I Planted Tiger Lotus Bulbs and Didn’t Fertilize for 2 Months

[00:00:03]Hi guys and welcome back. So about two months ago  I started a small experiment. I wanted to try and grow red tiger lotuses in one of my small nano  tanks. Before I show you guys the final results, let's take a look at how it all started. So  starting off with this small tank. This is the same one as all the other small ones from  the gallery. It's a 30x 18x 18. All my tanks are opty white. That's why you can see that  there's this slightly blue crystal hue to it.

[00:00:31]It makes it extra clear. Likewise, just like  all the other ones I have on my small scapes.

[00:00:36]This is a B30 from Chihiro. Like in most of my  builds, I'm going to be using aqua soil. So, you could use any kind of aqua soil. This one  is from the brand Tropica. Personally, it's my personal favorite. I've been using it for years.  I know I have no startup issues with this one. So, that's what I'm going to be using. [music] I want  to go for about 3 cm of aqua soil in this tank, which is not a lot. You would want at least  5 cm when you're planting your tank, but I do think for this very small experiment,  it's it's more than enough. [music] I'm using this plastic water bottle with a  small hole in it to fill up the tank. So, what that does, it just ensures that  it doesn't disrupt the soil as it fills up and your tank doesn't become  completely cloudy and a muddy mess.

[00:01:33]Once the tank was completely filled up, it was  time to fit the filter. So, this filter is the same one I use in all my small tanks. It's the  Bio Compact 25. Again, really like this filter.

[00:01:44]simple, it's reliable, and I clean them out every  four to five months. It's also extremely silent, something I really appreciate, especially  that this gallery is in my living space.

[00:01:55]Last thing I want is some big noisy filter.  Okay, now that we're done with equipment, I'm going to show you guys the plants. So, these  are red tiger lotus bulbs. I ordered them online, so they came in through delivery, and they  weren't looking the best. I could see that there's a few pin holes in the leaves and that's  a big sign of deficiency. They also came in with an order of other plants for another project.  And all those plants were melted. Nevertheless, there are still a few leaves on the bulbs.  So, we're off to a good start. Planting wise, pretty straightforward. I just pushed them into  the aqua soil and I left about a third of the bulb coming out of the aqua soil. The reason I'm  leaving a part of the bulb exposed is because it comes down to oxygen. Aquarium soil is packed  with nutrients, but it also can be a low oxygen environment. If you bury the bulb completely,  it can actually suffocate and rot. And because they didn't arrive in the best shape, I wasn't  ready to take any chances. This is what the tank looked like after planting the bulbs. Some of  you may be wondering why there are two tiger lotuses in this tank. is purely in and simply  if I have a problem with one of them, well, that's a second one to back up the [music] video.  As for the light, I'm going to start off with 50% of intensity and see how it goes. So, I started  filming the tank every couple of days the first week, and there wasn't any visible changes  the first week. Once the bulbs are planted, they have a tendency of pushing out a root  system before they push out new leaves. So, no worries if the first week you're not seeing  much change. [music] So, after the first week, it was time for the tank's first water change. So,  I did a 50% water change. Because there are not a lot of plants in this tank, and there's going to  be nutrients leeching from the aqua soil to avoid having an algae breakout, it is a safe bet to do  a 50% water change. Going into the second week, not much happened again. Just one leaf propped  up and that was about it. So went back to some maintenance, scraping the glass because there  was slight dust algae on it and doing another water change at the end of that second week. Just  like the first week, I did a 50% water change.

[00:04:17][music] Going into the third week, I could see  that the leaves were slowly starting to pack on some size, which was a pretty good sign. We could  see that there's also some roots coming down from the plant and going straight into the aqua soil.  We can also see that there's that tiger stripe pattern that's starting to appear on the leaves,  which is pretty cool. Still faint, but it will get there. There was also a notable size difference  between the two plants. So, I was really crossing my fingers that the smaller one wasn't going  to die on me. Because of the slow growth, we can see that there's algae that had started  to grow over the leaves. also on the bulb. So, it was time to break out the ultimate cleanup crew.  Starting off with some bladder snails. Personally, I really like snails. I have no problems with  them. I know a lot of people don't like them. And then a small group of shrimp. So, these are shrimp  that I've bred out at home uh for a specific trait, but there will be more on that later on  where you guys can see them close up. [music] So, the cleanup crew got to work straight away. They  started picking at all the algae on the aqua soil, on the bulbs of the lotuses, and also on the  leaves. And so much so that the next day there was such a difference. I was actually shocked.  So never underestimate a good cleanup crew. It makes such a difference, especially when you're in  that start up phase. Going into the fourth week, we can see that the tiger lotus on the right  is completely taking off. And fast forward into the fifth week here. It's just getting  completely ridiculous. It's packed on a lot of size. There's also a lot of new leaves.  We can see here the new growth shooting out, which is really cool. And the one on the left  is just it's just hanging on for dear life at this point. It's so small compared to  the other one. It's actually crazy.

[00:06:24]A really cool feature as well with this red tiger  lotus is the underside of the leaves. It's giving this metallic [music] purple color. It's so  nice. I did some research and I found out why the underside of the leaves is this crazy metallic  purple. It's actually a brilliant survival trick.

[00:06:41]This purple layer acts like a mirror for  light. [music] When light passes through the top of the leaf, the bottom layer catches it  and it bounces right back up, giving the plant a second chance to absorb energy. It's literally  a built-in solar boost. Going into week six, we finally have a runner. And I was so excited to  see this. Because it's a water lily, the ultimate goal is to reach the top and grab unlimited light  and air. Right now, I only have one leaf up there, so it's not going to be blocking a massive amount  of light. It actually looks pretty cool. But there is a catch. Once this first leaf opens up, the  plant is going to get a massive boost of energy, and it literally thinks it's hitting the  jackpot. So, it's going to start sending some more up there. So, if I want to keep  the bottom of the lily bushy and compact, I will have to be trimming these regularly. with  the smaller leafy. It's also is starting to do a little bit better. It's pushing out some new  growth. It also has a really nice color to it, which is pretty intense. Let's talk  a little bit about the shrimp. So, these are shrimp that I cross bred at  home. I crossed blue velvets, red cherries, and kind of a wild transparent shrimp. And this  is what I got. I really wanted this kind of almost koi effect right on the shrimp. I find it looks  really cool. It's nothing crazy, but sometimes I like doing these little side projects. I have  a lot of buried females in this tank right now, so I am feeding them every 2 days. So, I'm feeding  them a red shrimp pellet. Does it matter if your pellets are for red shrimp or not? I don't really  think so. But they really do like this palette.

[00:08:31]And so that brings us up to date to now,  which is 2 months later. Not a lot of stuff has changed, [music] right? The growth hasn't  been out of control. That is mainly because I haven't been fertilizing throughout this whole  period, nor have I been adding root tab. So, it's something I'm going to start doing [music]  as of next week. So, that's really going to boost the growth in this tank. I really wanted  to see how far I could get just with Aqua soil and without fertilizing. So, not a bad  result. Maybe not as good for long-term growth, but still. Right, guys. So, that's the end of  this video. I hope you enjoyed it. As usual, there will be updates on this tank as it goes,  and I will see you next week for a new video.