Red Tiger Lotus

[Woodsy]

I'm just curious, has anyone had great success with tiger lotus and if so, how did you go about it?

 

[2la]

Rich and/or supplemented substrate (it is a VERY heavy root feeder), good level of iron, and a good amount of light (~2.5W/gal and up).

 

[Woodsy]

CO2?

 

[2la]

Yes, I'd recommend CO2 with the higher light levels. You can easily get by with DIY CO2, though. However, I've seen tanks running about 2W/gal and no CO2 with very healthy red lotuses. The example I'm thinking of used Flourish Excel as carbon supplement rather than CO2.

 

[Woodsy]

Any idea of what kind of carbonate hardness would be best? Do you reacon a small fragment of white rock burried in the substrate would be useful as a carbon source?

 

[aspen]

i understand that carbon needs to be dissolved in the water in a readily available form for plants to gain the benefit. ie, it is easy to add carbon but co2 dissolved in water is very easily assimilitated by the plants, due to the fact that they don't need to chemically process it to extract it.

what kind of a 'white rock' did you have in mind?

rick

 

[farm41]

I'm sure there are plenty of different kinds of white rocks, but the only ones I can think of are alkaline, like limestone. Opposite effect from what we want to do.

 

[Woodsy]

True. I am refering to CaCO3, which as you have said IS alkaline by nature. It was just something that popped into my head- just thought I'd ask

 

[2la]

Any idea of what kind of carbonate hardness would be best? Do you reacon a small fragment of white rock burried in the substrate would be useful as a carbon source?

Woodsy, this depends on what the purpose for increasing the carbonate hardness is: If you mean to buffer the water so that you can inject CO2, then shoot for a dKH of about three or four. You can use CaCO3, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), or something like Kent's pH Stable, which is likely little more than sodium bicarbonate but may contain other carbonates. Note that the calcium carbonate is difficult to dissolve and will also increase your general hardness.

If you mean to increase the carbonate/bicarbonate concentration strictly to facilitate biogenic decalcification without CO2 injection, you're better off not. Nothing in my experience suggests that the red tiger lotus is a strong direct consumer of bicarbonates, and even if it were it may result in the deposition of calcium on the leaves.