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Why can’t I grow Vallisnaria?

KyleKVK
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KyleKVK Enthusiast

KyleKVK

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I don’t get it! I’ve never had such a hard time growing aquarium plants before. I put it in my tank with a root tab and some easy green, a weight loosely tied around the plant so it doesn’t float, and it just melts away sadly. I’ve gone through two of them already!

What am I doing wrong? I wanna have pretty Vallisnaria in my tank. Apologies if I sound frustrated, I’m just confused. 

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JoeQ Veteran

JoeQ

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What's your lighting, water parameters & temp? Have you tried sourcing from a different source? I once had a tank full of it, then went through a phase where nothing grew except algea.....  The main problem (I think) was my water parameters and lighting. 

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Scapexghost Mentor

Scapexghost

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On 2/28/2022 at 10:01 PM, KyleKVK said:

I don’t get it! I’ve never had such a hard time growing aquarium plants before. I put it in my tank with a root tab and some easy green, a weight loosely tied around the plant so it doesn’t float, and it just melts away sadly. I’ve gone through two of them already!

What am I doing wrong? I wanna have pretty Vallisnaria in my tank. Apologies if I sound frustrated, I’m just confused. 

I would try to plant the roots into the substrate, leaving the crown exposed. That should help them slong a bit. Try to get some with good roots to start with. 

 

On 2/28/2022 at 10:08 PM, KyleKVK said:

I should have mentioned I can and have grown other plants 🙂

What plants have you had success with?

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gardenman Veteran

gardenman

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Vallisneria can be challenging. I bought 25 Jungle Vallisneria through an eBay seller and only one survived, but it's thriving and there are now over 25 from that one plant. That one plant just sat there for weeks/months too before taking off. And all 25 of the originals arrived in good condition and were treated identically. Plants do what they want to do, and I've found Val to be especially fickle. I had a whole tank of it melt within a week of adding a Madagascar Lace plant in the past. A beautiful thriving colony of plants one week and a melted mess the next. Buying in bulk is my best advice for Vallisneria. Odds are most will melt away, but you might get one or two to survive and then you're in business.

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Tanked Grand Master

Tanked

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The others have already said it.  Vallisneria is fickle.

I would try a different Val.  Jungle Val was recommended as my first low light easy plant.  It did not go well.   My second attempt at growing Italian Val seeps to be working.  The plant that I thought was about to die began putting out runners.  I suppose it is possible that my trimming off the deteriorating leaves may have spurred it into producing runners.  The untrimmed plants aren't quite as productive.

 

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Brandon p Grand Master

Brandon p

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I have had the same problem until the last time it came with the weight on them al ready. I slightly loosen the band and just dropped them in. In 3 weeks they had rooted and the roots started to grow together and now new shoots are coming up. Maybe try just weighting down and let the roots grow down into the substrate it’s self. I’ve kill more Val than most. I can say it will work for you but I’m happy with the results so far.

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AndEEss Community Regular

AndEEss

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Put it in the substrate with the root tab underneath it. Don't use weights or anything else like that. Let a plant be a plant.

I have a literal jungle of Jungle Val. Some of them, when I've had to trim them, measure 4-5' long. 

FWIW, mine are growing in BDBS in my 75g. I'm running what AqAdvisor says is 72% stocking with 21 cory cats, 4 yoyo loaches and some Colombian tetras. The substrate gets moved around a bit by the cory cats and I have good flow and aeration via an adjustable power head and 2x Seachem Tidal 110s. 

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Odd Duck Grand Master

Odd Duck

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On 3/1/2022 at 9:28 AM, AndEEss said:

Put it in the substrate with the root tab underneath it. Don't use weights or anything else like that. Let a plant be a plant.

I have a literal jungle of Jungle Val. Some of them, when I've had to trim them, measure 4-5' long. 

FWIW, mine are growing in BDBS in my 75g. I'm running what AqAdvisor says is 72% stocking with 21 cory cats, 4 yoyo loaches and some Colombian tetras. The substrate gets moved around a bit by the cory cats and I have good flow and aeration via an adjustable power head and 2x Seachem Tidal 110s. 

What is BDBS?

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Odd Duck Grand Master

Odd Duck

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On 3/1/2022 at 7:15 PM, AndEEss said:

Black Diamond Blasting Sand. 
 

AKA coal slag. Completely inert black sand.

I have in 10 tanks.  I just haven’t seen it abbreviated that way.  I just call it black sand since this is an international forum and abbreviations don’t translate.

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laritheloud Veteran

laritheloud

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I've had val take off in exactly 1 of my five tanks. It's gorgeous. I'm going to get more and propagate the heck out of it.

But I tried it in all of my other tanks and it didn't take in any of the others.... Sigh. It's not your fault, Val can just be strange.

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