Corkscrew Val melt?

So, I'm new to plants. I know more about lighting, CO2, and ferts then I do about the actual care of plants. I've planted 7 plants, anubias, Crypts, tiger lotus, and a Corkscrew Val, roughly a week ago. I've not added any ferts and have a light putting around 30ish par at substrate.

All of my plants have new growth starting, except the Val. It appears to have been shedding and all but two of the 7 or 8 leaves have turned brown.

I'm wondering if this is normal. Only the roots are buried and the leaves aren't covered at all

 

as long as the rhizome isn't covered with substrate you should be good, its probably just the plant stressing from moving to one type of water to anther, but it also could need ferts?

 

Only ferts I plan on using are root tabs, leaf zone (only macro I'm dosing, plus iron for the lotus) and flourish.

Have to wait for payday to pick any up. The whole ferts bit confuses me as the other plants are doing well enough to have new growth so soon, that's why ferts never became a reason why.

 

It's normal to have some melt or die off for new plants. When you said you are adding flourish, do you mean Flourish Comprehensive or Excel? Vals can be sensitive to Excel so if you plan on using it, do 1/4 of a dose and slowly work your way up to the full dosage.

 

el337 - planning on purchasing them, don't currently have any of those right now.

Comprehensive, I'm aware of Vals being Glutaraldehyde sensitive. I'm only really looking to dose traces and potassium that can't be found normally in water sources or the water column. Nitrogen and phosphates are produced in the breakdown of waste, so I didn't see a point in trying to dose those and these plants are far from needing an extra or dedicated carbon source in my opinion.

That and root tabs, you really can't go wrong with them, can you?

 

wow thanks for this thread. I've just recently planted corkscrew vals in my new 75 and they all seem to be wasting away. Had no idea I couldn't bury the crown.

 

wow thanks for this thread. I've just recently planted corkscrew vals in my new 75 and they all seem to be wasting away. Had no idea I couldn't bury the crown.

Mines in a 10, but it's so puny right now. I got all fairly small pieces so I can monitor my effective aquatic botany skills (work in progress) and try to accomplish something in the hobby. I'd rather do it myself then let someone else do the all the work

 

Oh yeah I understand that. I wonder if it's too late for my vals or if they will recover if I can pull them back out a little and un-bury the crown

 

Oh yeah I understand that. I wonder if it's too late for my vals or if they will recover if I can pull them back out a little and un-bury the crown

No harm in trying is there?

 

I guess not. Sorry for hijacking your thread there.

 

I guess not. Sorry for hijacking your thread there.

I'm not upset. Already got my answer and you got one too. Double whammy

 

Okay. Water change today. Life got in the way so it was a few days late.

After vacuuming the bottom, I lightly touched all my plants to get rid of shedding plant matter. The Val has part of a third leaf that didn't get removed and is green, so I'm hoping it's a sign of regrowth, just got to keep an eye on it.

I did double check the planting and the roots are indeed the only thing buried, couldn't quite see it from all angles full of water and a divider.

In a brighter note, both Crypts new growth is getting bigger and the one anubias has a new leaf budding off to the side. The tiger was uprooted by my gf because she wouldn't let me help, but floating they seem to be getting a good green color to them.

 

Hello all,
The tank I have these in is my 33g long. My first planted tank. All the other plants are doing great. I Know I am completely cycled now and I know my parameters are spot on.
PH: 8
Hardness: off the chart
Temp: 80F
CO2: None however I do add CO2 Booster 2-3 times a week with water top offs and changes.
Soil: Eco Complete
Light: Fluval AquaSky

So now on to the problem. When I first planted all my plants, everything melted which was to be expected. Well now since, everything is doing very well except the Vals. They grow bright green for about 3-4 inches and then melt and regrow. This cycle lasts about 3 weeks. They don't get taller than 4 inches before they melt and they always melt and regrow. I bought them to be about 10-12 inches tall, so if I can't solve the problem I might replace them with Crinum Calamistratum

 

Are you dosing any ferts? Sometimes that can cause serious melt with vals.

 

What is your co2 booster? Is it a liquid supplement like Excel? This plant is known to be sensitive to it.

 

Are you dosing any ferts? Sometimes that can cause serious melt with vals.

I am not dosing ferts. I have eco complete soil so I was told that will last me at least a year before I need to either do root tabs or liquid ferts.

What is your co2 booster? Is it a liquid supplement like Excel? This plant is known to be sensitive to it.

I use the liquid API CO2 Booster. It says it only works for 24 hours. I know there is another one out there that works for 5 days straight I think.

The only other additive I use is Prime.

 

It's the same stuff as Excel. That's why your vals are melting.

 

It's the same stuff as Excel. That's why your vals are melting.

I just googled what Excel actually was. You are right. Duh, my bad. Ok so what are my options? Obviously #1 get rid of the Val, #2 stop using the Booster, is there any more options?

 

Excel and Prime the same? Could the Prime be killing my Red Cherry Shrimps?

 

Excel and Prime are not the same. Excel and API CO2 booster are the same.

 

You'll still need root tabs with Ecocomplete, so add those beneath your vals.

 

Just FYI if you decide to go with Crinum Calamistratum, it doesn't like to be moved so when you plant it expect nothing from it for several weeks. It may die back a little but "usually" it just basically hits the pause button and does nothing. I moved mine into my 55 gallon, in June. Just this past couple weeks has it finally decided its alright to grow again. So be patient! Vals can adjust to co2 glut eventually usually. If they are still growing they may eventually kick around. Mine are having a hard time getting going in my 55 also but they stay 1-2" tall but I think my big jerk fish bashing them and cannon balling through them is also a large part of my issue with vals. I just moved them to the front of the tank and am hoping for runners eventually to redo a different tanks with them.

 

I think I am going to scrap the Vals because the CO2 booster really seems to help everything else quite well. I am going to replace the Vals with the Crinum. But thank you all for letting me know what the problem was because I was completely lost and confused.

 

Before you scrap them add some root tabs in there for them.

As Texas stated earlier, root tabs are still needed with eco pomplete... it is a high CEC substrate, but doesn't specifically contain usable nutrients for the plants to use, rather it stores some from tpwhat you are dosing in liquids and tabs and slowly releases as needed.