Vals Always Die On Me

[ICEEGRL]

I love the twisted grassy look. I have tried many times to get different kinds of vals to live in my tank. They don't like anything that I do for them. I need to know what they really want from me. I have tried everything that I know to try. Can they not live in soft water?
I don't do co2. I am trying to keep it simple. I have about 2wpg lighting and lots of filtration. I have a mix of flourite sand and another plant gravel stuff. I can't remember now what it was. The decor is driftwood. My water is tea tinted and really soft.
Any suggestions?

 

[aaronnorth]

I can't grow vallisneria sp either, don't know why, I have tried in both high & low tech tanks.
Cyperus Helferi is an alternative, I managed to grow that lol

Sorry that doesn't answer your question but just thought I'd add it in there

Aaron

 

[Caprichoso]

I love the twisted grassy look. I have tried many times to get different kinds of vals to live in my tank. They don't like anything that I do for them. I need to know what they really want from me. I have tried everything that I know to try. Can they not live in soft water?
I don't do co2. I am trying to keep it simple. I have about 2wpg lighting and lots of filtration. I have a mix of flourite sand and another plant gravel stuff. I can't remember now what it was. The decor is driftwood. My water is tea tinted and really soft.
Any suggestions?

Yes, I know what you mean. I can never grow them in my tank with lots of driftwood. I think it's too soft and it darkens the water because I had that problem as well. My vals are thriving in my other tank that doesn't have the tea stained water so I'm thinking it may be for that reason as my lighting is the same in both.

 

[ian]

i'm the same, i can maintain it, but it never lasts long in my tanks. I gave up on it along time ago. IME its not that of an easy plant. You need to keep the crown above the substrate to get the best out of it.

BTW i live in a hard water area.

 

[flix_cw]

I got mine 3 weeks ago and i'm struggling.

I'm under 1 WPG, but my other plants are generally fine. The vallis is slowly dying. I tried to keep the crown above the subsrate but it kept uprooting, so now lead weights are around the base/crown. Hopefully when its rooted better i'll remove the lead, expose the crown and all will fall into place...

So much for the "easy care" label it always gets!

Thanks for the Cyperus Helferi heads up Aaron, might give it a go if the vallis fails.

 

[JoshuaA]

I've had problems with it completely melting and I always put it down to being in a soft water area.

However I've seen it "flourish" in a 40litre tank and the only real difference is I've been using a tropica base substrate, the Vallis is all over half the tank now. Unfortunately it's growth still seems a bit... well odd, I dose with Flourish Excel/TPN+ and they never reach a great height but there isn't much die back.

I transplanted some to my bigger tank and now that has exploded and spread across a lot of the tank, yet once again it isn't going tall. In fact there about 20 plantlets in my big tank each with 5/6 leaves each but none of them are taller than 5cm and none of them have ever had dying leaves. It's odd.

In my opinion it's not as easy as it appears to be made out to keep.

 

[RadaR]

The main "killers" of Vallis that I see folks talking about is soft water and liquid carbon products. Experiences have varied though.
You just have to ensure everything else is up to par, e.g. good nutrients, good CO2 and good flow distribution. If things still dont work out for the Vallis, then maybe look into adding a bit of GH booster to those weekly water changes.

 

[flix_cw]

Why does liquid carbon damage Vallis? Is it a known fact or just coincidental reporting?

I'm dosing liquid carbon and TPN+ daily...

 

[JoshuaA]

Why does liquid carbon damage Vallis? Is it a known fact or just coincidental reporting?

I'm dosing liquid carbon and TPN+ daily...

I don't know the science but pretty much all the cases I've seen people overdosing or even dosing the reccommened amount of EasyCarbo/Excel have noticed Vallis melting afterwards, then growing back when they stop. I also believe Egeria Densa suffers that too. I think that it has got to the point we should stop believing that it is coincidence and more of a fact.

Maybe there is some science behind why it does it, though then again it is a pretty harsh chemical we are putting in our tanks.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I guess I will give up on the vals for now and check out that other plant suggested. Thanks for that. Any other plant suggestions would be appreciated. I really want a grassy look, and twisty or really different looking stuff would be cool. It would need to be ok with low to medium light and no co2 added. I do have plant substrate, but that is about it. I can't do all the work that the other stuff takes. I have had to cut way back over the last few years. I have developed some health issues that get in the way of all the upkeep.
Right now the only plants are egeria and fegular and long java ferns. I think that is all that has survived my lack of extra attention and an algae that won't give up. That black crap started and I can't find a way to stop it. I have just started cutting the leaves and hoping for the best.
Thanks for the help and comments.

 

[lljdma06]

C spiralis is a good substitute. By the way, welcome back, it's been a while since I've seen you at the forum.

My vallis nana flourished in one of my old scapes (20g, low-tech, frequent waterchanges, yeah another one of my weird ones). I think vallis needs a high mineral content & they soak up the mineral content quickly in water. That tank had large, frequent waterchanges. I find that in my neck of the woods, crypts & vallis seem to enjoy this setup. Aponogetons prefer that I leave the tanks alone...

Just my two cents, probably wrong.

 

[flix_cw]

C spiralis is a good substitute.

Can't seem to find any online UK retailers that sell crypt spiralis

 

[scuttler]

Heard similar stories about EasyCarbo/Excel. That put me off it straight away. Valis started growing like crazy when i upped GH and KH in my tank. I live in very soft water area so have only taken them up to arround 5/5. Of course this may just be coincidense

 

[Squidward]

I have also found that Vallis doesn't like water flow.

I have 2 plants, one near the filter outlet, and another on the opposite side of the tank. The one near the filter outlet is looking really ragged and tatty.
The 2nd one looks much healthier.

 

[RadaR]

I have also found that Vallis doesn't like water flow.

I have 2 plants, one near the filter outlet, and another on the opposite side of the tank. The one near the filter outlet is looking really ragged and tatty.
The 2nd one looks much healthier.

General experience finds that plants like good flow. Good flow supplys a better rate of resources (CO2 and nutrients).