I Think I Just Killed My Vals

I've had jungle Val for two years now, I actually got them from the streams near my house and they acclimated well to the tanks (EDIT: I quarantined the plants for a month and cleaned them off by hand before actually planting them, never had any issues). Recently I've been getting more into plants because I see how much of a difference a planted tank makes for most fish, especially the shy ones. I started dosing with flourish excel and everything else started, well, flourishing pretty well. However, it looks like the jungle Val is starting to actually die off. I read somewhere that this tends to happen when dosing with liquid carbon and jungle Val doesn't adjust well of at all? Is that true? I might move it out to another tank I'm not dosing if there's any I can salvage...

 

Left side 55

• dojafish
• Oct 8, 2018

Some salvageable here?

Right side 55

• dojafish
• Oct 8, 2018

Jungle Val melt/dying, seems mostly unsalvageable this side.

 

If you’re dosing at the recommended rate (you are following the instructions, right? ), it should be temporary. Just like when plants acclimate to new water, and melt then recover. Watch for new growth from the bottom to look and stay healthy/clean.

 

I love jungle val. I have it all over my 30 gallon tank and my fish love it! I use flourish excel and it never seemed to affect my jungle val. I've never used something specifically with liquid carbon in it though. (or does the flourish have some liquid carbon but it is diluted with some other stuff? I can't remember now... if it does ignore my statement of never having used liquid carbon. haha).

Just a note that you probably already know, but just to throw this out there: the flourish excel is not a good fertilizer for the jungle val as the roots that absorb nutrients from the substrate are unable to absorb nutrients from the open water. Verses say an anubias or ludwigia repens that can absorb nutrients directly from the water. I say this because I use flourish excel, but it does nothing for my ludwigia.

 

Left side 55

• dojafish
• Oct 8, 2018

Some salvageable here?

Right side 55

• dojafish
• Oct 8, 2018

Jungle Val melt/dying, seems mostly unsalvageable this side.

I just saw the pictures you sent, is that an angle fish I see? If I'm remembering correctly, when I was researching jungle val, it was a plant that some fish could eat and uproot. Is your angelfish eating you plants?

 

I just saw the pictures you sent, is that an angle fish I see? If I'm remembering correctly, when I was researching jungle val, it was a plant that some fish could eat and uproot. Is your angelfish eating you plants?

Yes, there are angelfish I'm growing in here. No, none of my plants are uprooted, and even if fish were eating the plants I don't think it would cause such an effect. I've actually read the opposite, that jungle Val is recommended for fish that tend to uproot plants since their roots dig deep.

 

I had the same thing happen with my vals years ago when I first started dosing excel. They reacted very poorly to the excel initially and melted back quite a bit. I cut the dosing back to 1/4 the recommended dose, then slowly built up to the full dose and the vals adjusted to the excel. I never do the recommended large post water change dose. Just the normal every other day dose.

 

If you’re dosing at the recommended rate (you are following the instructions, right? ), it should be temporary. Just like when plants acclimate to new water, and melt then recover. Watch for new growth from the bottom to look and stay healthy/clean.

Yes, I am following the directions. One capful per 10 gallon (I just do 5 caps) on initial use and after large water changes over 40%, and one capful daily or every other day. I've missed a couple days in a row here and there just because I forget if anything. So idk. It's kind of discouraging lol though honestly I've thought of changing it out with something else. I'm not sure if I should and with what. I want something the fish can enjoy.

 

It

I love jungle val. I have it all over my 30 gallon tank and my fish love it! I use flourish excel and it never seemed to affect my jungle val. I've never used something specifically with liquid carbon in it though. (or does the flourish have some liquid carbon but it is diluted with some other stuff? I can't remember now... if it does ignore my statement of never having used liquid carbon. haha).

Just a note that you probably already know, but just to throw this out there: the flourish excel is not a good fertilizer for the jungle val as the roots that absorb nutrients from the substrate are unable to absorb nutrients from the open water. Verses say an anubias or ludwigia repens that can absorb nutrients directly from the water. I say this because I use flourish excel, but it does nothing for my ludwigia.

Says on the bottle "bioavailable carbon for the planted tank" lol.

 

I have Italian vals. Very similar to jungle val. I dose excel only to fight hair algae. I only dose once a week. Because I have almost exclusively root feeders, I don't use many liquid ferts. Anyway, the excel has helped with hair algae , and has not affected my plants in a negative way.

 

It

Says on the bottle "bioavailable carbon for the planted tank" lol.

Well what'd you know? It DOES say that! I could have gone and looked but I felt too lazy. LOL!

