A view from the top

The water lilies have done well in the aquarium. I thought this tank has seemed a bit dark lately.

Here’s why:

Looking down at a Gold Angel baby.

Water Lilies in the aquarium

For the past several years I have brought in a tropical Water Lily into my 55 gallon aquarium. I put it into a clay flowerpot, add some soil and cover the surface with sand or gravel. The lily does well for awhile, dies back for awhile,   and I put it back outside in the Spring.

I was just given a few tubers from some native Water Lilies (thanks, CG) and I haven’t put them into pots yet.  Within a day of being dropped into the water, the young reddish leaves came springing out. SPRING!

They look so natural in an aquarium but I know that they are too big for the small tank I have them in now.

Water Lilies look fantastic in an indoor aquarium but I suspect that they require intense lighting and a nutrient -rich substrate. When I see them on a lake or river they are growing in the stinkiest, most fertile ooze you can imagine.

These native lilies are probably “programmed” to rest at this time of year . These were outside for a few cold weeks and maybe they have been fooled into thinking (the wrong word for a plant) that it is Springtime, and will do OK in the aquarium. We’ll find out.

On Greenish Pond is not a good movie title

I have mentioned this before but as the year goes by it seems even more evident. Having plants in an outdoor pond keeps the water much clearer and healthier.
In my big pond the turtles would eat any aquatic vegetation so the water becomes green with algae. I have a 500 gallon-per-hour (GPH) pump running on the pond but the filter won’t take out such small particles of algae.

In the little 30-gallon pond, all I have for filtration is a sponge filter connected to a small air pump. There are about 40 little Zebra Danios in there.

I imagine the big pond filled with Water Lilies and Water Hyacinth, Parrot’s Feather, and Water Lettuce, but it just won’t work with turtles, and that is the case if you are thinking about a Koi pond. They eat almost all vegetation, they get huge, and take massive filtering systems.