2.5 gallon lilly vase

[Kehy]

I've had my dwarf water lilly since I got my 1.5 gallon betta tank over a year ago, and it's been doing great. The bulb was in a $3 pack from Wallyworld, and was the only thing in that pack to grow. It's been with me since I started with keeping fish on my own, and I'm really attached. Sometimes it doesn't behave however...


That lil monster is just the result of a couple lilly pads reaching the surface from one plant...I've now got three plants all trying to do that! Poor plants below them are getting light-starved and some are starting to die off, so the lilly's gotta go somewhere else.

Here's my solution:
The 2.5 gallon lilly vase

I needed something cheap, and hopefully good looking that I can chuck some extra plants into, and not have to sell or give away my lillies. This is that bowl...


Going to have some dirt under the gravel, since I've noticed how much the plants I have currently love the dirt from my backyard. Prepping it is currently requiring lots of rinsing though...oh, and there's some rock in there too

Found some nice small gravel in a fairly nice color. Thought it would show off the color of the lilly nicely, and maybe reflect more light to other plants too.


Anyways, more to come soon!

[Kehy]

Alright, I figure the pictures say this better than words, so here we go. (Warning: 90% pictures)







That last pic shows the scratched up lamp I picked up for $4. A lil paint later, and I could probably buy it for $12, LOL.

Plants:
-Dwarf Lilly bulb
-Crypt Wendii 'bronze'
-Anubias Nana
-Willow Hygro
-oh, and I guess that bit of duckweed counts too

Fauna:
-nothing yet, considering cherry shrimp and a Scarlet Badis

Filtration:
-Might pop my betta tank filter in there to kick start the cycle (Edit: popped it in, but didn't take pics of it. Water's swirling nicely)

Lighting:
-A desk lamp, 40 watts, Full Spectrum

[Kehy]

Alright, here's the final shot of the tank tonight, with the light. As I said, too powerful, and it makes me wonder how long that pretty white gravel will stay white..hmm...Still, it was the only bulb in the right size/shape, so I guess it'll have to work somehow.

[aweeby]

With that lily, you'll be overgrown in no time. Get ready for the MTS onset.

[Kehy]

Originally Posted by aweeby

With that lily, you'll be overgrown in no time. Get ready for the MTS onset.

lol oh don't worry...I've already got it! Lol, just with mini/nano tanks though, I cant' have anything over 5 gallons, and so I have one 1.5 gallon, the 2.5 vase, a .33 bowl, and a .25 jar...oh, and a leeeettle tiny bottle too small for me to measure...it's got a baby crypt in there. XD

[aweeby]

Hunt around craigslist and find yourself an old 15g to play around in. your plants need space!
If it's the parents stopping you, I have a piece of advice: I hid mine in the garage until it was too late for them to get rid of it. (few have the heart to flush live fish)

if it's a landlord, living constraints, spouse or RA, sorry, can't help you. good luck with this btw! Looks like this is going to be a pretty decent home for it for a few months or so.

[EnigmaticGuppy92]

looking nice but more space needed

[Kehy]

Lol well hopefully the landlord will let me set up a container pond in my backyard, so eventually the lilly will get more space. And when I move one, I've already got two more that might need to be put in there.

Now if I could get it to bloom, that'd be amazing....

[moosenart]

Originally Posted by aweeby

Hunt around craigslist and find yourself an old 15g to play around in. your plants need space!
If it's the parents stopping you, I have a piece of advice: I hid mine in the garage until it was too late for them to get rid of it. (few have the heart to flush live fish)

if it's a landlord, living constraints, spouse or RA, sorry, can't help you. good luck with this btw! Looks like this is going to be a pretty decent home for it for a few months or so.

My parents are 'anal' about tanks... 2 20L for geckos, 10g OEBT in our spare bedroom, and hopefully a new moss tank!

[Kehy]

Well, the mother dearest is coming over to visit, and she doesn't quite understand the concept of waiting till its safe to add livestock to a tank...I think I'll add 2-3 ghost shrimp for a little active life for her. I hope they make it through cycling, if not, I won't really be disappointed either...ghosties and cherries don't mix well.

Also, I ordered some Excel and Flourish, but I've never used them before, and I'm a bit wary of using them in such small tanks, but I've got some BBA taking hold in my smaller tank, and there was a 2 for 1 deal going on. Will using them with the high light lead to a massive algae outbreak? (more massive than just the dirt and high light alone?)

[Kehy]

Alright, things are looking good so far. Found out that mother dearest is not coming over, she threw out her back and it's a 3 hour drive over mountains...not fun for her! But that means I hopefully will not be getting ghost shrimp...better for the shrimp, and better for my impulse control, lol

Anyways, I added diy co2, currently getting 1bpm after being set up for just 3 hours...yay. Diffusing it with an airstone, but I can see I'm getting bubbles all the way to the bottom, and the plants seem to already be loving it...I think even my anubias is bubbling!

One question though, can you gas out a bowl with no critters in it? It's gonna be a lot of co2, especially with the lights off, and I don't want stuff dying on me. (aside from the mandatory crypt melt, of course)

Anyways, a pic of it in the morning light:

A closer look at the bottom...and the wee baby crypt by the rock

Sorry for the blurriness, the airstone actually does a fairly good job at diffusing the co2


One more question actually, any thoughts on the scaping? It's my first time doing any serious planning into plant layout. I'm thinking about maybe adding some more stems of some sort, if I get money, but that might have to wait.

[EnigmaticGuppy92]

the more c02 the better really if there are no fauna and i would add maybe vallis to the back

[GMYukonon24s]

That's a nice vase. I think stems in there would look good.

[Koi Kameon]

I just asked you about this on another thread--Do you mean those litttle packets for about 3 bucks that are "hybrid aponogeten" and then they call the other pack "dwarf lily" and it's also a aponogeten, not a N. stellata or anything like that? Bc I am really liking the the look of this "dwarf lily." You can always prune away to keep it in that bowl...

[Kehy]

Originally Posted by Koi Kameon

I just asked you about this on another thread--Do you mean those litttle packets for about 3 bucks that are "hybrid aponogeten" and then they call the other pack "dwarf lily" and it's also a aponogeten, not a N. stellata or anything like that? Bc I am really liking the the look of this "dwarf lily." You can always prune away to keep it in that bowl...

Yeah, it came from one of those pack. There were two bulbs in there, an onion plant and the lilly, in the aponogeten pack. Only the lilly sprouted, which is probably fine, considering how big onion plants get. I don't think they have another pack with just lillies though, that could get expensive. For instance, yes, it is a N. Stellata, and when I was looking through water lilly catalogs for more information, I found the plants themselves and tubers for sale for $15-25! No one was selling the bulbs themselves though.

I'm just glad that for some reason mine are apparently stunted. I have 2 more plants aside from the bulb still in my 1.5 gallon tank! Very small ones though that aren't taking over just yet. I have some crypts in that tank too, so I'm not as worried if they do.