Jungle Val

[Vertrox]

Hello! I received my jungle val in a kind of browned condition but was advised to still plant it. I had a new sprout in just 3 days and saw new growth on the big leaves! Now all my Val is shrinking though after about a week and a half in the tank and I can't seem to figure out why. They are getting brown spots all across their leaves and are fairly thin, is this still the melting process? I do frequent water changes and check my parameters to make sure my levels are good 1-2 times a week and everything seems fine. Could the 3 hours of extra light I add from another light bar a day for my other plants be too much and causing it to wither away maybe? I currently have the extra light off to test if that's the problem. I also use a seachem all around fertilizer about once a week or less. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Vertrox
Adding picture

[Gator]

Is the water temp too high or too low? Do you dose with Iron? Is dosing with fertilizer once a week maybe too much? Is there enough CO2 from your fish?

I keep my tanks at a temp between 81 degrees and 83 degrees to keep fish diseases down and the plants do very well.

I use iron at each water change only and I'm sure that the plants are getting enough fertilizer from fish waste as well as enough CO2 from the fish, but I have quite a few fish in each tank.

I use a timer on each of my tanks that are set to turn the lights on at 8 AM, off at noon, back on at 4 PM, and off for the night at 8 PM to keep algae down.

What I just described works very well for me, they may work for you.

[Vertrox]

I honestly have no idea about C02, I have never used or know much about it. I usually keep my tank about 79-80⁰F. I used to get constant staghorn algae before I got a siamese algae eater than cleaned everything spotless! I use Seachem Flourish and it has almost every micro element I would say, but I dont believe it has any micros. Currently all that's in the tank is 6 gold tetras, 4 guppies, an oto, an albino bristlenose pleco and a siamese algae eater. Since my discus moved tanks the levels in this tank have been so easy to control im just confused about it. The light that I have has a 24 hour cycle but is off for probably 5 hours or so, but it has a very slow sunset and sunrise. I have another light of the same size and brand, just a little less fancy so I have to have it on a timer, but while it is on it is 100% brightness. I also have always used RO water and have recently heard of remineralizing only recently and wonder if not doing that could also be causing me problems? I originally had my extra lighting to grow some guppy grass crazy fast, but I thought Val was able to handle a wide variety of light conditions. I am also honestly bad on being consistent with my fertilizing, but since I just got the val and have only dosed once with it, I don't know if my fertilizer melted it or was totally unrelated. I try to clean up extra food pretty quickly also since the tank is a little understocked currently and will vacuum up all the poop my pleco leaves if I notice any buildup fairly fast. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Vertrox

[starsman20]

I would let it sit a few more weeks.  It seems everyone has a slightly different experience.  When I put mine it it did the same things as yours.  It was a little brown but had some new growth right away for a short period of time then it slowed down.  within another 3 to 4 weeks it had taken off and I now i have that one plants offspring in 6 or 7 different aquariums (its one of my favorite plants).  The other thing with vals are they are not water column feeders so your liquid fertilizer is not doing much good.  They need root tabs or a bunch of fish poo to feed on.

[Mmiller2001]

How many gallons is the tank?

How many ml of Flourish are you dosing every 7 days?

Are you water changing with pure RO water?

What is your substrate? 

How many hours is your light on, above the tank?

How much water do you change and how often?

How old is the tank?

[gardenman]

Jungle Val can be a bit quirky. I have one that's doing great right now, but it did nothing at all for months. I'd just give it time and hope for the best.