Should I trim this red lotus ?

[candymancan]

It isnt a red tiger lotus, i forgot the exact ype it is but it is some form of red lotus.

Anyway its HUGE in my 92g tank.. started off as a bulb that i had that struggled to grow anything bigger then 3-4 leaf's maybe 1/4 of an inch in size.. Now i have countless leaf's bigger then the palm of my hand submerged that have grown so high they block light for the lower leaves im guessing because they want more light.

And on top of that i have like 17 almost hand sized lilly pads above the water as well.. One its a good thing because they block light and helped me finally get rid of the green spot algae i had on my S.repens and telenthara cardinalis.

But there are so many of them now, it makes my tank feel dark.. Some spots directly below the submerged leafes and lillies are super dark and i wonder if thats affecting the S.repens and my other plants. Im afraid to cut it though. I used to have a gianormous red tiger lotus and i trimmed it per peoples recomendations and it never recovered it just started melting leaves... Then growing them back, then melting and eventually died..

So my experience is lotus plants are very sensative to being trimmed. I also think maybe with so many lilly pads itll help keep my water clean longer, because i know lotus's have a measurable effect on nitrates from experience.

Anyway, what do you guys think ? Leave it alone ? Maybe add more lights ? I have 4 65w Power compact lights available to this tank, but only use 2 "because i had green spot algae when using all 4" but now im thinking i should put the other 2 back on.. I dunno
sorry for the long post lol

Here are pics starting from its early stages to the last 2 pics of where its grown now. You can see the before an after picture, see how dark the tank is now on the bottom and specially on the right hand side of the tank and also on the stump driftwood with my water sprite.. In fact the watersprite isnt looking too good not sure if its because of the lack of light though. Granted the plant is beautiful in my opinion, but im afraid to cut away the large leaves i dont want to hurt it. I guess another reason im afraid to trim it, is i want to to flower and im hoping i can get more bulbs from it for my other tanks what do you think ?

[RackinRocky]

No advice to give you, as I can't seem to grow anything other than java fern (standard lights tanks came with--way too low) but I'm super jealous! That lotus is gorgeous. I really love your tank too! I'm sure lots of people will have suggestions...

[Nils]

I wouldn't trim the lotus unless it is shading out the other plants. I'm guessing discus appreciate the "jungle" so why not let them appreciate it?

[candymancan]

Originally Posted by RackinRocky

No advice to give you, as I can't seem to grow anything other than java fern (standard lights tanks came with--way too low) but I'm super jealous! That lotus is gorgeous. I really love your tank too! I'm sure lots of people will have suggestions...

You can grow more then Java fern with regular T8 lights, Just get the right bulbs.. My 27g Hexagon has 2x T8's over it and i grow plenty of nice plants, in fact mny amazon sword in that tank is over 14 inches long.


Telenthara cardinalis, which is the red plants on the left and right of my tank, those are in petsmart in the plant section usually on the end of an isle and they grow in very low lighting just fine. Anubias also can grow in really low light and actually prefers it anyway. Also has alot to do with substrate, do you gravel vacuume ? If you do stop vacuuming, i havent vacuumed this 92g tank since i set it up about i dunno 4 months ago because the fish poo and left over food create a fertalizer for the plants. I also use Floramax substrate which is supposedly for plants because it has a high nutrient absorbtion rate for roots

But if you have a water lilly you need medium to high light. You can see mine is growing tall vs bushy because it wants more light




As for your comment Nils, yea it is shading plants thats why im wondering if i should trim it.. My s. repens are in the dark almost and the water sprite that used to be nice and green isnt growing too well. Look at the first pic and the last pic see the difference in the brightness ?


My fish like the shade though you are right about that

[Gillie]

You won't get more bulbs from the plant, but you can remove and replant the bulb. Also if the plant is properly cared for you should have baby plants popping up off of runners here and there.

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[candymancan]

Runners from a lilly ? Hmm im newish to lotus plants, i thought they flower and make seeds and thats how the bulbs grow , if they propigate then how are the bulbs formed in the first place ?

[ImACoolguy]

Originally Posted by candymancan

Runners from a lilly ? Hmm im newish to lotus plants, i thought they flower and make seeds and thats how the bulbs grow , if they propigate then how are the bulbs formed in the first place ?

I'm a newish Lotus owner as well, had some die off but would like to know propagation once it takes off.


Caleb

[candymancan]

Well i experimented with my Lotus. Went down to the bulb and pulled at a corner fingers in gravel to make sure i grabbed the roots and i pull 1/4 of the lotus off the bulb.. And this is what i got.


I got 2 im guessing these the runners youre ruffering too right ? I got 2 good sized ones, and had to gently untangle the web of lillies from them and the main plant.. I planted one in my 55g tank and one in my 44g pentagon.. I guess well see what happens lol. You can see on the picture of my lotus in the tank, i pulled on the right side of the plant imbedding my fingers in the substrate so i didnt just pull the leaves off and i grabbed a chunk of the plants roots and pulled it out gently and the other pic is what i got.. I sware my lotus has one crazy root system lol when i was pulling i had to be carefull not to uproot the whole thing and my whole substrate was coming with it it looked like..

[Gillie]

Originally Posted by candymancan

Runners from a lilly ? Hmm im newish to lotus plants, i thought they flower and make seeds and thats how the bulbs grow , if they propigate then how are the bulbs formed in the first place ?

The little plant at the the end of my finger is on a runner http://rs719.pbsrc.com/albums/ww194/...46.jpg~320x480

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[candymancan]

Yea but those dont come from the leaves like Java fern right lol because mine come from the bulb.. So is what i did right ? or no

[Gillie]

Yes but you can also remove the large plant and any others with good root systems from the bulb and replant them. The bulb will produce plants for a while.

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[candymancan]

Oh okay thanks


Ima leave the bulb alone i dont want to remove all the lotus from it and take that risk of it just dying. Only need 1 lotus in my tanks anyway heh, so well see how the ones i planted turn out. Hopefully they dont just melt.


See i always thought the lotus needed the bulb to live didnt realize they dont