 

I have Italian vals. Very similar to jungle val. I dose excel only to fight hair algae. I only dose once a week. Because I have almost exclusively root feeders, I don't use many liquid ferts. Anyway, the excel has helped with hair algae , and has not affected my plants in a negative way.

I mostly started because I did have an outbreak of algae and my amazon sword was on its last legs likely from missing something. Figured I'd start with liquid carbon and see how it goes for the alleged month that the bottle says it can dose for. It's done wonders for the algae and every plant is doing really well and the amazon sword is making a come back. Then I was gone for a couple days and I come back to see my jungle val melted pretty badly.

I just took them out, placed them in the QT tank for now. Been wanting to try something else anyway. Not sure what though as of yet. The jungle val, once they start to recover, will go probably in my other 55 gallon and make them happy.

 

Melt is usually due to them acclimating to a new light and or new water parameters. If it was a deficiency of some kind they'll turn brown or some other color. My vals always let me know when I'm late giving them a root tab. They start turning pink/red.
I'm not so sure about jungle val, but that's how it goes with my Italian val. Also they are quite adaptable. When I switched over from florescent to LEDs they didn't even miss a beat. All my other plants did melt a bit.

I hope all works out for you. Can't wait to see the new scape too.

 

Melt is usually due to them acclimating to a new light and or new water parameters. If it was a deficiency of some kind they'll turn brown or some other color. My vals always let me know when I'm late giving them a root tab. They start turning pink/red.
I'm not so sure about jungle val, but that's how it goes with my Italian val. Also they are quite adaptable. When I switched over from florescent to LEDs they didn't even miss a beat. All my other plants did melt a bit.

I hope all works out for you. Can't wait to see the new scape too.

Mm yeah, it would make sense if I had just replanted them or changed the lighting for it to melt like that but the only thing that changed was that I started dosing liquid carbon but I don't think it would take two and a half weeks for it to start melting the way it did. So it's a bit baffling honestly. Up until then, it's been pretty bullet-proof even for a novice such as myself.

I have to figure out what plant I want to do next to fill in the ends. I have a lot of research to do lol.

 

Yea my vals have been pretty bullet proof. I did have trouble with them when I medicated the tank. They were the last plant to bounce back.

Do you have anarcheris? I'm thinking of a slight rescape myself. I think I'm gonna put that along the back wall.

 

Mm yeah, it would make sense if I had just replanted them or changed the lighting for it to melt like that but the only thing that changed was that I started dosing liquid carbon but I don't think it would take two and a half weeks for it to start melting the way it did. So it's a bit baffling honestly. Up until then, it's been pretty bullet-proof even for a novice such as myself.

I have to figure out what plant I want to do next to fill in the ends. I have a lot of research to do lol.

It was the excel. There's tons of other people who have reported the exact same problem. My Vals looked fine for a few days then began melting back after about a week of starting excel dosing. Vals and a handful of other plants react to excel like this. There's a bunch of posts on the forum about it, all you have to do is dose very small amounts and slowly work up to the recommended dosage. Vals just need extra care in adjusting to using excel. Your vals will bounce back if you want to keep them.

 

Yea my vals have been pretty bullet proof. I did have trouble with them when I medicated the tank. They were the last plant to bounce back.

Do you have anarcheris? I'm thinking of a slight rescape myself. I think I'm gonna put that along the back wall.

Anacharis used to be found everywhere, even in the streams, but I no longer see them anywhere. Well, on rare occasions I've seen them but I was never looking at plants at the time lol. I'm thinking maybe ludwigia or some kind of bacopa.

 

It was the excel. There's tons of other people who have reported the exact same problem. My Vals looked fine for a few days then began melting back after about a week of starting excel dosing. Vals and a handful of other plants react to excel like this. There's a bunch of posts on the forum about it, all you have to do is dose very small amounts and slowly work up to the recommended dosage. Vals just need extra care in adjusting to using excel. Your vals will bounce back if you want to keep them.

I will keep them but in another tank lol. I've been wanting to do something different and I guess this just pushed me to that decision. A lot of it actually looked alright as I was taking them out so I felt a bit relieved. They're probably a plant that has done the most melting as it adjusts that I've ever kept.

 

I'm having so much trouble with bacopa. Probably my hard water. Anarcheris grows like crazy in all my tanks though. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

 

I'm having so much trouble with bacopa. Probably my hard water. Anarcheris grows like crazy in all my tanks though. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

I tried bacopa and ludwigia repens in my tank and they just would NOT grow! They just withered and died. I have one remaining little stock of ludwigia that's like 3'' tall with 4 little leaves on it. Hopefully it survives and grows into a big plant again. I don't know why I've had so much trouble with these plants!

