# Tropical Water lilys in Natural tank?



## jsuereth (Apr 16, 2011)

Hi everyone!

I'm a big-time fan of natural aquariums (read the Walstad book in two days, great material), although my current low-tech aquariums do not use soil. I'm taking the plunge and building out a huge aquarium in my living room. I can discuss a lot of the random plans and things I want to do, but primarily I want to know if anyone has grown tropical water lilys (for ponds) in an aquarium, specifically a variant like this one: Purple Zanzibar (nymphea).

I've been reading, and it seems that water lilys are pretty agressive and grow to be huge. I like both of these, as I was hoping it would be a great plant to help pull o2 into the substrate and could shade lower-light plants I may try to grow below it. The aquarium will be open-top, so water lilies with enough light for blooming seem ideal.

As for the other plants I plan to put in the aquarium:

bacopa caroliniana (Hopefully growing out of the aquarium).
eleocharis parvula (I have a bunch in my 10G. I was planning to dry start this).
helanthium tenellus (Again, I have a bunch in my nano. I know it can grow with lower-light in case the water lily & bacopa begin to starve it out).
Red/Bronze crypt. wendtii.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations? Do you think the water lily will work?

The tank is 125G measuring 6' x 1.5' x 2'. I was planning to make the substrate a lot deeper on the water lily side. Either that, or I might pot the water lily to try to limit its expanse, and use Rocks and plants to cover the pot.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

If you can put enough light on the tank, it should work. I'm not familiar with 'Purple Zanzibar'. You might consider an old cultivar 'Daubeniana' or 'Dauben'. This is a blue flowering plant that is smaller than most tropical water lilies and adapts to lower light.

I think your challenge will not be growing the _Nymphaea_ (assuming a rich substrate and lots of light), but rather growing anything else in the tank due to shading and competition from the lily. But you should go for it. It will be really interesting, and possibly spectacular!


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## jsuereth (Apr 16, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestion! The smaller water lily seems like a good idea. I wanted a purple color for my wife, but blue should do fine.

I am very concerned about the lily outcompeting anything else. Do you think i should keep it in a pot? I'm planning to dry start the rest of the plants to give them a head start on the lily. We'll see how it goes!!!


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

smaller flowering plants that I considered;
Nymphaea Zenkeri Red
Nymphaea Rubra
Aponogeton Madagascariensis

more open top tank plants are discussed;
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/paludariums/


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Keeping the _Nymphaea_ in a pot certainly makes it easier to manange and change if necessary. But you must hide the pot if you want the tank to look good.

Another idea for the tank would be to use driftwood with lots of epiphytes on it--Jave fern, anubias, mosses. These are all low light plants and do not need to root into the substrate, so they might do well with the lily.


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