Lotus Garden - Flower!

[Tim.jp]

Following on from my balcony rice project last year, this time I'm going to have a go at making a planted aquarium based around a lotus plant.

The layout will be something like in the diagram below. The lotus will dominate the deep soil area on the right with some shade tolerant plants underneath. The deeper section will have a selection of regular aquarium plants and I am going to try something emersed in a basket on the left hand side.

If you'd like to see how the balcony rice project turned out, this is the link:
Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Final) Harvest | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[Tim.jp]

New for this season:
I've added CO2 - the price of the little 64g bottles went up here, so I invested in a 5kg Sapporo beer one, which should last a good while.
As I want to go tropical from the start this time, I've also added a heater to stop the night time temperature falling below 20C in April and May. This should get the lotus off to a good start and increase the chances of it flowering.

I've also put a brace under the middle of the stand for extra support.

 

[Tim.jp]

I'm using a mix of Amazonia and akadama again, but this time I've mixed 10% leaf mould into the right side because it is sometimes included in soil mixes in lotus pots. Presumably this will alter the ph, so I'll have to test before adding fish.

 

[Tim.jp]

I ordered 3 kinds of lotus from a farm in southern Japan back in February, for delivery once they had started shooting. They were delivered last week. The left hand (light pink) one is a small variety and is the one I plan to use in the aquarium. It should grow to a height of about 70cm. The other two are medium sized and I'll start them in the heated aquarium and move them to lotus pots in the garden when the weather warms up.

I've put netting under the two larger ones to make it easier to move them later. The smaller one (right) will stay in this position. My wife says the tank looks like flooded road works at the moment!

A close up of the leaf shoots.

 

[Tim.jp]

Hello again all,
I've been enjoying the ups and downs of this project since my first post and have been keeping a photo record. However, posting the photos has not been my strong point - to put it mildly! Anyway, here they are:

This photo was taken on 7th April, just 10 days after the last photo I posted of the shoots, and the leaves had already reached the surface. Remember this aquarium is being heated to 20C, so although the tubers were sprouting when they arrived from the farm in warmer Kyushu, southern Japan, they would definitely have developed a lot more slowly at natural temperatures here in the greater Tokyo area.

And pink roots emerged, but not nearly as fast as the leaf growth.

By early May there was a good group of leaves from the 3 tubers. Those of you who are of a nervous disposition when it comes to algae in planted aquarium are advised to skip the next photo (and probably the rest of this journal!).

Going green, as the rice project did last year at this time. I try to reduce this later, but at this stage I quite liked the feeling of looking into a wild tropical pond.

As the surface would soon become crowded with leaves, I took advantage of a day off on 7th of May to transfer the 2 bigger lotus plants to lotus pots in the garden, leaving just the smallest variety that I had planned for the aquarium. For the record, we had an unseasonal cold snap (night temperatures sending the water temperatures well below the minimum of 20C they had enjoyed in the heated tank) and one of the transplanted lotuses died and the other was knocked back quite a bit.

 

[Tim.jp]

With just the one lotus left, a bit of rough landscaping could be done.

Please remember this photo - it is the closest this setup came to the perfect planted aquariums on UKAPS!
Note the attempt at growing an emersed plant in a coconut fibre pot in the left hand corner. It didn't do well, so I removed it. Anyway, most of the other plants had a good go at becoming emersed species from the bottom of the tank!

 

[Tim.jp]

The power of the shoots to force their way up through the Amazonia Akadama mix was amazing to watch. It took quite a strong push with my finger to get fertilizer pellets down through it! All sorts of anaerobic/aerobic(?) gaseous stuff going on here on the full sunlight side of the aquarium.

This was my first time growing lotus in or out of an aquarium, and my image was of all leaves raised above the surface. However, for these ones at least, the early leaves were all on flexible stems, so they floated flat on the surface like waterlily leaves. Then at the beginning of June, the first proper rigid leaf stem pushed a leaf clear of the surface.

A close up.

And subsequent leaves alternated between the two, with some lovely deep green medium sized ones.

 

[Tim.jp]

I loved the view from my room in early June, but there was no doubt it was still going green.

A month later, the floating plants were doing well and the "green curtain" of morning glory and bitter gourds were providing good cover growing from pots next to the tank. I also stuck a sheet of white plastic covering half the sunny side of the tank below the water mark. Anti-algae measures were in place.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Amazing...somehow missed your Rice journal first time around, but that's pretty impressive too.

 

[flygja]

Very impressive. Once the lotus blooms it would be very beautiful.

 

[Tim.jp]

Thanks for the encouraging comments Troi and flygja.
The anti-algae measures were just enough to stop the whole tank clogging up. Without using chemicals, this is about as good as you can hope for with 30C+ temperatures and direct sunlight, I think.

The Kribensis enjoyed this gloomy underworld, but I removed them to an inside tank when I went away for a week, because they were beginning to look a bit uncomfortable in the heat and the automatic feeder I have is for indoor use only.

On 14th July the first flower bud emerged - most exciting!

And it got bigger and bigger and a second one appeared (background)

The first flower opened on the 24th July. The distinctive shape of the lotus seed pod can be seen in the centre. Each flower lasts about 4 days before the petals fall. As of today, the fourth flower bud is close to opening and a fifth bud has emerged.

 

[miuYH]

Congrats!!