Italian val plants

[Orange Crush]

Anyone have any experience with vallisneria plants? I cannot get mine to grow tall but they create lots of runners with smaller plants so I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I cannot imagine they would be reproducing so much if the conditions were not to their liking...How do I get them to spend their energy on getting tall instead of reproducing?

[Orange Crush]

No one has any idea???

[Altum Nut]

Hey OC,

What type of substrate are they in?
What lighting do you have and how long are they on far?
Do you use any ferts?

I've had Vals get to 4 plue feet in my 30" tall tank.

...Ralph

[Orange Crush]

Black flourite substrate, I use flourish and I have been using flourish excel but I will soon switch to DIY CO2.
I have 4 48" HO T5 bulbs. I use the power-glo (18,000K) and life-glo (6,700K) bulbs about 10 hours a day and for 3-4 hours I also have the other two bulbs on (10,000k). So 3-4 hours with 4 bulbs on and 6-7 hours with just the two. Trying not to grow algae, just plants :-)
I made sure to plant them with the white bulb above the substrate...

[Altum Nut]

It's great that only roots are submerged and not stalk which would sufficate plant and die off.
Not so sure about your bulb choice. I ran 4x48" x 65w - 6700k at 10-12 hrs.
No ferts but ran auto co2 at 2 bubbles per sec. Substrate used was red flourite 2-3 inches.
I'm no planted tank expert but never had a problem.
Maybe others may chime in on your set-up and suggestions.

...Ralph

[gerrard00]

How long have you had them? The first time I had vals, they took more than a month to get going vertical in my substrate with flourite covered with sand. I then rescaped my tank and took out the flourite. It's taken the vals months to get going vertical again. I'm just not starting to get some better vertical growth.

[Skip]

crush.. do you also have a shrimp tank?.. looking your avatar

[jimg]

It's great that only roots are submerged and not stalk which would sufficate plant and die off.
Not so sure about your bulb choice. I ran 4x48" x 65w - 6700k at 10-12 hrs.
No ferts but ran auto co2 at 2 bubbles per sec. Substrate used was red flourite 2-3 inches.
I'm no planted tank expert but never had a problem.
Maybe others may chime in on your set-up and suggestions.

...Ralphsame here with no problems, i used to have to pull them like weeds and clip the tops because they got so long. I would think certain mineral deficiency? not enough nitrogen?

[Samsmobb]

Maybe same problem I had in my 46 :/ swords would grow shorter and shorter leaves, my though is not enough light gets through maybe b.c a tall tank? Or a mineral deficiency or iron potassium?

[jay973]

FYI, I do have Vallisneria contortionist, spiralis, and americana in my 180g planted tank. They all seem to suffer when I dose Excel to combat bba the americana being affected the worst. The tips that once floated at the surface have burned or melted whatever the term is and now a few inches from the top. I'm only dosing 60ml in the 180g but the min. I stop it bounces right back. The other thing I do is pull up the runners and pack them closer together in my experience they seem to produce less runners and seem to get taller but that may just be a coincidence.

[CrazyAngels]

Never been able to grow vals in my tanks either. It seems all other plants do well though.

[lipadj46]

excel is bad for vals, if they are not growing then there is a limitation somewhere probably CO2

[Orange Crush]

Let's see....

My tank is 20" tall and I have other plants that require high light and they are growing really well.
I do have a shrimp tank with many cherrys, 3 singapore flower shrimp, corys, and 2 dicrossus filamentosus (checkerboard cichlids)
Some of the vals are about a month old and they are the ones producing runners, a few are about 1-2 weeks old and they are fading away
I dose with flourish every 5 days so there should be enough N, K, and Fe
My Echinodorus Bleheri (Amazon Swords) are doing well and growing tall
I set up the DIY CO2 a couple of days ago and it is now producing CO2 so I will stop with the excell and see if that makes a difference. I have no bba yet (knock on wood) so I do not need to use excell for that, I was just using it until I got the DIY going; it has worked well in my others tanks but I did not have vals in them!

[lipadj46]

what flourish do you dose with? With the proper macros, micros, CO2 and light vals should be growing annoyingly fast

[Orange Crush]

just the regular one

[jay973]

You should see it bounce back now that you've stop dosing Excel.

[laborelch]

my vals grew like mad in my tank (both tall & runners) - they def need ferts, high light and CO2. They do not tolerate Excel dosing or pH and temperature differences well. I would cut off the leaves of the new plants if they are melting and wait for them to get adjusted to your water parameters. They should grow right back.

[gerrard00]

Mine are starting to grow like crazy and I dose Excel. I do smaller doses than recommended, however.

[Orange Crush]

How much do you dose gerrard00?

[gerrard00]

How much do you dose gerrard00?

I do 10ml (one capful) three times a week on my 72 gallon tank. I'm not even sure it's doing anything, but I've been doing it since I started and I've been scared to experiment with not using it ;).

[pastry]

just my .02... i don't do anything ;) not trying to be a smart a.... but i just remember when first getting the plants in my 150 and thinking, "man, that looks like just a few blades of grass in a big open desert..." but then one day i blinked and those things where growing like weeds (in fact, i almost consider them a weed now)... my swords are crazy huge... anubias is nuts... and some other things (don't know their name) are going nuts as well. everyone's got great advice on here but also, be patient and then the next thing you know you're shoulder deep in your tank ripping out "weeds" so you can see your fish again (and your fish can see you!)

background on mine: sand substrate (straight from the beach!), no CO2, no fertalizers, canister filter (had a HOB for majority of time that also did just fine), and i'm horrible with water changes! my lights are pretty darn good though and i think that's what does the trick in my tank since it's over 2 ft deep. tell your fish to poop a lot too... my plants dig that :p

[lipadj46]

just the regular one

flourish comprehensive is for micros, you still need to dose N (maybe), P and K as there is not nearly enough in comprehensive. The name is deceiving though. Oh yeah iron too and maybe Ca and Mg. You probably should buy some dry ferts if you are serious.

[gerrard00]

i'm horrible with water changes!

I think this is probably the biggest reason for your success with the plants. I was growing juvies and therefore changing at least %50 of my water daily. The fish loved it, but the plants never grew and actually were showing nutrient deficiencies. My guys are grown now and they are eating much less food, so I'm only changing water 2 times a week. Suddenly, with no other changes, my swords and vals are starting to grow. I wish I'd waited on plants until my fish were grown!

[Apistomaster]

I am one of the lazy planted tank owners.
I only use substrate, sustained release types of fertilizers like the Flourish tabs. I do not change my water often and I have plenty of light; enough to where it would be beneficial to use CO2 but I am not willing to go there.
My planted tank is a 125 gal tank heavily planted and it has almost 200 Tetras and some Dicrossus filamentosus. Not a Discus tank.
I have never been very successful with the Vals except the Giant Vals which like another respondent said, would reach up to four feet.
All my expensive plants are in their own pots and are fertilized with Flourish tabs and are potted in FloraBase. The rest of the tank has a 100# bag of 20/30 grit quartz sand.
I do better with Saggitaria subulata var. "Tall". They help provide the same effect I would expect of the other types of Valisneria.