FrozenFins Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 Hey all, I am rescaping my 50 Gallon angelfish tank and I want their to be a vallisneria jungle. I have kept live plants before/ in the present but never vallisneria, any tips? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Lizzie Block Posted November 28, 2020 Administrators Share Posted November 28, 2020 Sweet! In my experience, getting val to take over is as simple as sticking it in there and giving it water and substrate. It's a total weed 😂. It'll spread with runner plants across your substrate until it has no room left. I would recommend giving it plenty of nutrients to achieve this, root tabs and liquid fertilizer, and enough light to balance ferts out so you don't get tons of algae. At least medium light would be ideal. One thing I would not recommend is using Easy Carbon or other products labeled as 'liquid Co2' regularly. It can kill val or otherwise damage growth over time. Awesome idea, I used to have a val jungle and I miss it. The fish really seem to love all the hiding spots too. Best of luck!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seized Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Plenty of root tabs and water cloumn ferts along with good lighting to achive a good carpet. Dont use and liquid carbon products at all. They melt the vals horribly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pklong Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Greetings, I have some runners going from the main plant with new growth. Can you cut those runners and take the new growth and plant it elsewhere or does cutting the runner kill off the new growth? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrett Dare Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 I have val in two different setups and they both seem to do well with ferts and fertilized substrate. One of the tanks is a Walstad style tank with soil bottom and gravel top. The val in that tank are large, green, and healthy, but have no runners. (as I type this I realize that's probably because the gravel is too course and deep) The other tank is gravel with root tabs and the val have lots of runners, but dont seem as healthy and green. So yeah, ferts and root tabs! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 53 minutes ago, pklong said: Greetings, I have some runners going from the main plant with new growth. Can you cut those runners and take the new growth and plant it elsewhere or does cutting the runner kill off the new growth? Thanks! I wouldn't do this with a runner, but you may be able to do it with another leaf, I am not sure as I dont have experiance with valisneria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Just be forewarned, despite growing like a weed it'll also melt away for no apparent reason. I had a jungle of it in my 30 high a few years back. I was having to trim off about a foot of it a week. If I didn't it would completely block the light as it grew across the top of the tank. I found a big Madagascar Lace Plant at a local fish store for a really good price. Brought that home and added it to the tank and within a week all of the val was gone. There were probably fifty val plants and every single one melted away to nothing. The water sprite, water wisteria, floaters, Anubias, and Java fern were all fine, but the val just melted away. If you rely on val too much and it all melts, you can end up with a pretty empty tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengo Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 I bought some italian val 1-2months ago, and I put them is a 30%, 3% hydrogen peroxide dip for around 15min. A few days after putting them in my tank, all the leaves started to melt, i cut them off and till now they have barely grown back(I started putting root tabs a month ago). Anyone know why? Is it the dip or just bad vals from my lfs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kammaroon Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 15 hours ago, pklong said: I have some runners going from the main plant with new growth. Can you cut those runners and take the new growth and plant it elsewhere or does cutting the runner kill off the new growth? You can cut the runners and move the new plant to another location. If you have inert substrate, plug a root tab next to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kammaroon Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 13 hours ago, Mengo said: I bought some italian val 1-2months ago, and I put them is a 30%, 3% hydrogen peroxide dip for around 15min. A few days after putting them in my tank, all the leaves started to melt, i cut them off and till now they have barely grown back(I started putting root tabs a month ago). Anyone know why? Is it the dip or just bad vals from my lfs? Could be the dip. Someone else had similar problems after treating their tank: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mychala Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 (edited) @MengoYep that was my Val above. Just hang in and it will start sending out shoots that grow. I've found if I cut it that it doesn't always continue to grow upwards. Edited January 23, 2021 by Mychala Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Mychala said: I've found if I cut it that it doesn't always continue to grow upwards. Yes. Some plants grow from a crown or a rhizome like crypts, but Vallisneria grows from the tip of its leaves. If you cut the tip of Vals leaves, that leaf will no longer be able to grow and might even die over time. Anything that damages the tip of Vallisneria leaves can have the same effect. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly S Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 @Daniel interesting. Does that mean that it should only be planted in tanks that can accommodate its full height without trimming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Not necessarily, depending on your tastes you might really like it when your Vallisneria does this: I personally like that look. But if you don't like the look, you can trim your Vallisneria to look the way you want, just realize that you have ended the growth on that particular leaf. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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