I'm relatively new to live plants in the aquarium and recently put in a few leopard vals and amazon swords into my tank. I want to keep them growing/healthy so I was researching a few things that might help. The things I were thinking about doing were 1. getting fertilizer root tabs and 2. using the seachem flourish excel product. I've read some people saying the excel could melt vals but I've seen some that say otherwise. Would either option be the best route to go? I don't want to go overboard but to just keep the plants alive/growing. Thanks in advance
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Root tabs will work wonders for you.
I'd avoid Excel for those particular plants.
What kind of lighting do you have? Substrate?
I'd avoid Excel for those particular plants.
What kind of lighting do you have? Substrate?
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Better stick to root tabs. Although both plants are undemanding. REALLY UNDEMANDING!
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Live Plant Help
Primitive plants, like types of Vallisneria, are sensative to the carbon in some of the SeaChem products. SeaChem is expensive and there are other liquids that work very well, without the carbon in them. Liquids are very easy to dose, there's nothing that needs to be put into the tank manually. I don't like to sick hands, equipment or anything else into the tank. Doing this tends to mess up my hard tank work. Just my opinion, though.
If you want to give your plants the best chance for good growth, then keep the tank water very clean, with large, frequent water changes, research and then provide the proper lighting for your plants and use a good fertilizer and dose according to the instructions.
B
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Primitive plants, like types of Vallisneria, are sensative to the carbon in some of the SeaChem products. SeaChem is expensive and there are other liquids that work very well, without the carbon in them. Liquids are very easy to dose, there's nothing that needs to be put into the tank manually. I don't like to sick hands, equipment or anything else into the tank. Doing this tends to mess up my hard tank work. Just my opinion, though.
If you want to give your plants the best chance for good growth, then keep the tank water very clean, with large, frequent water changes, research and then provide the proper lighting for your plants and use a good fertilizer and dose according to the instructions.
B
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T8 or Compact Flourescent? How many inches from your substrate is your light fixture?
In all likelihood, you're probably squarely in low light. Just stick with root tabs. The plants you have don't need Excel to thrive.
And ignore the misinformation about large, frequent water changes. Those are only necessary if you've got a reason to change large amounts of water frequently and you probably don't have a reason to consider it.
In all likelihood, you're probably squarely in low light. Just stick with root tabs. The plants you have don't need Excel to thrive.
And ignore the misinformation about large, frequent water changes. Those are only necessary if you've got a reason to change large amounts of water frequently and you probably don't have a reason to consider it.
Thanks all! It's compact flourescent. It's about a good I'd guess around 18inches from the substrate. So I'll assume it's low light. The main reason I ask was the one sword I got recently wasn't in the best of shape(was given to me by a lfs when I got my val) when I first got it so I was hoping to revive it and get it healthy. The leaves were/are sorta turning yellow but it's only been 2-3 days since I put them in. I also have a what looks like a spiraly wire on one of my leopard vals which I have no clue what it is. It also looks like a curly long root but more green.
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