Hi all!
I have Vallisneria (sold as Jungle Val, but I'm not really sure which Val it is) planted in Flourite dark in the back left corner of my 75G tank. I planted most them in February and they have already been through melting and growing back, in fact, several of the leaves were longer than the height of the tank. I put Flourish root tabs in when I planted them and I fertilize about twice a week NilocG Thrive. I have DIY CO2 but also dose with NilocG Enhance 4-5 days per week. My lighting is a Fluval Planted and Fresh LED which some days I turn all the way up and other days I don't since I was getting too much hair algae.
The last 2 days I have come home from work to find 2" - 4" pieces of my Val floating up with my floating plants. Not all of the plants are clipped down, but I'd say about 1/4 to 1/3rd are now only a few inches tall.
The only possibilites that I can think of is that either the Enhance did something to them, there is a warning on the label with regard to Vals, or that one of my fish, most likely the festivums, is ripping them apart.
The pieces that I find floating don't look as if the plant was melting again, they just look clipped. Does anyone know what ill effect the Enhance could have on the Vals?
The festivums are more likely to be guilty I think. We've seen them yank my floating Salvina and dwarf water lettuce down to the bottom of the tank and then let them go. There is also some fish guilty of ripping into my Marimo moss balls and I did see a festivum poke at them once. I'm finding pieces of it all over the bottom of the tank. I have to say, however, that I've never personally seem the festivums doing anything but hiding in the tall plants.
Being a beginner I don't know, is there anything else that can cause Vallisneria to come apart piece by piece in several inch segments? Or I am just suffering from plant destroying cichlid syndrome?
Thanks in advance for any help. I've attached a photo of a piece that I just pulled outof the aquarium.
