Lighting for Indoor Pond

[PondintheCity]

I have an indoor pond that is lit with a pair of Kessill a160 Tuna Sun light fixtures, which are designed for planted and/or marine aquariums. The fixtures are suspended about 9 inches above the surface of the water. I decided to try my hand with a dwarf tropical water lily (Murasaki Shikibu) this spring, and I placed it directly under one of the fixtures. It started off very well, throwing a few flowers in the first week and a couple of new pads every day. It's been about 5 weeks now and I've noticed that the flowers are growing up out of the water and wilting back down before they open. Also, all the pads have formed a ring about 8 inches from the center of the plant with no leaves in the middle. I have no idea whether lilies normally add leaves from the outside of the normal spread and fill in, but coupled with the wilting flowers, I'm wondering if the light is too intense, causing the wilting flowers and making the leaves migrate outside the too-bright center. Any insights would be helpful....

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome @PondintheCity! I too have an indoor pond but probably different than yours. Mine is a turtle pond. Let's gather some information about your pond to help us help you. How big is the pond, dimensions & gallons? Indoors as in a basement or sunroom? What else is in the pond with the plants? Filtration type? Does the pond get window lighting too? Do you fertilize the plants? What are the plants planted in? Finally, could you please post an image of the pond?

 

[GBBUDD]

Light too intense i extremely doubt as an x planted and reefer. Lilies love the sun they grow best in full sun no little man made light is going to toss more uv at them. Though the wrong spectrum could do harm but again I doubt it . My guess would be and your timing seems spot on , your lacking fertilizer. Its recommended that lily's get re-fertilized every 5 weeks. Lilies in the wild grow in substrate loaded with organics. Your tank is the exact reverse or as I assume your like every other aquarium trying to keep the tank as clean as possible.
Lilies in our ponds the regiment is to fertilize them every five weeks. Doing so in a very small space I don't know what it will do . But in the planted world they too push fertilization.
I used bird and co2. When that worked to well I stepped to birds alone. my planted tank

 

[GBBUDD]

Light too intense i extremely doubt as an x planted and reefer. Lilies love the sun they grow best in full sun no little man made light is going to toss more uv at them. Though the wrong spectrum could do harm but again I doubt it . My guess would be and your timing seems spot on , your lacking fertilizer. Its recommended that lily's get re-fertilized every 5 weeks. Lilies in the wild grow in substrate loaded with organics. Your tank is the exact reverse or as I assume your like every other aquarium trying to keep the tank as clean as possible.
Lilies in our ponds the regiment is to fertilize them every five weeks. Doing so in a very small space I don't know what it will do . But in the planted world they too push fertilization.
I used bird and co2. When that worked to well I stepped to birds alone. my planted tank