Vallisneria in Playsand?

Hi i was wondering if anyone had any success growing Vallisneria in playsand?.....i was thinking of adding Pro-fito weekly aswell.

Any help appreciated

Ger

Hi Ger...Lydia was only telling me last week about someone who has had them thrive in playsand - maybe Philippe? Can't remember exactly who, but she does....

Fair play to you on the red fins, they have settled brilliantly and shoaling back and forth across the tank...lovely fish and in great condition

Here's the vid as promised....

Santiago is the one who has it planted in sand, although don't think is playsand, is sand but don't remember the type, let's see if he reads the topic

I have it (Giant or Jungle Val) growing well in sand.

Using EI ferts + CO2.

Once your substrate is fairly seasoned and I'd say it is,
You won't have much bother in growing it ger,
I would make sure it's deep enough though,
As the root system is a couple of inches deep,
I weighed mine down with broken ceramic pot and small rubber bands,
Loombands actually

Gonefishy wrote:

Hi Ger...Lydia was only telling me last week about someone who has had them thrive in playsand - maybe Philippe? Can't remember exactly who, but she does....

Fair play to you on the red fins, they have settled brilliantly and shoaling back and forth across the tank...lovely fish and in great condition

Here's the vid as promised....

Cheers dude............The Tetra's look really good in there and the tank is full of life.......It don't look like the Discus are bothered at all.....in fact they look delighted with the new additions..........happy days Brian

Aroshni wrote:

Santiago is the one who has it planted in sand, although don't think is playsand, is sand but don't remember the type, let's see if he reads the topic

Thanks Lydia.......I have playsand in it now and i plan on keeping it that way for the next set up mainly because i think it look great.........And 4 euro a bag? gas

baan wrote:

I have it (Giant or Jungle Val) growing well in sand.

Using EI ferts + CO2.

Thanks Baan........Is it playsand?......i wont be using CO2 for sure but would using just Pro-fito weekly be suffice?

anglecichlid wrote:

Once your substrate is fairly seasoned and I'd say it is,
You won't have much bother in growing it ger,
I would make sure it's deep enough though,
As the root system is a couple of inches deep,
I weighed mine down with broken ceramic pot and small rubber bands,
Loombands actually

Ehh 'Loombands'?? jaysus!!!

Anyway enough thoughts of Mardi Gras! ha...........As i asked Baan,what do you think i should add to the tank if anything?

I have never been able to keep this plant alive no matter what type of substrate or lighting even when the more difficult plants were thriving.
Always wondered if it was due to my water being really soft...
A real pity because it is one of my favourite plant.
Hope it does well for you as they are stunning in the background of a tank.

Anthony

I have Vallisneria Gigantea in Congo sand and it is taking some time to settle, read it may take 4-6 months to settle properly. Mine was ok at first but then leaves started to rot so I cut it down and plant is still shooting leaves so I am just hoping it will settle nicely and start growing again

anthonyd wrote:

I have never been able to keep this plant alive no matter what type of substrate or lighting even when the more difficult plants were thriving.
Always wondered if it was due to my water being really soft...
A real pity because it is one of my favourite plant.
Hope it does well for you as they are stunning in the background of a tank.

Anthony

I read once that sometimes the plant seems dead or in bad shape when in adaptation period but emerges again.

anthonyd wrote:

I have never been able to keep this plant alive no matter what type of substrate or lighting even when the more difficult plants were thriving.
Always wondered if it was due to my water being really soft...
A real pity because it is one of my favourite plant.
Hope it does well for you as they are stunning in the background of a tank.

Anthony

Cheers Anthony.........And don't be too down on yourself as i struggle to even keep Anubias alive ha.........this will be the ultimate challenge for me!!

Ger

I m changing over my blackwater set up to a low tech planted one and will be trying the vallisneria nana again...
Hopefully we will be both lucky

Anthony

Santiagovalcarcel wrote:

I have Vallisneria Gigantea in Congo sand and it is taking some time to settle, read it may take 4-6 months to settle properly. Mine was ok at first but then leaves started to rot so I cut it down and plant is still shooting leaves so I am just hoping it will settle nicely and start growing again

Hmmm there might be hope.........thanks dude.

