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Plant Bulbs
By barnprincess81 from the barnprincess81 department, Section Diaries Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 01:30:46 PM PST Tags: (all tags)

I recently bought some hybrid aponogeton plant bulbs from walmart and planted them in my 10 gallon tank.

The package said that they would grow 6-8 inches in 15 days. I followed the directions, but after 10 days nothing was happening and I noticed a foul smell from the tank and the water was clouded. I took the bulbs out and found that not only had they not grown, but appeared to be rotting! They had white fuzzy stuff all over them, and the smelled really BAD. I was very frustrated, here I thought I was doing something to improve the tank and ended up polluting the water. At the time I planted the bulbs I also put two 15w Aquarium plant growth bulbs in my hood. I just read somewhere that 15w bulbs aren't enough light for plants, maybe that was my problem.
The bulbs were manufactured by Sea-Life INC, has anyone else tried these? I wonder if I just received a bad batch or is this a bad manufacturer, or it could have been something I did. I can't seem to find live plants here so I thought this would be a good alternative.
I've been doing daily partial water changes and the water seems to be clearing up and the fish appear fine.I always quarantine new fish, it never occurred to me to quarantine plants, live and learn.

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Plant Bulbs | 6 comments (6 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Plant Bulbs (none / 0) (#2)
by miskairal on Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 12:30:28 AM PST

How big is your tank barnprincess?

Aponogetons require a lot of light I believe. I think that would mean around 5W per gallon but that depends on the depth of the tank. Sorry to be so vague but I've never had a good memory and always have to relook stuff up and I know unc will come along on this one - he loves plants.

I bought some plants a couple of years ago and thought they were looking good and healthy. Lovely dark green. The water however changed colour to look like weak black tea. Turned out all the plants had died at the crown and when I stuck my hand in the tank the whole lot just came away from the roots. Keeping plants in aquariums is not easy and I get very exasperated with it. I replaced a tube on one of my tanks and the plants proceeded to look like thin, straggly weeds and the whole tank kept growing dark green algae. Now, about 6 months later the algae has finally stopped and the plants (Aponogetons from our creek) have taken off from their stumps and are sending up flowers. Go figure!
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Re: Plant Bulbs (none / 0) (#3)
by barnprincess81 on Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 01:54:44 PM PST

Thanks for shedding the "light" on the 5 watts per gallon rule, I put them in a 10 gallon, so I didn't have enough light. I wish manufacturers would put important specifics like that on their products. I'm glad to hear that your plants are doing well, I agree that plant growing is a very exasperating experience. My Java Ferns in my Fry tank have started turning brown, the water quality test fine and the fish seem fine, but alas I have managed to kill off one of the "easiest" plants there is to grow, lol. Thanks for the reply!

[ Parent ]

Re: Plant Bulbs (none / 0) (#4)
by miskairal on Wed Mar 29, 2006 at 09:08:15 PM PST

Hey I'm not exactly sure on that 5Watts. (Where's unc when you need him :) )

My husband used to tell people he felt sorry for any plant I brought home as it was certain death for them. I found a solution though - bring them home into the house and as soon as they start looking a little off I plant them in the garden where they usually grow into monsters. Now that I've learnt a whole lot more about water here at GL I am suspecting that our hard creek water was the culprit more than my black thumb. I am actually considering buying another but using rain water to water it or a mixture of the two - that's if it ever rains here again and fills our tanks :(
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

Re: Plant Bulbs (none / 0) (#1)
by Nancy4Fishes on Tue Mar 28, 2006 at 06:53:30 PM PST

yeah, something like that happened to me once. i just recently got a spare 1 gal quarentine tank. its on the attic right now, not in use, but i can always use it if i plan to get a new fish/plant.

Aponogeton need about half of the light of (none / 0) (#5)
by unclescott on Thu Mar 30, 2006 at 01:49:42 PM PST

many of the "high light" plants like water sprite or Amazon swords (Echinodoris sp?). Two watts or a little less per gallon will work.

We have talked about quarantining plants as well as fishes. Your bulbs were probably dead when you bought them. They should have germinated - almost in the dark!

Can you take them back to Wally' World? At least to let them smell them.

Gently squeeze the bulbs to see that they are firm. Don't take any that "give" a little. Gross as it sounds, do give them a discreet sniff when no one is looking. ;)

I "hatched some out" in a 8" battery jar recently. Now I need to set them up in their own tank.

Hope they work out better next time.

I'm running out of time on this @#$%^&*!! library computer, ahhhhhhhhhhh!

[ Parent ]

Re: Aponogeton need about half of the light of (none / 0) (#6)
by miskairal on Fri Mar 31, 2006 at 12:15:21 AM PST

Ok, well I got that all wrong. Sorry barnprincess.
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

Plant Bulbs | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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