Lilly-pads in aquarium?

[PygmyPepperJulli]

Has anyone had any experience with lilly pads (not tiger lotus or anything, the proper green lilly pads) in an aquarium? I would think they need high lighting, which I have, but what would stop them? (The tank I'm thinking of putting one in would have no dirt or ferts, but a reasonably high bioload. Space would hopefully not be an issue either at 55gal).

 

[Magnum Man]

I had multiple lily plants in one 55 gallon… mine grew for a while… my issues were the water in this tank was pretty alkaline, and I had too much water movement… the lily pads got hopelessly tangled, and layered up 4-5 pads on top of each other, then started decomposing, so I had to trim them… if I had a calm tank, they would have been really interesting…. I’m not sure what really tells them how long to grow, but mine hit the surface, then continued to grow with the current, until everything got tangled…

They do have dwarf lilies… mine were all regular, biggest pads in my tank got about 8 inches

 

[PygmyPepperJulli]

My current doesn't need to be high on the surface, it needs to be moderately high somewhere for my riffle shrimp but I can manage that. I'll give it a try and I won't be too troubled with trimming it- that wouldn't take much time compared to water changes with buckets . I could also try tying them back with something so they don't get really long and stringy as an experiment. Did they grow anything below the surface or just the pads on top?