# lucky bamboo (Dracaena) aquarium



## newguy

Hi, cant find an answer maybe someone here knows.

If i put 5 inches of echo complete in an ada p60, then plant lucky bamboo(dracaena) in there so the leaves part is above water, will the plant survive? 

If yes, will it absorb the nitrate etc..and give off co2 like normal aquatic plants?

thanks


----------



## newguy

something like this, will it survive?


----------



## BlackTop_Kings

It will live I had mine in a couple for months and it grew off two stems- it would pull up nutriants but wont really do anthing with the nitrates and the exchange I belive is at the leaves so no it wont put off O2 and pull in C02 ( from the water)

Its a cool looking plant expecaily when it gets big so put it in there and let it do its thing- it dose best with a not so direct light though- seems to be bothered by the heat maybe form the lights...IME anyway.
GL


----------



## BlackTop_Kings

Pic didnt come up intill after I posted- but yeah that looks good and that will do great in there...Nice


----------



## newguy

cool thanks! finally someone who had actual experience doing this. How do you manage the root? i hear after a while the lucky bamboo will grow massive roots and overwhelm the whole auqarium. Did you had to cut the roots once a while etc?

ps that pic isnt mine, but looking to do the same.


----------



## hoppycalif

"lucky bamboo" is not an aquatic plant. From PlantGeek:
Dracaena sanderiana
Dracena sanderiana
Pronunciation: dra-SEE-nah san-der-ee-AH-nuh
Family: Unknown
Region: Unknown

Care
Not a true aquarium plant. Will rot, die and pollute your tank. 

This is a rain forest plant that needs very wet swampy conditions to grow well, but it is not going to do so when submersed.


----------



## ruki

hoppycalif said:


> "
> Care
> Not a true aquarium plant. Will rot, die and pollute your tank.
> 
> This is a rain forest plant that needs very wet swampy conditions to grow well, but it is not going to do so when submersed.


It will rot, die and pollute your tanks if you try to grow it with the leaves submerged. But it does just fine with everything but the leaves submerged.

This plant also does well in a very basic potting soil mix and thrives in low-to-medium fluorescent lit offices.

I see this plant all the times in Asian markets and restaurants. It's grown in clear glass jar of water with the stems under water. Several species of Dracaena are grown his way, they do well for years in this simple glass jar. The comment on lighting makes sense. This plant does quite well in low light, so it could have issues with the high lighting conditions under a high intensity aquarium fixture. This plant also doesn't need much fertilizer, so I wonder how it does with an abundance of nutrients?


----------



## iba

Newguy,

I have grown Dracaena spp and Spathyfyllum spp emersed for more than a year. Every month I remove the Dracaena from the tank and trim the roots. I can easily imagine them getting out of control. This tank also has no artificial lighting and the plants take up all the ammonium produced, so I do not use a filter either.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/attachment.php?attachmentid=5978&stc=1&d=1200242266
DSCF0002 (Small).JPG


----------



## ed seeley

I have two pieces growing very happily in a tall vase with submerged roots/stems. They were just in water but didn't look too healthy after a while. I took them out and added some Tetraplant complete and they really perked up. One has even sprouted from the base and is rapidly growing up through the water. The leaves have just emerged from the water.

I'm now thinking of re-potting them in Aquasoil as I have some spare to see if that improves their growth.


----------



## newguy

newguy said:


> Hi, cant find an answer maybe someone here knows.
> 
> If i put 5 inches of echo complete in an ada p60, then plant lucky bamboo(dracaena) in there so the leaves part is above water, will the plant survive?
> 
> If yes, will it absorb the nitrate etc..and give off co2 like normal aquatic plants?
> 
> thanks


5 years and 1 vacation disaster later, i finally got around to make this bamboo forest fish tank. This is a very hastily put together fun project after my auto topoff failed during my 2 week vacation and the high tech tank turned into an algae farm with no filtration.

Decided had enough with high tech planted for a while, and took everything out except the aquasoil and got an aqua clear hob filter and put this fun bamboo tank in place.

5 weeks so far and it has been amazing, there is literally ZERO maintenance, no dosing, no co2 monitoring, no high light/algae balance, no trimming, no plant health issues to worry about. Only a bi-weekly water change. The amano shrimps and neon/rasboras all seem to love the bamboo with no issues, also they are excellent nitrate absorbers, i did the water test just now after 2 weeks with no water change and nitrate level is only 10ppm.

The only thing i regret is not taking more time to layout the tank, if i were to do over again, i would add twice as many bamboo stalks (secure them in pots in tank before adding gravel) to create a more forest feel, remove those white stones in center replace them with smaller darker color gravels, remove the green balls and add more rocks.

But this will do for now, for those of you without time or tired of maintaining full planted, this is a great alternative. Just make sure you leave the leaves above water like i did and bury most of the roots deep under few inches of dense soil/gravel so they don't grow above water and get out of control (leave a few roots dangling in water covered by large rocks to absorb nitrates etc..those you can trim, but i don't see a need to as they haven't grown much and is completely hidden).


----------



## lapiana29

Pretty cool!

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk


----------

