Cant grow jungle val

[Derek88242]

Hey so I am failing to grow jungle val. It has been in my aquarium for 4 months now. For some reason it just won't grow. It appears to have some sort of stunted growth as the new leaves only grow 2-3 inches. I am literally shocked because I've read so many stories about it growing extremely fast and well in no co2 and in hard water. The only good news that gives me hope is that is has sent out many runners that are growing. To give you perspective... My jungle val is growing new leaves at about the same pace as my crypt wenditi. Here are my tanks info you may need.
Ph-7.6 0 ammonia/nitrite. About 20 nitrate. Gh-11. Kh 6. Temp 78.
Light- fluval 3.0 8 hrs daily at 35%
Substrate- seachem black sand.
Fertilizer- aquarium co-op easy green reg dosing.
Things I have tried soo far. I added seachem root tabs first when I started seeing problems. Even tried 2 tabs near a plant saw no change in growth. Increased lighting and upped my fertilizer dosing of easy green to encourage new growth. Got slightly better growth but also algae so i resumed my regular routine after 2 weeks. About a month ago I trimmed all the algae covered leaves now the plants are very bare looking and the slow growth is even more noticeable. After 4 months I expected to have well established plants growing nicely... What could be going on? This plant just doesn't respond to any changes I make. Why won't it grow tall? Why is it the only plant in my aquarium that grows poorly?

 

[MacZ]

Substrate- seachem black sand.

Sand is poor in nutrients and Val get those mostly from the roots. Had the same problem with sand substrate, put some root tabs between them, since then they are finally growing.

 

[Derek88242]

The first thing I tried was root tabs that was a few months ago. Should I try again?

 

[MacZ]

The first thing I tried was root tabs that was a few months ago. Should I try again?

Oh, I overread that sentence. Yes, took mine a bit to root around these, but now it works quite nice.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Got a pic Derek?

Mine are in sand and growing and growing.

 

[MacZ]

Got a pic Derek?

Mine are in sand and growing and growing.

When I got mine from you there was soil around all the roots. What do you do differently?

 

[Derek88242]

Got a pic Derek?

Mine are in sand and growing and growing.

I shall get a pic tomorrow when adding more root tabs. It's late I should get some sleep lol.

 

[DoubleDutch]

When I got mine from you there was soil around all the roots. What do you do differently?

That might be some of the homemade roottabs for my Swords. But before adding those the Junge Val grew at the same rate. As did it in different tanks without .
The Swords didn't that well though.

 

[MacZ]

That might be some of the homemade roottabs for my Swords. But before adding those the Junge Val grew at the same rate. As did it in different tanks without .
The Swords didn't that well though.

I see. I got mine only to grow in a visible rate with root tabs. And they only really shoot when they reach the surface, because they tend to get their CO2 from the atmosphere.

 

[DoubleDutch]

To be honest I myself doubt plants don't get ferts from the watercolumn and if there are real "rootfeeders".

Advantage of water is that it will reach the roots as well.

 

[MacZ]

To be honest I myself doubt plants don't get ferts from the watercolumn and if there are real "rootfeeders".

Advantage of water is that it will reach the roots as well.

Comparing the plants I have:
- Elodea is known to get the nutrients from the watercolumn. They grow like weed in my tank without even really rooting and with dimmed lights thanks to the tannins.
- The Nymphoides I have is also known to do so. The growth is shocking.
- Even the slow growing Anubias is doing great from the beginning.

Only the Vallisneria were stuck and stopped growing at one point until I cut down on tannins abit and added the root tabs.

So, maybe it's the lighting as well.

 

[Derek88242]

Of course hard to get a good pic because jungle vall is at the back and all other plants cover it.

 

[StarGirl]

Mine grow in my gravel with no root tabs and Thrive C fertilizer. When I do my water change and put the ferts in the new shoots grow like 7-8 inches in a few days. They can get more than 3ft long in a week. I don't really know why they do better in some tanks. Maybe they just overall do better in gravel because they are root feeders? My crypts go crazy also. Swords not so much.....I have no clue.

 

[Derek88242]

So I wanted to give it time before I updated the progress. The root tabs I put in did nothing, since I last posted growth has been non existent...literally the mother plants have not grown an inch. This plant has become a algae magnet for bba, hydrogen peroxide helps, I assume the algae is from slow/poor plant growth. The only reason I havnt given up on this plant yet is because its sending out lots of runners. My tank is 18 inches front to back and the jungle val planted in the back has runners popping up near the front. The runners however appear to grow 1 inch then stop. I am considering raising my light intensity to see if that will encourage growth. If anyone has any suggestions based on what you've read im all ears.

