of a cap full of Excel every other day. So I guess I better find out how to keep them under control once they fill out the back of the aquarium...i.e. pruning the roots I guess...

Root runner popping up in front. New plant growth behind.

New growth behind and in front.

New growth in between.

 

[anshuman]

Fantastic , your hard work pays off .

 

[mtv8dmarine]

Definitely a learning experience. It's rewarding when you see the plants beginning to take and growing. I know I'm far from knowing a fraction of what you all know but trial and error and asking questions, seems to be what gains the experience.

I do owe you guys many thanks for answering my constant questions. I do try to pay it forward with questions I feel comfortable enough to answer.