Ludwigia repens and contortion Val melting

[Twood9615]

Hey yal I have a 34 gallon planted tank that I'm working on and I recently added some broad leaf ludwigia and contortion Val to the scape and they are both melting pretty bad especially the ludwigia. The ludwigia is already showing new leaves forming on some stems so I know it will be fine given a little more time but others aren't looking as hopeful. Same with the vals, the majority aren't in too bad but some are getting to be quite pitiful. Is there anything that I can add or do with the tank that will help the plants establish faster and not melt as bad or do I just have to wait it out?

As far as fertilization I have a few root tabs throughout the tank and I dose with iron 3 times a week but no other liquid ferts like excel. I don't have CO2 on the tank right now because my old system was leaking but once I've saved up enough I'm going to buy a new system. The lighting I use is two 24watt T5HO.

 

[FishCr8zy]

Where did you get the plants? Were they grown emersed?
Post some pictures of the plants and tank.

 

[Twood9615]

I got them from aquariumplants.com so I'm not sure if they were grown emersed but I don't think they were.

You can't see very well but in the picture of the ludwigia there are a few stems in the middle that are in the worst shape and with the Val you can see that a lot if the leaves are brown at the top and very thin but the bottoms aren't as bad

 

[Old Scales]

Excel is a liquid carbon, not a fertilizer. Unless you have a large amount of red plants go easy on the iron. Dosing once a week is usually plenty. I see no mention of you adding any macro ferts which is N, K, & P also you need trace elements like found in Seachem's Flourish. OS.

 

[Twood9615]

I'm weary to try seachem flourish though, I've heard that using ferts in the water column can encourage algae growth and I have been really fortunate with not having algae an I'd like to keep it that way.