 

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

There are runts and duds in the animal population. I would imagine some plants are also less than stellar. Maybe you got a dud?

This is an interesting thread

 

[Derek88242]

Possibly a dud I'm not sure. Although I can say this specific plant I got from my lfs, it was a trade in from a customer, grown in high light and co2. The plant was huge with lots of healthy longs roots and I was able to separate it into 4 different plants. This plant wasn't even grown emersed so it never had that transition stage to go through.

 

[StarGirl]

If it's shooting runners its going to start spreading. They take a sec to get going after being moved.

 

[fjh]

Following the because I have the same problem! And unfortunately, I don't think the problem will go away for you.
I got a bunch of jungle val with nice long leaves... 15 months later, it looks like dwarf sag! They keep sending out runners but won't grow a leaf longer than 3-4 inches. I've tried liquid ferts, root tabs, dirted tanks, everything and I just cant get it to grow.

 

[StarGirl]

Following the because I have the same problem! And unfortunately, I don't think the problem will go away for you.
I got a bunch of jungle val with nice long leaves... 15 months later, it looks like dwarf sag! They keep sending out runners but won't grow a leaf longer than 3-4 inches. I've tried liquid ferts, root tabs, dirted tanks, everything and I just cant get it to grow.

Wow mine are insane. They grow a foot in a few days. I trim them on water change day. They would cover the top of the tank If I didn't. I only use liquid ferts too. I wonder if it has anything to do with parameters. I have pretty hard water and 8.2 pH. My pH does not budge with any kind of buffers.

 

[fjh]

Wow mine are insane. They grow a foot in a few days. I trim them on water change day. They would cover the top of the tank If I didn't. I only use liquid ferts too. I wonder if it has anything to do with parameters. I have pretty hard water and 8.2 pH. My pH does not budge with any kind of buffers.

It might - I've always wondered if my water is too hard. My ph is betweeen 8.2 and 8.4 and you should see the hard water lines I get.
But I also don't want to take over the OP's thread so I'm gonna see how he resolves it!

 

[mattgirl]

I have finally had to accept the fact that I can't grow jungle vals either. This was the very first plant I got when I decided I wanted to try my hand at a planted tank. They were big beautiful plants sent to me by a member here on the forum. They were beautiful in his tanks. Even after trying for up to 3 years I can't tell the difference between my dwarf sag and the jungle vals. My tallest J.V. are about 6 inches tall. They never get any taller. At least they do send out runners.

I also see folks with huge amazon sword plants. I give mine Thrive root tabs and Thrive liquid ferts but they refuse to grow as they do for others. They look healthy but refuse to grow tall and bushy. I have very limited short term success with water wisteria, hornwort and numerous other stem plants. At least I have luck with crypts and java ferns. In fact I may have to thin out the crypts soon.

I have decided to just try to stick with the plants that will grow for me instead of stressing over the ones that won't and live vicariously through other folks beautiful planted tanks.

BTW: I have very soft water that is almost devoid of minerals so have to add Equilibrium. Plants did start doing a bit better once I started adding it but still nothing like they should be doing.

 

[Derek88242]

I read a post where a guy said his jungle val was doing the same thing as mine until after 5 months they just "exploded" in growth... I guess that's why I haven't given up yet. Last thing I may look into is substrate depth. When I changed substrate in my aquarium to fluorite sand I didn't buy enough and had to add another bag carefully when the aquarium was already established and stocked. I would say now my aquarium has the minimum required substrate depth for growing plants and I'm wondering if that could be affecting my val? The depth is about 1-1.5 inches max where the val is. I doubt thats it but I have more sand to add depth if needed.

 

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

How deep should the substrate be ideally? For the Val?

I was hoping to pot them

 

[StarGirl]

I think Vals will grow waaaay too fast for a pot.

 

[AJE]

Mine took 5 months to start growing and now I can't stop it

 

[StarGirl]

It sounds like the OPs params are pretty close to mine. Mine didnt take very long at all to overtake my tank. 6 Mos. maybe? It really would be nice to know what kind of water the plants like best. Ive heard and read both, soft and hard.

 

[Dennis57]

I read that you light is at 35%, I would definitely up it.

I run most of my lights at 90% for the first 4 hours, then down to 40% for 3 hours then back up to 75-80% for 3 hours.