The Stove & Its Flowering Anubias.

[zozo]

Just been flicking through this again...almost forgotten what a great journal it is 🙂

Thank you Tim!! 🙂 This tank is still running strong.. Actualy the longer it takes the stronger it runs. And i'm trying to pimp it with emersed growth in planters. But i haven't updated on it for a while.. I'll give it a shot..

It isn't easy to take proper pictures with house hold materials from a tank that doesn't use artificial light in its best periode. I gets so many light distorsion from the skylight above and the white walls surounding it, it has so many reflection in the glass i would need to build me a custom studio setup around it to do something about it.. Without it its near impossible to take desent pictures.


Top right is still a very young Alocasia Zebrina.. I'm still waiting to recieve some more glass planters i ordered. For another Alocasia poly next to it..
The water lily is realy building some body this year.. But it's summer time, i yet have no idea how far she will draw back during the winter periode under artificial lights..


imho the most intruiging Alocasia out there.


The Poly also a stunner is still waiting for its planter. The Begonia maculata at its right is south american origine. Not for this tank because it is mainly asian exept the anubias.. So begonia is for a later project still in the penn..


Added a piece of DW to the back panel top rim close to the surface. It as some liver and other mosses and a young Bog Fern rhizome (Thelypteris palustris) still in transitiion. It will take some time to grow and show. And i'm trying to get Utricularia to grow there already for years, but i keep failing on this plant. 🙁.. Darn..


And some emersed Anubias barteri petite in the moss of the tree top.. I discovered the younger the plantlets are the beter they take transition to emersed. Acctualy obvious, the small leaves are very close to the moist moss and stay in the bubble.


So already running for a few years, but still need a few more..

 

[Tim Harrison]

Nice update

 

[zozo]

All planters are in for the emersed plants.... 🙂


Did place the glas pots a bit higher, so only about 10mm of the planter is in the water. Since these Alocasia's are not realy bog plants i didn't trust them to deep. The Alocasia zebrina didn't realy like to have it's roots submersed all the way.. I hope this will do..


Now it's wait and see how it'll work out..


🙂

 

[zozo]

This month 3 years running.. 🙂 And currently in winter mode..

The top Adiantum having a hard time glued as epyphite to the wood in the dry livingroom climate. But it'll survive. As does the Emersed moss on the wood, bright green in the summer, but kinda going dormant in the winter..


Since a slow burner having much less light now, i popped some fert caps in the substrate and stopped fertilizing the water column. And for the 5th time i'm trying to get UG growing emersed. I hope with a non fertilized water column what i yet didn't try, it might be succesfull.

It's in the livermoss that grows on a piece of DW hanging to the glass.. The liverwort i got from a friends terrarium and i have no clue what sp. it is but grows rather well in both conditions.. I think its an ideal UG substrate.. We shall see.. Funny to see the different grow forms together, more compact and round emersed and elongated forked like a fat ricia submersed.


This is Lily Vanilli in her winter dress 🙂 Actualy quite a beauty, submersed grow form in light green with pink.. She getting more and more matured i hope she flowers on me one day...


Also gave her a baby niece next to her from another thank.. That is a significantly smaller sp. I hava yet no idea what size it will grow in this rather dynamic lit tank. In the other tank it grew penny size floaters. 🙂

 

[zozo]

Once upon a time, a long time ago there was a lot of wood, now we only see a lot of Anubias...


And a surprise, it took her 5 years to mature 4 years to grow her first runner baby plant and this summer a year after that she presents me with her virgin flower bud... All i can see for now is that it's going to be a white one... A burgundy princess Lily should be Dark Red instead... But i guess it's the +8.5 pH making it white?


Never mind, i still like it, i'll update on the flower after opening... 😎

 

[zozo]

There she is!... 🙂

 

[LondonDragon]

that is awesome 🙂

 

[zozo]

Every day, closing from dusk till dawn and then opening a tad wider again... 🙂


It's fun to observe, how it actually really goes to sleep and wakes up again. Closing up not only the leaves but also retracts down till the flower base touches the water surface, then at dawn erect again an inch above it before slowly opening up.


Unfortunately, it lives about 5 days, that is if she decides to keep it at making only 1 flower.

 

[zozo]

This is the night-time resting position... With guardian watching over... 😎

 

[Witcher]

With guardian watching over...

