Red dwarf aquarium lily

[PattysAquatics]

So got a question, I ordered a red dwarf aquarium lily some months ago and it grew great at first and got 3 lily pads but I had a bad bout of algae in my tank that collected on the stems to lily pads and they eventually broke off .The leaves of the plant never got algae and have cleared up the algae in the tank for about a month now. I’m not getting anymore lily pads. The plant looks healthy. Do these only send out lily pads once in awhile or is there something wrong with it? Thanks 

[OceanTruth]

Mine sends out lily pads pretty often. I do have to trim a few every so often when the leaf seems a bit unhealthy. If yours is looking healthy I wouldn't worry too much about it. Maybe it just needs some more time.

I use root tabs for the lily as well. I feel like it helps.

[PattysAquatics]

5 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

Mine sends out lily pads pretty often. I do have to trim a few every so often when the leaf seems a bit unhealthy. If yours is looking healthy I wouldn't worry too much about it. Maybe it just needs some more time.

I use root tabs for the lily as well. I feel like it helps.

Yeah I thought about root tabs and put more in about 2 weeks ago. I ordered another lily so hopefully that one comes back with the new one coming. I love the lily pads 😂

[SarayParay]

I am actually currently trying to fight off the algae on the stems. It is so annoying!  I need to look up how to trim or I guess keep up with the care of the plant. 

I'm glad you were able to get the algae under control!

[Sharon- fishandfloral]

I planted mine 6 months ago and it has lots of leaves but still no lily pads. It gets root tabs and Easy Green regularly. 

[Brandy]

This is a really cool plant. It will grow low lying leaves until they start to shade each other, and then it starts to go higher...Most often if it gets a shoot to the surface it will start sending out just lily pads after that, and some people don't want them. So in that case they cut off every leaf that makes it to a certian height and over time the plant decides to stop trying, and sends tall shoots up less often. All of the above comments speak to this behavior. I WANT them to stay short, so they won't block the light to my other plants, but if you are patient it will eventually try again. Give it a root tab and stand back.

[Brandy]

1 hour ago, SarayParay said:

I am actually currently trying to fight off the algae on the stems. It is so annoying!  I need to look up how to trim or I guess keep up with the care of the plant. 

I'm glad you were able to get the algae under control!

 

Your algae looks like staghorn to me. I tried many things, but what worked the best was lowering the amount of time my light was on and fertilizing more. I found I only had trouble with this particular algae when I had high light and low nutrients. Of course that is just a sample size of 1. 

[SarayParay]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

Your algae looks like staghorn to me. I tried many things, but what worked the best was lowering the amount of time my light was on and fertilizing more. I found I only had trouble with this particular algae when I had high light and low nutrients. Of course that is just a sample size of 1. 

How many hours would you suggest? I have a 20 gallon and the lights are on for 9 hours. I have had that since August? Any suggestions or advice is appreciated!

I also use Easy Green once a week.

Edited January 19, 2021 by SarayParay

[Brandy]

@SarayParay First test your nitrates and keep them >10ppm consistently. As your plants grow they eat more, you may be under dosing. That is what I discovered--there was no way to do once a week any more--it was gone in 3 days.

Then I would try dropping your lighting back to 8h, and removing as much algae as you can by hand. Watch how fast it grows back. If it is fast, lower lights another half hour. If it doesn't grow back you can start upping your lights about 10 min a week until you see it start to come back. Then you can hold it there. Likley as the plant growth starts to really take off the algae will be less of a problem and you can bring your lights up a little at a time. 

I am assuming you have cheap lights that are either on or off--not the fancy kind you can change the intensity of. I don't have the fancy type, so I use raw time. 

I also noticed that that kind of algae is in the top third of the tank--I decided it must really like higher light, and that was my reason for lowering my light timing.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Brandy

[johnjohnjohn87]

15 hours ago, OceanTruth said:

Mine sends out lily pads pretty often. I do have to trim a few every so often when the leaf seems a bit unhealthy. If yours is looking healthy I wouldn't worry too much about it. Maybe it just needs some more time.

I use root tabs for the lily as well. I feel like it helps.

Do you trim at the base of the stem, or at the leaf? Mine have taken off and the leaves are about the height I want them. 

[OceanTruth]

2 minutes ago, johnjohnjohn87 said:

Do you trim at the base of the stem, or at the leaf? Mine have taken off and the leaves are about the height I want them. 

 

I trim as close to the base as I can. I'm not sure, because I've never tried it, but I think the stem would die off anyway if just the leaf got cut. Just my guess though.