 

I tried bacopa and ludwigia repens in my tank and they just would NOT grow! They just withered and died. I have one remaining little stock of ludwigia that's like 3'' tall with 4 little leaves on it. Hopefully it survives and grows into a big plant again. I don't know why I've had so much trouble with these plants!

If it helps your not alone.
Ludwigia grows like crazy for me but bacopa always turns to mush.
Early on I thought I just sucked at growing plants but now I know that not to be true. If a may, I feel that I'm pretty darned good at growing plants. Which brings me to my point: some people just can't grow certain plants. You could have perfect conditions for it and that particular species just hates you.
For me, it's the bacopa and anacharis that just won't grow. So I just pick different plants (sometimes ones that are supposedly much harder) and move on!

 

I'm having issues with bacopa as well for some reason. It was growing great in my 20 gallon. I transferred it and many other plants to my 55 with the same water params. Every other plant is doing great, my bacopa for some reason is just turning to mush. I gave up on it and ripped it out.

 

Heh... I grabbed some bacopa monnierI so we will see how that goes... I have a HO lighting so hopefully it works. Also just put in some root tabs and I manually dose with liquid carbon. We'll see what my luck is like over the course of the next month...

 

I tried bacopa and ludwigia repens in my tank and they just would NOT grow! They just withered and died. I have one remaining little stock of ludwigia that's like 3'' tall with 4 little leaves on it. Hopefully it survives and grows into a big plant again. I don't know why I've had so much trouble with these plants!

It's not only hardness and ph. There's so many things that we just can't test our water for. Which is why 1 plant will work in 1 persons tank and not another. As you probably know this is not an exact science.
Crypts are said to be easy, yet I can't grow them, and my tank gets injected CO2.

 

It's not only hardness and ph. There's so many things that we just can't test our water for. Which is why 1 plant will work in 1 persons tank and not another. As you probably know this is not an exact science.
Crypts are said to be easy, yet I can't grow them, and my tank gets injected CO2.

Yeah I've researched crypts and have wanted to try them, but my pet store didn't sell it at the time when I bought plants. And now I just don't get up town much lately, so... no crypts.

 

Yeah I've researched crypts and have wanted to try them, but my pet store didn't sell it at the time when I bought plants. And now I just don't get up town much lately, so... no crypts.

I'm considering trying them again. Not sure why, it's not like they'll live for me. I'm thinking Mabee I just got a bad batch. Trins Fish has a few types of crypts.

 

I've kept the same batch of bronze wendtiI crypts for over 6 years. They've been impossible to kill. I even have some in a spare 20 gallon tank with nothing but a heater on it. no lights. no filter. water gets topped off every once in a while and that it. they're steadily growing.

 

I have some crypt lucens in different tanks, one doesn't have a light and the other has a more specialized high output light for plants. I almost feel like the ones in the no-light tank are doing better......

 

ValerieAdams has some experience with vals

I've had jungle Val for two years now, I actually got them from the streams near my house and they acclimated well to the tanks (EDIT: I quarantined the plants for a month and cleaned them off by hand before actually planting them, never had any issues). Recently I've been getting more into plants because I see how much of a difference a planted tank makes for most fish, especially the shy ones. I started dosing with flourish excel and everything else started, well, flourishing pretty well. However, it looks like the jungle Val is starting to actually die off. I read somewhere that this tends to happen when dosing with liquid carbon and jungle Val doesn't adjust well of at all? Is that true? I might move it out to another tank I'm not dosing if there's any I can salvage...

h

 

I've kept the same batch of bronze wendtiI crypts for over 6 years. They've been impossible to kill. I even have some in a spare 20 gallon tank with nothing but a heater on it. no lights. no filter. water gets topped off every once in a while and that it. they're steadily growing.

I should look into those bronze wendtiI crypts. I would like to add some more variety and structure to my tank than just a few rocks and the straight jungle val. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

I should look into those bronze wendtiI crypts. I would like to add some more variety and structure to my tank than just a few rocks and the straight jungle val. Thanks for the suggestion!

I just took a bunch out from my tank. You can have them if you’re in the valencia(california) area

 

I just took a bunch out from my tank. You can have them if you’re in the valencia(california) area

Haha nope. I’m WAAAAY up north-east of you. Lol thanks for the offer though.

 

Anarcheris is easy and grows like crazy. It has quite a different look than vals and grows just as tall. Would make for a nice contrast between the 2.