# Nymphaea stellata and c. Piauhyensis



## Bikeridinguckgirl14 (Oct 22, 2013)

So when I redo my tank I plan to put down a little layer of dirt and some red and gold gravel (and root tabs) and add another plant. I killed peacock fern but the water wisteria is doing awesome and I want to add either the lily or the bushy piauhyensis also. How much light/fertilizer do these need? Which is easier? I also wanna get rid of my java moss so...


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

First off: if you get soil make sure its organic and lists ingredients, otherwise don't touch it. Also don't put root tabs into soil untill at least 6-9 months after first setting up. Soil will have PLENTY of ferts for plants, adding more via root tab will make an imbalance between ferts/nutrients, nitrates, co2, and light. If you already have root tabs you can use them stuffed under gravel and skip soil.
Peacock plant is not a true aquatic plant, but a lot of stupid companies sell non aquatic plants as something to put underwater. Peacock plant would survive better as a riparium plant (wet roots, dry everything else).

When you say piauhyensis do you mean [this stuff]? This is a high light plant which means unless you want an algae nightmare that you'd need co2 injections.
Can you show a photo of the lily? "Lily" is a broad name for a plant, there are many kinda some are not aquatic (peace and calla lily for example) but there's a aquatic "dwarf lily plant".
What do you have for lighting? How long are the lights on? How high above the substrate are the lights?
Lighting is an important factor for figuring out which plants to get.


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## Bikeridinguckgirl14 (Oct 22, 2013)

I have 2 bulbs idk the wattage of but they are "sunlight" bulbs, in the hood (120 volt 10 watt). and I have root tabs so cool no soil for me =)
I hope seachem flourish counts as a CO2 injection, I have a 8-10g (supposadly 8 but pretty sure it's a 10) and do flourish every other day to help algea grow for my snails to nom on. 

Yes that is the plant I meant, for the lily I mean the http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant, Dwarf Lily.htm


I bought the peacock plant from petco, found out it was semi aquatic, and tried to have it with the roots in the fish tank and the leaves above the water, it lived about a month.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Seachem Flourish is not a co2 supplement/replacement/equivalent. You can see what its made of [here] on the Seachem site. If you want a co2 substitute get Seacehm *Excel*. If you do get Excel, don't buy Vals (aka Vallisneria) as they melt from Excel, don't know why.. but they don't respond well to its chemical makeup, pretty much every other plant does just fine with Excel though.

For the unknown lights, take a look at the base of the 'body' between the actually light and where it screws into a socket. There should be some print on it like [this].

If you are unsure of tank volume try a tank calculator like [this one] and just grab a ruler or measuring tape.

Those lily plants are awesome and even the 'dwarf' does not stay very dwarf unless you prune leaves frequently. I have one that has been upgraded through tanks as it grew. Went from 7g cube to 20g long, to 55g. Its elf stems were long enough it was reaching the surface when I planted it in the 55 (20" roughly). I've kept this plant in tanks with no substrate ferts (no soil or root tab) but dose liquid ferts and it grows great. A single root tab by it will work well, just shove it down deep into the substrate next to or even directly under the lily. Every root tab is different but the ones I have (osmocote +) people recommend replacing (adding a new one) every 6-9 months. This plant can live in low light which i think your one known light is at by itself. 

Not knowing kelvin or wattage of the others I can't say if you have medium or high light.

The fern you bought was probably doomed no matter what you did, they are not properly cared for and no matter what the company may say, those stale air containers with limited co2 (which runs out) and absolute lack of decent lighting is a death sentence for plants that aren't bought within a week. The exception might be very slow growers like anubias and java fern but you really should not buy any plant-in-a-tube.


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## Bikeridinguckgirl14 (Oct 22, 2013)

I have both flourish and excel, I assumed they were the same except one was a liquid and one with a solid. Like I said I have 2 10 watt sunlight bulbs in 10 gallon tank, so I guess that would be medium-low light. thank you for your help, I think I will try the lily when I redo my tank in the winter, I just Want a plant that was interesting and not green, because the Wisteria and the Moss is green enough, I am planning to put some deity statues in the tank and I don't want the plants to subtract from that attention


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