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Aquariumplants.com Plant bulbs

7K views 23 replies 14 participants last post by  Opiesilver 
#1 ·
I have a 5.5 gallon which i want to plant but i don't want to spend very much money. i like aquariumplants.com but there shipping is very expensive unless you buy a lot of plants. i have seen the plant bulbs at wal-mart and i was wondering if they really work and if they can turn into good looking aquarium plants. i only have 10 watts so i have lowlighting. the plant bulbs are the kind of price im looking for tho. have any of you had any success. plus rite now the tank is cycling and i have one of my goldfish in there, if i get this product i will need to take him out rite? because goldfish eat everything. :shock: o wel. sorry for my confusing writing skills.
 
#3 ·
Id have to say that I cannot think of a more simpler plant to start with than the walmart bulbs, which are typically Aponogeton Ulvacea. They will throw up leaves and runners even with ambient room light, and if you can retrofit a small flourescent bulb into your hood that is all they will ever need. Ive used hundreds of them over the years, as wal mart has been selling them a loooong time.

Here's exactly what will happen if you use them:

You place 4-5 of the furry brown bulbs into your tank, and let them sink. Of them, about 2-3 will sprout out of one side of the bulb; this is the leaf and stem emersion, and out of the other side roots will develop.

Move them to where you want them at this phase before they root heavily, yes I think a goldfish would eat up all the green shoots. On internal nutrient stores within the bulb, the plant will send up lily pads (yes, lily pads!!) and long flowing leaves regardless of your light quality. Some are short and some are long (standard Mendelian plant genetics) and some live for a while and yet others only last two week. Long term success is governed by your lighting and your water params, and if the plants mature they will completely fill up a tank of that size and make a root ball the size of your entire tank. Without CO2 injection, I predict they will stay a good medium size in your nano tank.

Good luck, they are easy plants.

Brandon M.
 
#4 ·
cool. i oughta try that to fill the gaps in my tank. im thinking about getting anacharis to fill an empty corner, bulbs to fill empty spaces, and lawn type plant for open space area (not much space). thats after i get my extra lighting. i think 20something watts is enough for 5.5 gallon. These nano tanks are pretty shallow, so light penetrates easily. :D
 
#8 ·
Well I have had golfish and the "WALMART" bulbs and they did VERY well for a year or so... The golfish didnt eat the plants but the Runners I never saw neither the lilies? ODD......... :? :(
 
#9 ·
Well I have had golfish and the "WALMART" bulbs and they did VERY well for a year or so... The golfish didnt eat the plants but the Runners I never saw neither the lilies? ODD......... :? :(
 
#14 ·
hey i used your photo for my desktop wallpaper! it looks great!

how will these do in harder water? i had one in my kribensis tank
underbright light and it did well but i didnt really know what i was doing then haha. it stayed pretty small but was beautiful anyway.
i want one for a centerpeice plant
 
#15 ·
tanganyikandoug said:
hey i used your photo for my desktop wallpaper! it looks great!

how will these do in harder water? i had one in my kribensis tank
underbright light and it did well but i didnt really know what i was doing then haha. it stayed pretty small but was beautiful anyway.
i want one for a centerpeice plant
Define hard water? They should be fine. But they get big. I have one like the pic in my tank and the leaves are 6-8inches across....

Jason
 
#17 ·
well it's in a 75gallon with fancy goldfish. I have them in pots.. 60 watts of T8 bulbs. No CO2, small substrate and laterite in the pots. I'm redoing the tank in the summer for plants more so... There'll be no pots in the tank then. Here is a pic of the plants like a month ago, they've grown since..
 
#19 ·
MAN I like the lilies and cant wait for mine to GROW!!!
 
#20 ·
I once had a flower from one of the Walmart bulbs, and it wasn't a real waterlily. It had a very tiny, inconspicuous flower, turned out to be an Aponogeton. Just read the packet and see what it says on the back, some are Nymphaeas, and some are Aponogeton, I think we all want the Nymphaeas more. :)
 
#22 ·
I have bought those bulbs too; from petsmart. If you want the lotuses more, look for the packs with the bigger bulbs in them. The biggest ones are the lotuses. Out of the two lotus bulbs I got in mine, only one did really well. The other sprouted but never really flourished. The water they were in was hard and at around 80-81 temp wise. Here's a pick of the lotus, it's in the front of the driftwood, (oh, and it was only under 1.6 watts/g!):
 
#23 ·
My leaves are 6+in ATLEAST! I love it BUT it is starting to outgrow my 20L!
 
#24 ·
Wow, glad I saw this. The brand sold at Walmart are not our bulb packs. Saying that we do sell the company that makes that product a small amount of bulbs each month. They are located only a few miles away and like to purchase locally where they can inspect the bulbs before purchase. What happens to our best estimate is that when a product gets into the Walmart supply system it may or may not see the light of day for months at a time. Same way with the large chains that we supply directly. You can only really get fresh bulbs that come with a guarantee to grow direct from us. We package them daily. Both AquariumPlants.com and Custom Sea Life try to include as many different species as is possible but sometimes due to import restrictions the selection of species is limited.
 
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