val melted overnight

[medge00]

my val melted and became soggy overnight. this is my 10 gal, 2 wpg... they were jungle like 2 days ago, so i trimmed them all about 6 inches per leaf. started adding potassium via nu salt on friday... did a water change on sunday... added peat to the water sunday (trying to get the rams to breed, my water went from a ph of 7 to 6.6). is it the peat or potassium? if i cut all the val down, will it grow back? i just did a water change again today....

 

[madasafish]

Wow. Yeah, that happened to me, too. My corkscrews just disintegrated... I can commiserate, and say that vals and crypts have a great tendency to do this if temp or pH changes rapidly (more so temp, I think). The pH change is proably the culprit for this reason, and because adding good old nutrients in a sensible quantity isn't the kind of thing that should *kill* a plant...

If you do cut off the melted parts, the vals may well grow back. I find that completely excising an unecessary and dying part of a plant is often the best way to ensure it grows back healthily.

 

[medge00]

its pretty weird. the crypts are absolutely fine.

 

[madasafish]

Hmm... Well, I think the Vals may be more sensitive to the pH swings, since that was probably what killed my corkscrew vals. Just a guess, though.