Vals Not Growing

So a while back I got three kinds of vals to put in my 29 to see how they would do. Two of them died completely and one melted down to almost nothing. It began growing back but it's very thin almost to the point of being see through. And over the last month it hasn't grown at all. Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong?

 

• Planted too deep. The crown and the top of the root system should be left exposed.
• Iron deficiency. If new leaves are pale and white, root tabs might help.
• Lack of nitrates. Poor Vallisneria growth can be caused by a lack of nitrates in the water. A should help fix this.

 

Is this planted correctly? I also have diy root tabs that I use.

 

I just planted Val Italian yesterday. I have very warm water and a pH of 8. It's going to be interesting. The substrate is large coarse gravel. I stuck a few homemade root tabs of osmocote around some of it and dosed the tank with NilocG Thrive. We'll see what develops.

 

All the leaves on a val can die, as long as the crown is fine all the leaves should grow back. I personally don't like the diy root tabs since they’re not readily available for plants. The clear tab needs to dissolve for it to actually work but it takes a while for it to dissolve. I also think you might have buried the plant too deep.

 

At the moment it has almost no roots so if I pull it up any higher than the bottom feeders will knock it out. Do you have any suggestions for this?

 

At the moment it has almost no roots so if I pull it up any higher than the bottom feeders will knock it out. Do you have any suggestions for this?

Surround it with small gravel or pebbles. Just lift it a little higher until you see a little of the bottom of the crown.

 

All the leaves on a val can die, as long as the crown is fine all the leaves should grow back. I personally don't like the diy root tabs since they’re not readily available for plants. The clear tab needs to dissolve for it to actually work but it takes a while for it to dissolve. I also think you might have buried the plant too deep.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed in my case because the gravel that I have is pretty coarse and loose. My hope is that the liquid ferts I've been adding will get into the substrate enough to help the plants get started and maybe the gel caps will begin to dissolve. The plants I got had really good root systems, probably an inch and a half long root balls.