Plant choices placement- questions.

[duanes]

There are plenty of on line sources that sell Tiger Lotus as bulbs, and once established work great.
When I had them, I used fluorite as substrate under the bulbs, and root tabs, because they can be heavy feeders (needing lots of iron).

At the time, I wanted them to be low growing, so any stems with leaves getting near the surface needed to be constantly trimmed, or as soon as one leaf hit the surface all other stems and leaves quickly became floaters. Its almost as if the 1st floater communicated depth, so others followed
(I know way too anthropomorphic)
Today I used local Panamanian variety and it also has the beautiful red in the leaves while submerged and working their way up, but turn green at the surface, now I encourage the floating pads.

 

[FiremouthGem]

much appreciated! Those plants and the fish look beautiful.

 

[FiremouthGem]

Alright, I found a supplier on both the species of anubias (3 different ones, in fact; Barteri, Coffeefolia, and Nana) and The Tiger Lotus (package of 3). My next question and I apologize if this has been said already but what fertilizer would one recommend for the anubias, I know they have rhizomes (and not to bury them) and they feed with those, You all had said that liquid fertilizers (or at the least the ones with glutaraldehyde) and other plants such as the Vals do not mix well, I have root tabs for the root feeders the current 3 species, Vals, Red Ludwiga and Hornwort in my aquarium so far. (they are loving it!) looking at Seachem Flourish, API and I wanted to know if there is a better product out there for what I am looking for, I thought to ask you all what the fish experts would recommend or is fish waste adequate. Thank you again!

 

[burntrubber]

You could try one of those hybrid swords like E. Rubin Red or E. Ozelot.

 

[tiger15]

Alright, I found a supplier on both the species of anubias (3 different ones, in fact; Barteri, Coffeefolia, and Nana) and The Tiger Lotus (package of 3). My next question and I apologize if this has been said already but what fertilizer would one recommend for the anubias, I know they have rhizomes (and not to bury them) and they feed with those, You all had said that liquid fertilizers (or at the least the ones with glutaraldehyde) and other plants such as the Vals do not mix well, I have root tabs for the root feeders the current 3 species, Vals, Red Ludwiga and Hornwort in my aquarium so far. (they are loving it!) looking at Seachem Flourish, API and I wanted to know if there is a better product out there for what I am looking for, I thought to ask you all what the fish experts would recommend or is fish waste adequate. Thank you again!

You have a good choice of plants to get started. They are all low light easy plants, and Hornwort is known to release allelopathic agent that will suppress algae. Fish waste alone will not provide balanced nutrients, rich in nitrogen and phosphate, but short in potassium, iron and certain micro nutrients. API Leaf Zone contains potassium and iron. Seachem Flourish contains iron and micro nutrients. The two together plus fish wastes will provide balanced nutrients. There are other brands in the market but make sure they contain potassium and iron. You don't necessarily need root tabs if you dose liquid fertilizer as all aquatic plants can uptake nutrients from the water column.

Seachem Excel (glutaldehyde) is not a fertilizer but an algaecide marketed as liquid carbon. It's good if you have to fight algae, but it will kill true aquatic (non bog) plants like Vals and Hornwort .

 

[FiremouthGem]

You could try one of those hybrid swords like E. Rubin Red or E. Ozelot.

Appreciate the suggestion but i am good on background plants, I’d probably be looking for more foreground plants but i need to see how I put the soon to be arriving plants.

Thank you for the recommendations on the liquid ferts.

 

[FiremouthGem]

Think i’m going to try Banana plants in the front, they look different from the other plants.

 

[FiremouthGem]

Little update, the 3 Anubia i ordered arrived this morning so i got busy sipping coffee and planting. Planted till just below the rhizomes and double root tabbed each. From left to right Anubias barteri Coffeefolia, Anubias barteri var. nana and Anubias barteri. Saved the little mesh pots to hold the tiger lotus bulbs.

 

[FiremouthGem]

Did a check just to see how the cycling is going. PH is 7.8, Ammonia is at 4ppm, nitrite 0.25ppm, and Nitrate at 5.0 ppm. So 2-3 weeks if all goes to plan with fishless cycling.

 

[FiremouthGem]

For maximum growth and strong stems what color of light in the spectrums would be recommended? Would a purplish with a touch of green be ideal? The light fixture I have enables me to play around with 3 spectrums and combine them a bit.