Nymphaea lotus

[Heyguy74]

This is for you plant experts.

I have two growing in my planted tank. I was wondering if its possible to keep the leaves from growing to the surface and becoming lillies. One does it already. If I leave it more than two weeks, the lillies will cover the surface and block the light to the plants below. Now the second plant has just put up a new leaf, that is going for the surface. All the leaves before this one have stayed under the surface. Basically, can I train the leaves to stay the underwater variety by cutting the shoots that go for the surface?

Heres a few pics of the tank.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q104/Heyguy74/DSCF2257.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q104/Heyguy74/DSCF2258-1.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q104/Heyguy74/DSCF2259.jpg

[joe_jaskot]

The leaves will always grow to the surface. As you have noticed, it is a very fast growing plant. You can prune it to a point, but excess pruning will eventually be the demise of the plant.

[joe_jaskot]

Aside from pruning the leaves growing to the surface, you can also provide some shade to the nymphae. This will prevent it from getting too much light and growing so fast.

[Heyguy74]

Thanks for the info. I actually grew this plant in a pond about 4 years ago. There it flowered , always at night. These plants are decendents of that plant. I used a huge flowerpot and a bunch of soil from a nearby stream, mixed with some laterite I had. There would be 30 to 40 red lily pads in the pond. The problem I had was the winter. I had no place to put such a large plant. I tried a small tank but it eventually died.

[BlondeFishGal]

I've had luck successfully pruning these plants for years in my tanks without loss, so it might be worth a try for you. Don't cut them back all at once though.

Without keeping them trimmed, I find they can overtake the tank and block the light from other plants.

I've also experienced what Joe said, about shading them when first planted and keeping them shaded, and that helps. But they are fast growers, and that gets harder and harder to do.

[Heyguy74]

Thanks. I was hoping I could tame them. LOL. The larger one, sends out a new leaf evry few days. By the time that hits the surface the next leaf is emerging.
Whats you experience with moving these plants to a higher ph? Right now the tanks at about a ph of 6.4. I would love to pot the plant and move it to one of my larger tanks. However, they are at a ph of 8.2. I have succesfully moved over anubias to the higher ph tanks. It took a while to aclimate them.

[BlondeFishGal]

I've certainly kept them in tanks with pH in the 7.0 range, but not 8.0 range. No way to predict how the plant would do, and I can't see how you'd be able to do the adjustment gradually. If you are OK with the possibility of it failing, you can try moving it. If it will break your heart, don’t chance it.
It looks like you are also adding CO2 to your tank via Hagen's product. Do you like that one? Don’t the CO2 bubbles get stuck in the tray a lot? I've written a lot of articles on adding CO2 in a non-tech way to tanks, and there's a simple product out there now that I like an awful lot -- even better than the costly high tech stuff f. I've turned a lot of people onto it... let me know if you want details. I don't want to sound like I am a sales rep for them (I'm not!) and in my column and articles, I typically wasn't allowed to mention products by name, so I'm not sure how it works on this forum and don't want to get yelled at :smile:

[Heyguy74]

I aclimated the anubias by placing them in a 10 Gallon tank. The ph matched my planted tank. Over the course of a few weeks, I brought the pH up to 8.2 I had tried to bring the ph up faster, but the plants didnt like it. This time I took my time and have had no problems. They have been fine for about 5 months. Still growing and producing new leaves.

As for the Hagen "ladder" or whatever its called. I actually bought that years ago. Well before I knew any better. I use it because the tank is small (38Gallons). The bubbles are fully dissolving before they reach the top. But they do get stuck once in a while. I use a brush every once in a while to keep the ladder clean. Usually, its a snail that causes the bubbles to get stuck. When I had my 75 planted, it wasn't enough. I used an DIY design that used a Gravel vac tube and a small powerhead. That really worked well. I would love any and all suggestions. BTW, Yes you can mention products by name on here. Any links to your articles would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for the help

[BlondeFishGal]

Oh great, you have an extra tank for acclimation! Well then sure, try it. If you start to see it doing poorly, you can re-adjust the pH and get it back to where it was. BUT... just do not rush it (always easier to say than do!!). But nNo reason to, really, so go slow and you may pull it off and have it adjust.

As for the 'ladder" -- if it works for you and you are happy with it, stay with it. I used it for a while in several tanks to test it out, and I never liked it much. The bubbles woulld get stuck due to the suction cups slipping sometimes, or a plant leaf getting stuck in it, or yes, a snail, etc., and then the bubbles would build up to like, one big one and then and plop out. What a waste!

