[Rain_frog]

Ok, I have a 29 gallon that is filled 3 inches from the top. There is a 96 watt quad compact fluorescent and two 14 watt screw in ones from home depot. I leave the 96 watt on for 10 hours a day.

Now, call it strange, but I am ENCOURAGING floating leaves, since this a tank for aquatic frogs that like to bask on them.

I do not use CO2, because my main goal is to let the lily take over.

I also have elodea, hornwort, aponogeton hybrid (i think), and a very large onion plant in the tank. The onion plant is doing exceptionally well.

While my lily has two floating leaves now, and three underwater leaves, I have noticed a problem. The plants have been there for about a month now; the lily was started from a sprouted bulb.

I have noticed on many occasions the lily's floaters develop green edges which die off and leaves the edges a little ragged at the corner. Also, the plant tends to "thrash" a bit at the surface and you get leaves that grow upside down or partially out of the water. Is the water too shallow? Minus the pot its in, it probably has 12" from root to surface.

The floating leaves are only 3-4" long. Aren't they supposed to grow much bigger?

PH: ~7.5 or slightly lower
KH: 4

No animals yet.

 

[mistergreen]

If they have enough floating leaves, they let go of the underwater leaves.

Depending on the species, the floating leaves will be a cetain size. And maybe nutrients have something to do with the size too.

 

[whitepine]

Give it sometime... once it has grown its rootmass to a larger size, it will start to throw more leaves to the surface. It may also start to throw daughter plants and start producing bulbs if you let them.

Cheers, Whitepine

 

[Rain_frog]

is it a bad thing I put the plant in a shallow, 8" pot?

 

[PeteyPob]

Give that sucker root tabs. You will notice a HUGE difference. Lotus are heavy and I do mean HEAVY root feeders.
I had a lotus plant in one place for about a year in one of my first tanks. When it came time to uproot it and move the plant left a crater about 3" deep and about 5-6" across! No joke!
I also noticed about 15 bulbs the mother plant produced under the substrate surface.

 

[mistergreen]

is it a bad thing I put the plant in a shallow, 8" pot?

depends, what's in the pot?

 

[Rain_frog]

bottom two inches of it is coco peat and laterite. Top inch is medium sized gravel. When I first planted it, I buried several large pellets of fish food around the roots.

The plants first few submerged leaves were very large.

I'm very cautious of using actual fertilizer, since this tank is for amphibians and not fish.

 

[Aqua Dave]

Lotus plants will develop a huge root system so it may be better if it's just in your substrate. Root tabs will help.

David

 

[DirtMonkey]

I'm very cautious of using actual fertilizer, since this tank is for amphibians and not fish.

I would be too. sounds like a job for organic fertilizers in clay balls, and rabbit droppings.

On the other hand you could probably get away with some fertilizer tablets if you change water enough to keep on top of what leaches out through your gravel...

Or change to a soil base in the tank and plant in the substrate.

 

[Rain_frog]

well, i decided to wrap some fish food in a little paper towel and bury it under the gravel in the soil. I'm going to try this method for a while. I also suspect the problems with the plant may be from the hornwort, since it has outcompeted mostly everything else since it can fixate carbonate in the water for CO2.

So, I did a water change and hopefully that will help. The new lotus leaf at the surface doesn't have the holes or damage ever since I removed some of the extra hornwort and changed the water

 

[Galactic Doug]

Lotus plants will develop a huge root system so it may be better if it's just in your substrate. Root tabs will help.

David

Agreed. as this type of bulb plant will grow out a root system that will become "Rootbound" in any pot smaller than 10" across and 12" tall. Just put root tabs as mentioned above underneath it and it will take over the tank with flowers in about 2 months. (You'll see them at night)

Beware! some species of this bulb grow floaters up to 12" or more across! If you want to maintain it for this samll a tank just keep cutting off the leaves that grow to the top with more width than you like and let any smaller ones stay. Also if you decide to keep it underwater at a later time just keep "All" floater leaves cut off and the plant will continue to grow underwater leaves with an occasional one to the top which you trim off again and again....

Good luck.

Doug

 

[kevbshields]

Root Tabs

I've got one Lotus from a bulb that's going nuts, compared to two others I have that sort of "died out" during the winter.

Someone once mentioned "Jobe's fertilize spikes" in a previous post on root feeding. Was this person talking about the regular, houseplant spikes? I'm imagining that'd do some serious damage to my water quality, but I'd love to help out my older, far less productive Lotus(es?).

Anyhow, that hesitancy aside, what root tabs are most readily available and recommended? I've searched for them before at my LFS, but to no avail. With brand names, I might be able to score some.

thanks,
Kev.

 

[Aqua Dave]

I use the SeaChem root tabs, but there are others. Go to Big Al's or Drs. Foster & Smith or your favorite on-line store and you can see the different ones and order them.

Some people use the Jobe's sticks, but you have to really bury them because if they leech into the water column you'll probably wind up with green water. I choose to do the normal water column macro fertilization along with the root tabs.

David