Roots coming from stem of Rotala plant & hairs on Italian Val plants

iheartbettas

iheartbettas

AC Members
Sep 9, 2010
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Detroit Metro area, Michigan
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Bernie
i purchased a rotala plant from my LFS because it was a beautiful plant and I also purchased an italian Val about a week ago. Both seem to be doing well. The Rotala looks like it's grown roots on it's stems and the val has hairs on it. Could you please look at these pics and let me know what's going on.

background (substrate is eco complete, tank has a few cories in it and nothing else, lighting is a dual coralife light fixture 1 bulb 6700K 18 W and 1 bulb is a colormax 18W.)

Rotala with roots coming from stems.

P1100788 by epiclaydown, on Flickr

Hairs on italian Val.

P1100792 by epiclaydown, on Flickr

Pic of entire Rotala

P1100795 by epiclaydown, on Flickr
 
You can lower the hours of your photo period.
You can also try using flourish excel as an
algaecide for the algae and as a natural source of carbon for your plants.I usually just cut those side roots off.It doesn't hurt the plants,or you can do as what was suggested above.Either way works.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlourishExcel.html
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/3806-flourish-excel-got-rid-all-my.html
Try to find out what is really causing your algae problem.
Lights,overfeeding,low co2,water circulation, ferts, etc.
I'm still learning every day on how to maintain a balanced tank.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224383
 
rotala is not an aquatic plant by choice. it just happens to survive well, and even thrive for many folks underwater. the roots you see are suggestive of it's native growth habits... a creeping vine type of bushy ground cover. in this growth form it naturally climbs/grows upwards toward the light until it's too long to sustain it's own weight. at that point the end of the plant starts sagging down, the plant keeps growing and eventually the plant touches the ground somewhere else, throws roots down to hold itself and starts the process all over again. those roots you see are indicators that the plant is looking to put down roots to take up nutrients.

given the amount of root growth you're getting and the algae on your vals i'd say you could use some root tabs for your vals and some form of carbon for your tank at the very least. N,P,K and micros in the water column wouldn't be a bad idea either.
 
Pull out the val and do a 5% bleach dip.
then get some oto.

algae eating fish is not the solution if there is algae outbreak, but these fish can put out the early sparks of fire before it goes rampant
 
thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to try some root tabs and flourish excel and see if that helps. If the algae gets out of hand on the vals, then I'll do a bleach dip on the vals. Thanks again.

ps. I've already taken the vals out and tried to remove most of the algae manually. They're still there and I've cut down the lighting considerably.
 
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