Any remedy for melting plant?

[sfchung]

I bought this 2 days ago and it is starting to melt. It look like a Val with brownish/orangy tint. My other Val ( I think it is Vallisneria americana as it has the corkscrew look) is doing fine though. Suggested by Teo Farm and they know I'm a newbie ( I told them ) and going for easy plants. This is embarassing...

Water is at 28 - 28.5 with 12 hrs of 132W lighting and CO2. Tank is 4 x 1.5 x 1.5 ft

[sfchung]

No one? Any clues or tips? Temperature? Co2 not enough? Running 1 bps. Not enough light? I think the base fertiliser should still be sufficient as the tank is less than 1 month old. Puzzling as all other plants are doing fine. Or should I let it be and wait for things to unfold....

[dc88]

Check the KH and PH to see if your CO2 is really enough. You should aim for around 30-40ppm (check the CO2 table for the corresponding KH and PH value). I suspect 1bps for a 4 ft tank is kind of low.
For a new tank the base fert might not be kicking into action yet (need bacteria to establish within the substrate). Anyway for high light/high CO2 tank, base fert hardly catchup what the plants need. Instead you should try the E.I method of water column fertilization (adding the N, P and K, and the trace dosage, and then weekly 50% water change).
If everything above are covered, then may be not enough Mg and Ca, can try adding Seachem Equilibrium.

[|squee|]

The plant might just be grown emersed, and now that it's in your tank it's slowly converting to submersed form. During this process, some form of "melting" or decaying of leaves is normal.

[grey_fox]

Hey Eric,

I started my tank with vallisneria as well initially. Out of the 10 vallisnerias I planted, all of them melted away, however after that, it sprouted.... grew like a weed to be exact. They propgated and I ended with strings of runners that threatened to overtank the entire tank

It'll take a while, after which they'll bounce back to life. My vallisnerias grew to a length of 2 1/2 to almost 3 feet in the end...