Val Americana

[PrettyFishies]

I'm having a problem with my Vals. A decent number of them have brown tips and half brown leaves... I used Excel ONCE in teh very beginning - like 2 weeks ago and now I have a Hagen Natural until my parts for teh DIY get here. I clipped the brown parts off of all I could, but is it too late?

 

[Jchillin]

I have heard that Vals are one of two plants (anacharis being the other) that don't particularily like excel. As long as you have decent roots and the stems are still green, it is never too late.

 

[PrettyFishies]

So if the leaf is half brown - and I can't cut it...what happens to the leaf?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Don't worry about it. It will keep growing. Mine have a lot of brown on them. I gave them a haircut today, cut them all about 6 inches below the surface. They should be fine. Just keep your nitrate at around 15-20ppm and phosphate at around 1-1.5ppm. They will be ok. If you keep cutting the brown off, it will just get shorter and shorter. Let it grow out til you have several inches on the surface.

 

[PrettyFishies]

I'm at the end of my cycle and the highest my nitrates got to was 7.5. I've been dosing every other day with nitrogen (2.5 ml of Flourish Nitrogen). I've decided to does daily now... or should I just does 2x the amount every other day?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Just dose whenever you need to get it to 15-20ppm. If it goes below 10ppm, dose back to 15-20ppm. Then you will know how often you need to dose. Same with phosphorus. Just dose often enough to keep around 1-1.5ppm. If over that, do a water change and retest. If your nitrates don't move much, you might even find you may only need to dose every 3rd day. But if the plants are taking in the nitrates faster, then you have to dose more often.