Mine did fine in silica sand...sometimes can melt abit at first but once settled it should be ok. I do add ferts.
Gavin

Fishowner wrote:

Mine did fine in silica sand...sometimes can melt abit at first but once settled it should be ok. I do add ferts.
Gavin

Cheers Gavin,can i ask what Fert's you use?

I had it do well in quarts sand with dosing of profito and easy carbo, never had any runners and had high light the plant was in the tank 3 months before it started to grow.

Broke down the tank added aquabasis and manado aswell as pressurised co2 aswel as easy carbo and profito and it died off completely. Never had much luck with that plant in terms of taking over the tank.

I left it in the tank until it melted completely and the crown went brown and floated up from the roots pity as its nice.

Cheers for all the replys lads

It seems from all you said that for whatever reason it works for some and doesn't for others.

Anyway i bought 2 Vallisneria Gigantea and planted them in about 2 inches of the playsand..........i also bought Pro-fito and will add it weekly.

If it doesn't work then so be it but if it does then i'll buy maybe 3-4 more and i'll hopefully have a really nice background in the coming months

Cheers,
Ger

Hi ger,
I was looking at the plant in aquaessentials uk and they were saying not to use the liquid co2 when you have it in your tank as it melts it.
I wonder if that s why some people, including me, had trouble with it....

anthonyd wrote:

Hi ger,
I was looking at the plant in aquaessentials uk and they were saying not to use the liquid co2 when you have it in your tank as it melts it.
I wonder if that s why some people, including me, had trouble with it....

Had a look there myself Anthony......jaysus and i thought this plant would be easy peasy to grow,even for me!!

I'll hold off putting anymore Pro-fito in and see how things go.......i've also some 80W bulbs down in the shed that i'll put in the unit tomorrow and we'll see if that helps!

Fecking plants!! Always a complication!!!

Fish + wood + Rock = the easy hassle free life!!

Ger

You gonna wish you went for a blackwater set up

Anthony

This is the Set up thus far with the Vallisneria now turning into 5 plants after i took the lead off the end that was weighting it down...............some pieces don't look positioned right were they are yet but that's easily fixed.

I plan on keeping most of the Angels now and adding 10 small Discus........Discus have never floated my boat but i'm curious to keep them just to see what all the fuss is about...........Also a large group of Corydoras,maybe 20-25 and a nice unusual Pleco too......i'll do a separate post on the set up when i start stocking.

Just hope now the Vallisneria thrives!! we will see.



Ger

ger310 wrote:

Fishowner wrote:

Mine did fine in silica sand...sometimes can melt abit at first but once settled it should be ok. I do add ferts.
Gavin

Cheers Gavin,can i ask what Fert's you use?

profito and easy carbo

If you give me the choice between nice angels like yours and discus, it is angels all the way, except maybe for some types of wild discus...

Anthony

anthonyd wrote:

If you give me the choice between nice angels like yours and discus, it is angels all the way, except maybe for some types of wild discus...

Anthony

Agreed 100%

Ger

Sorry, haven't been on in a few weeks......

My vallis has died back due to over-easy carbo dosing. Val doesn't like it. It was fine in the sand though! Some great roots came out yesterday when I did a clean!

The "Aquarium Sand" was purchased in my LFS. Supplier is BD Trading. Hope that helps.

baan wrote:

Sorry, haven't been on in a few weeks......

My vallis has died back due to over-easy carbo dosing. Val doesn't like it. It was fine in the sand though! Some great roots came out yesterday when I did a clean!

The "Aquarium Sand" was purchased in my LFS. Supplier is BD Trading. Hope that helps.

Cheers.......Of the 5 that i planted in the playsand 2 are coming on really good and the other 3 are doing just ok..........the only thing i can put it down to is the two that are doing good are quite close to a wavemaker and there is a bit more flow around them.

I'll be doing a bit of scaping this week and i'll then do a proper update on them.

Ger