But i have tested/tried alot of things for plants that's out on the market.... felt like I would understand my readers better if I did. Most hobbyists who have plants don't own big, expensive CO2 units, so I wanted my tanks to have the same set up as theirs, so I could understnad their problems when they wrote in.

My current favorite CO2 sytem is one by Red Sea. It's kinda like an advanced version of the basic DIY method. Comes with a venturi powerhead and uses sugar, yeast, baking soda and water, and you can hook it up to your lights, so it turns off when they do. Very nice. Manufacturer says it treats up to 40 gallons for one month; i don't see that. I see that it treats up to 30 gallons for a month.

I actually did an experiment of using three of them on a 90 gallon tank. I did it for 4 months (so refilled the 3 canisters once a month, for 4 months), and my plants did just as good as when I had the high tech multiple gadget set up!! In fact, I liked it so much, I've kept it! It's what is on my living room show tank right now.

[BlondeFishGal]

Okay, I see I have to shorten my responses. SORRY!!

I will work on that.

As for links to my articles ... I tried to scan one and put it in my member-page-profile album-thing but I don't think it came out well.

I wrote ThePlantedTank column for FAMA for a few years, and I've written a bunch of articles for TFH. If I can figure out the scanning thing, I'll get 'em in that album.

[Heyguy74]

You are talking about the bio system from Red Sea and not the Pro System Right? I do like the idea of shutting the pump off at night by conecting it to my lights.

I used this diy Reactor before on my 75. I was using two 2 liter soda bottles instead of the small hagen bottles. Idon't use their packets for the yeatsmixture. I make my own.

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/diy_reactor.htm

[BlondeFishGal]

Yes, I am talking about Red Sea's Turbo Co2 Bio System. Looks like this:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/207555/product.web

Comes with the 'sugar/yeast/baking soda' stuff and then you can obviously make your own refills. Uses dark tubing to reduce algae and a check valve. Hook it up with your lighting system and it will go off at night. Which, I really love b/c most DIY ones often don't, and let's face it, we addicts tend to overstock our tanks. So I felt comfortable when readers wrote in saying they were using this product.

[Heyguy74]

Thanks for all the advice

[BlondeFishGal]

My pleasure!

Always happy to help folks with their "wet thumbs"

;)



Let me know how the acclimation goes ...
Maybe take some notes b/c I think some other folks would like to know if they can acclimate plants to higher pH levels. You could post about your experiences....

GOOD LUCK!!!

[Heyguy74]

I will post about acclimating the plant. There is actually a third plant, thats growing off the larger one. Do you think a young plant will have a harder time adjusting or should I try one of the larger plants.

[BlondeFishGal]

Cool beans on the new plantlet! If it is big enough to survive on its own, I would suggest you try to acclimate that one (still go slow though). One great thing about plants is they can't read the manuals, so sometimes they don't "know" they should fail. Within reason, I used to be able to sneak plants into my discus show tanks that, according to the plant books, weren't tolerate of high heat and they did just fine.

Younger plants will adjust easier. Less 'set in their ways' ;)

[Anubias Design]

This is for you plant experts.

I have two growing in my planted tank. I was wondering if its possible to keep the leaves from growing to the surface and becoming lillies. One does it already. If I leave it more than two weeks, the lillies will cover the surface and block the light to the plants below. Now the second plant has just put up a new leaf, that is going for the surface. All the leaves before this one have stayed under the surface. Basically, can I train the leaves to stay the underwater variety by cutting the shoots that go for the surface?


I'm sorry I missed this when it was first posted. With this or any of the Nymphaea, the trick is to remove the floating leaves as soon as you see them growing. Their growth form is different from the submerged leaves so it is easy to tell them apart. Start by removing all the exisiting floating leaves and then don't let any more reach the surface. The plant will eventually give up on producing floating leaves and will concentrate its energy on submersed leaves, resulting in a much fuller plant.

In regard to the later question regarding pH, I have put Nymphaea, Anubias, Crypts, Echinodorus and just about everything else right into liquid rock with pH in the 8.4 to 8.8 range regularly for years with no problems at all. In the late 80s and into the 90s I was bringing in 2000 plants from Singapore every week and putting them directly into Indiana tap water.
Mark