Oh... so this is how the Duckweed really looks like.

 

[zozo]

Each day spreading and opening a tad wider than the day before... As if she's trying to get attention and calling out to the bees "Hello!? C'mon girls I'm here!! Occasionally I have some fat bumblebees flying into the house, but yet none found here interesting enough. Would be a nice picture if one will before she's gone... Won't be long and she is, I guess this might be the last pic... 😕 Pitty that it is such a long term and uncertain process for waterlilies to flower in an indoor aquarium.

Who wouldn't want to have this all the time all year round to gaze at!?.. 😍 My girlfriend said it's too beautiful, it looks almost fake!...



What's also an interesting detail, the flower bracts (or is it the Spathe?) are green at the outside and white on the inside.

 

[zozo]

It's done... 😕


But here last (Yester)day definitively was the best... 🙂


😎


And by the looks of it, it doesn't seem to plan a new one this year... But it's a matter of about 14 days to make one from scratch.. We'll never know, still have some summertime left...

 

[zozo]

Today I needed to do some long-overdue maintenance and to my surprise, I find this... 🙂

A Cryptoryne usteriana flower... I haven't noticed it before and its stem is already partially melting.


Don't know why I didn't notice it sooner, obviously, i wasn't watching close enough and only looking at the dirty parts lately.


Also, a first-timer for me having a (submerged) growing crypt shoot out a flower in the 6 years this tank is up and running.
Maybe there are more to come in the near future and then I hope to be there sooner. 🙂 And i have actually no idea how long the lifespan is for a crypt flower... Does anybody know?

 

[zozo]

Ten O Clock in the morning, summertime, natural light... 🙂


And again in the far right corner a new Crypt usteriana flower... 🙂 There also is another one far in the background also still submerged.


They seem to grow pretty fast, last week I didn't see it... But they are not that obvious and rather sober flowers.

 

[zozo]

And here we have 2 more Crypt flowers. 🙂



The left one colored slightly reddish is a crypt growing epiphytic on the DW... I never planted it there myself, all i planted i did put in the substrate. Could it be that's why the flower has a different color? You can also see some Java ferns at its base.


Its neighbor in the substrate is white similar to the first flower discovered above, also growing in the substrate. But all 3 are C. Usteriana.


What the hell is making my crypts all of a sudden flower simultaneously after 6 years? Maybe it was neglect because I did zip to this tank for over 6 months... Not even fertilizing it and it needed some vigorous cleaning, moving out BBA and Hair algae..

Another thing that might be the trigger, my heating thermostat broke down, and don't know when and I never repaired it. To my knowledge, it's unheated for at least a year or longer. Seasonal temp changes and light intensity increase since it's a rather naturally lit tank?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Seasonal temp changes and light intensity increase since it's a rather naturally lit tank?

Would be my guess.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

The flower at the far right didn't make it and melted away before it could reach the surface. But the one in the middle that grows on the wood a tad more shallow did...

Yesterday




And today ½ " taller, seems to speed up once it sniffs the atmosphere.


But not yet opened up


There is still one more still submerged not showing much more growth... 🙂

Would be my guess.

In the years the tank was heated it didn't drop below 20°C. Last year it did during the winter because meself still feels rather comfortable in a 15°C house. 🙂 Then it seems the crypts might like this temp drop to start flowering. It never flowered before. And this year for the first time 4 flowers total.

 

[zozo]

I have no idea what's going on, but this year this tank keeps making Crypt flowers... 🙂








Even the Anubias decided to join the party 🙂


Why the heck are the Aroids deciding to flower all of a sudden? As said previously the only thing I changed is to stop heating this tank... But no idea if this was the trigger.

 

[ScareCrow]

Hi @zozo great looking tank. Did the Alocasia not take to partially submersed growing? I bought an Alocasia 'stingray' and was intending to get a polly as I'd read they like damp conditions.

 

[zozo]

Did the Alocasia not take to partially submersed growing?

Thank you... 🙂

The Alocasia didn't during the winter period... That's the issue with this tank it is for the biggest part naturally lit, it stands directly under a sky light. I can grow anything during the summer, but when the light and temps decrease during the winter they suffer too much and don't make it through. My artificial lights aren't strong enough.

The only plant I managed to grow all year long emerged was Hydrocotyl sp. and this plant got infested and totally destroyed by apids infestation.