Anubias flowers opening underwater...

[Stan510]

First let me cut you off at the pass - yes it looks phallic. But! It's the first time I have had Anubias composite flowers surrounded by the white spath actually open before the spath rots. I don't have a good camera for this but if you look close you see tubular flowers in silhouette.
I think Anubias could set seed submerged if the right aquatic insect crawled across those flowers. Or,its self pollinating just from the current. Or other reasons. Photo one is flash. The other aquarium light.

 

[Lynnzer]

It's been a while but I had flowers from anubias myself, and there's one just ready to open now on a plant in a tank with a CO2 feed.
I was in Horizon aquatics a couple of weeks ago and they had an absolutely gorgeous nano tank half filled with water and rocks reaching up above water level. The whole of the free space seemed to be filled with the most amazing flowering plant. It was alernanthera reinecki mini. I got a tub of Tropica for myself.
I have a 120ltr tank with a cover that has a central light in it. The light is pretty well gone now so I have bought a new one with all, well most of, the adjustments to time, dawn, dusk, spectrum etc. Problem is it sits high over the width of the tank and the tank cover can;t be used.
Since the tank has glass strengtheners stretching from front to back a couple of inches above water level it looks slightly odd. So I aim to have little pots stretching the width of the strengthener and hanging down with the bottom of the tubs about 1cm into the water. I'll be filling the pots with aqua soil and putting a stalk of the Alernathera in each of them to grow into the open space to cover the glass strenghtener and hopefully bloom in the glare of the new light. I may even hang a couple of tubs along the back of the tank to provide more flowers.
When I get done with my little project I'll get back with a photo.

 

[Stan510]

Sounds good. I've been thinking of a paludarium out of a 55 gallon being so many stem plants send out great looking flowered emersed. No filter,no heater and just $ for the light. Or use a LED shoplight I have and spend nothing.

 

[Sgooosh]

nice underwater peace lily

 

[Lynnzer]

Here it is. Like I said - blooming amazing.

 

[Lynnzer]

Here's the tank. It came with a cover in 3 parts, ie a light along the middle and a front and rear to cover the whole tank top. Of course that hid the tank strengthener across the middle. The new light sits well above the tank.

Looking down on the tank shows how unsightly the strengthener is with no cover to hide it.

Keeping it clean is a problem as the pieces aren't glued fully down onto each other so I get an inevitable algae growth between the pieces, and loads of calcium build up from the water.
So, here's my idea. Hide them all. I have bought a dozen small square pots that I am attaching with a strip of white vinyl so that the pots are about 1cm into the water at each side of the crossmember.
I have put a bit of the plant into each pot, as well as placing a number of baby tear shoots from homegrown seeds into the tubs as well to fill the ground cover.

I can't do much more right now as the siperglue hasn't set yet, but I will also be gluing moss onto the sides of the tubs, or maybe something else if I can think of something better. It'll not be the Hanging Gardens of Babylon but it'll be pretty, I hope anyway.

 

[Stan510]

That's beautiful. I think I might take a couple of cuttings of my Alternanthera to be grown emersed. There are Alternanthera sold at nurseries world over with fantastic summer blooms ( most are annuals) but they are not aquatic in any way.
What light are you using? Very nice color rendition.

 

[Lynnzer]

These are straight from the Tropica tub so have nothing to do with my lights just yet

 

[Stan510]

No.the aquarium with the purple lights- that is what I want to get also. Love the purple lights for aquariums.

 

[Lynnzer]

Ah, it's an AliExpress purchase that arrived on Wednesday.
It does WRGB with dusk and daybreak, fish setting and plant setting.
It can be faded in and out and set to whatever times you want. It isn't infinitly variable like the Chihiros Vivid for instance but the intensity can be decreased by degrees of 10% from the control buttons.
It's quite canny but you have to consider the alternatives locally as any problems are easier to sort out under a warranty.

 

[Stan510]

Whats the brand name? I've been keeping in the memory banks lights I like,that have a purple tint, and could afford. Higger is one..this could be two

 

[Lynnzer]

Whats the brand name? I've been keeping in the memory banks lights I like,that have a purple tint, and could afford. Higger is one..this could be two

Can't see a brand name. However I can testify that it's good value for money. I've had an assortment of lights over the years, mostly either ebay or aliexpress that have been "inexpensive" and this is the best I've had.
That said, I'm collecting a new Chihiros viviv 2 from my specialist LFS today, but that's for a really smart, newly constructed and fully aquascaped tank.

 

[itiwhetu]

I thought for plants to do well they need a certain spectrum of light for a controlled period.

 

[Linkandnavi]

So cool. I love flowering aquatic plants.

My Aponogeton Capuronii frequently sends up flowers above the surface which find the small gaps in the cover glass. Video of mine below. They flower a purple/mauve colour but I forgot to photograph it until it was dying back (they flower, die back, flower, die back etc).

This (not my image) is what they look like normally. I'll try and remember to snap a picture of mine next time if flowers afresh.

 

[Stan510]

I could not get into that website..something about I must use the $5 gift voucher.
Good luck ,it sounds like a certain great aquarium in the making.