# Jungle Val won't grow.



## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

I'm attempting to grow some Vallisneria Gigantea in my 90 gallon tank. When I first introduced it, all the leaves died as I suspected and then they all started to re-grow. Since then I've sprouted 4 different runners and it's continuing to grow in a line down the side of my tank, but none of the plants produce leaves that are growing longer than 4 inches. When I bought the original plant all the blades were at least 16 inches or so. They all seem to be alive, and the new runners are still growing, but they just won't get any taller. My nitrates are around 10 PPM so they have food. My pH is around 7.8-8.0 so I don't think it's too extreme for them. My light is a Coralife 48" fixture with 2 compact fluorescent 50/50 bulbs. Maybe my light isn't enough? I'm not dosing any growth chemicals. Should I be? Any help would be awesome. I'm still new to plants.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I suck at plants, too. But I'll take a guess anyway. This is a deep tank. Light intensity falls off with the square of the distance even in air, its worse in water. Can you try putting the plants on a shelf right under the light? I know it will look weird. 

The basic nutrients are the same your lawn potassium, phosphate, and nitrate with the addition of "carbon". Nitrates and phosphates are rarely low in a tank with fish and potassium should be in your salt mix. You could try flourish excel or CO2 for "carbon" but I hate "messing with" a tank that is otherwise doing well. 

Or you could try swapping for more of "daylight" bulb and maybe more of the light would be usable to the plant. 

I'd likely just try other plants until one works (or let them float under the light, my tanks are pretty ugly).


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

I'd swap the 50/50 bulbs for somethng in the 5000k to 6700k range. That's the color temp that plants use. The 50/50 bulb is too "blue" for plants.


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## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

I figured it was something with the lighting. Honestly the only reason I went with the 50/50 bulbs is because I feel like the daylight bulbs make my tank too yellow. Are there any LED's that are powerful enough to support plant growth? I've been looking into getting a new fixture since mine is quite ancient (2 of the 4 bulb sockets crumbled to bits in my hands), and I love the shimmer effect and the color from LED systems. I found one with a full spectrum of white, blue, green, and red light with a 1200 Lumen output, but I'm still not sure about how much is necessary and all that.


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