Help with struggling vallisneria

[sunseta]

I just got my Vallis plants settled into the high school library tank. They've had a rough start - 5 days in a warehouse at -5 degrees, 4 hours on my doorstep in -3 degrees, and then a temporary stay in a shallow bowl while I figured out when to bring them to school.
Three out of four are flopped over on the sand and they've all lost some strands when I submerged them. They're under good white and red lights, which will be on for about 11 hours a day. What's a good fertilizer that's safe for my nerite snails and platy fish? Anything else I can do for them besides giving them time to recover?

[Burgermuncher]

Not my specialty, but I've had my fair share of Vallis experience. Your plants do appear to be struggling, and I'm inclined to think they might be jungle vals, although it's tough to say for certain. Give them some space and time - if they're healthy, you should start seeing new leaf growth and stolons. Even if they've lost their leaves, as long as the growing point, the meristem, didn't freeze, they've got a fighting chance.

[sunseta]

Not my specialty, but I've had my fair share of Vallis experience. Your plants do appear to be struggling, and I'm inclined to think they might be jungle vals, although it's tough to say for certain. Give them some space and time - if they're healthy, you should start seeing new leaf growth and stolons. Even if they've lost their leaves, as long as the growing point, the meristem, didn't freeze, they've got a fighting chance.

I think I found the ID - Modern aquarium website says it's spiflake Vallis. If those knobby bits near the roots are the stolons, then the one that's not totally flopped over has them, still unsure about the others.

[coltin]

Those leaves are likely gone for good, the combination of freezing temps and lack of light for 5 days is a tough one to recover from. If you remove the soft, mushy green bits, you might be able to salvage the root ball, just leave it in the sand and see how it goes.

As for fertilizer, I've had some luck with Sera Florena, it's a liquid iron-based plant food that's safe for your nerite snails and platy fish. Make sure you've got an Iron test kit on hand to keep an eye on the levels, aim to keep it around 1mg/ltr (1ppm).