cutting vallis

[houndour]

Are you not really sposed to cut vallis? Or are my scissiors not sharp enough?

I've given up trimming the vallis because the ends go all brown and get really suseptible to algae.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I given up on it alltogethr, first it was the only plant the snails ate, then the whole lot went brown and mank.... Shtupid plant, I much prefer cabomba.

 

[jimbooo]

i really dont understand plants you know.

my vallis is a pain as it wont slow down, i have to trim it every other day or the tank's in darkness.

however i cant grow cabomba, it just flies to the surface, goes all spindly and breaks up.



as to your question hondour how are you cutting it. i have noticed it looks better (less brown at the tips) when cut at a 45 degree angle. rather than straight across (do as i say, not as i do).

other than that, not sure really.
sorry

 

[superjalami30]

From what I've read you should cut valis at the base otherwise it will go brown and rot where you cut it.
Cutting on an angle may work, although I've never had a vallis not rot when cut.
Then again maybe it will for someone else.

 

[jimbooo]

my personal preference is to grab the whole lot in my fist and chop it in half in one go.

by the next day it's off again, very little in the way of brown edges!!

sorry hondour that doesn't exactly help you.

 

[houndour]

my personal preference is to grab the whole lot in my fist and chop it in half in one go.

thats exactly what I do! I grab it like a pony tail and snip it all off. I thought maybe that might be why mine goes all brown but didnt want to admit that I cut it like that!!

I think I shall just cut it at the roots now. Surely that would promote some growth anyway?

 

[Simoriax]

You should remove the tallest leaves from the base. If you keep cutting them you could kill the entire plant.

 

[StarOrbs]

my personal preference is to grab the whole lot in my fist and chop it in half in one go.

by the next day it's off again, very little in the way of brown edges!!

sorry hondour that doesn't exactly help you.

Ditto, thats what I do.. I haven't got that fast of growth yet but I usually hold them all and cut at about a 45 degree angle.. I do this with all my plants when I trim it seems to work better in my opinion.

 

[Angry_Platy]

my personal preference is to grab the whole lot in my fist and chop it in half in one go.

thats exactly what I do! I grab it like a pony tail and snip it all off. I thought maybe that might be why mine goes all brown but didnt want to admit that I cut it like that!!

I think I shall just cut it at the roots now. Surely that would promote some growth anyway?

Thats what I do and it keeps growing and growing. And it doesn't go brown at all. The stupid plants send out runners constantly....one of the plants is on overdrive....one day it had 3 runners coming off the main plant

That said I recently redid the tank (changed to sand) and replanted all my vals (including some new ones)....I was lazy with ferts and CO2 and didn't put any in till last week (3 weeks after the switch)....I have to say, a week after ferts and CO2 the plants are looking a LOT better

 

[RobertH]

Vallisneria like hard water, and ar heavy root feeders, responding well to substrate fertilization. If you address those issues and still have problems then it is usually an issue of light and C02. Vals are one of the plants that are capable under some circumstances to obtain C02, (carbon) by stripping the carbonate hardness molecule, (KH) which will cause a sharp pH swing.

This is called Biogenic decalcification.
The definition of this is:

When there is a carbon dioxide deficiencey in the water, plants can derive CO2 from the hardening constituents of the carbonate hardness. First they split the hydrogen carbonates into CO2 and carbonates. This causes the pH to rise about one step and the largely insoluable carbonates precipitate and form rough deposits on the leaves and substrate. Some plants such as Vallisneria can even destroy the carbonates and obtain CO2 from them. This raises the pH again by another step. Biogenic decalcification thus causes the water to be 10 to 100 times more alkaline than it was previous. In the dark, the process reverses and the pH drops considerably. Thus these continous large pH swings can pose a significant risk to the well being of fish and animals. The solution is to add enough CO2 to the water and have a significant carbonate level to act as a buffer.

BTW, that is a great looking tank Jim! I love it!

 

[iggy01]

Welcome (back?) to the forum RobertH. Hope you can stick around!

I've read about biogenic decalcification before, but thankfully have never experienced it. Am I right in saying it only usually occurs in tanks with moderate/high lighting and not in low light tanks?

 

[jimbooo]

BTW, that is a great looking tank Jim! I love it!

Thanks Robert. that decalcification stuff was news to me. never heard of that before (may explain a few disasters from a year ago!) thanks.

hope you stick around. Jim

 

[Angry_Platy]

Vallisneria like hard water, and ar heavy root feeders, responding well to substrate fertilization

I have soft water, I (up till 2 weeks ago) have never used substrate fertiliser and my val has always grown like a weed. I can seriously report trimming them to 10cm below the water line then 3 days later they have started to drape, all the stems not just a few. As I mentioned, they send out runners so often it drives me nuts. Then the new plants get runners and the new ones of that get runners etc. It basically grows in my tank like a weed. I have 3.2wpg lighting, CO2 maintained at 20ppm and fertiliser (liquid) added weekly. I recently started adding substrate fertiliser for my amazon swords (which are new)....

Weird huh