Ok....please bear with me folks. Having a hard time figuring this out, so pardon any mistakes. Can anyone tell me what kind of plant this is?
I think your aluminium plant could do with being repotted as it doesn't look very healthy at the moment Carma. Fingers crossed it soon bounces back to full health for you.
Here is what I would do. As eileen says, repot it with a pot suitable for the size of the root system. Make sure there is a hole in it. Use good light soil. Just getting it repotted will lighten up that soil but keep it tilled like a garden. Water seeps through it more evenly rather than going over to the sides of the pot to drain. You probably don;t have to after repotting but later you may want to use a house plant fertilizer. A very very good thing if you are having Summer right now would be to get it outside in the speckled shade. So it gets some sun during the day as well as shade. As new shoots appear in time on the lower part you should cut those long stems down. Now most people don't like to do that but it will make that poor thing much stronger going into Winter. Good luck.
I was thinking to repot it also, and perhaps take cuttings to make new starts if this plant can be propigated that way. Taking cuttings to make new starts ought to make it bushier too.
Some of these plants need leaves so that's why I say wait to see if it gets any shoots on the lower part of the bare stems. Then give it the chop chop for rooting. Then again I tell my hubby if an animal were to come alone and eat all the leaves off a plant in most cases it will survive. The roots are still alive.
That is why I thought taking the tops for starts might revive this plant. I have had a lot of plants that do not get more lower leaves once they are gone, and they are just unsightly though, so making starts while the plant is still viable gets you new plants.
It looks like there are hard water/salt deposits building up on the soil surface. Over time, that can be toxic to some plants, as well as having water sitting in a drip tray, if that causes the water to be in contact with the roots. Watering with rain or distilled water can help avoid the tap water chemical issue.
