23/07/2025
In commemoration of Artquatico Sales Galore - Easy tricks and tips to keep Bolbitis Heudelotii
For people that live at the west, this plant fairly easy to keep. No exaggerating to say this is easy plant, and really tolerant especially when it comes to the lighting. But hey, it's not for us Malaysian, because we don't get access to their climate, which is sejuk all year long. Their summer not even close to our daily sunny day temperature right?
But here, let's me , Min , teach you guys the trick, according to Artquatico style 🥂
👉 Lower temperature, the better. Min understand not all has access to chiller or live at Cameron Highland,but we definitely can do something about that. Which is , use the FAN.
If you guys capable to get 27 celcius to 28 celcius , maximum, that's good starting point already.
If u have AC ( air- cond ) that also can do the trick. And just run fan ( by using timer ) when you gonna deactivate the AC.
👉 Dimmer always better. Yeah yeah yeah, Min know, you guys using all that flashy ,nice , super bright light like Chihiros Vivid and Chihiros WRGB 2 , but for our trick, you dont need that.
Set your light to 50% ~ 65%. To be frank, that's more than sufficient to ensure your Bolbitis growing healthy, remain vibrant green. Higher the light intensity, it may cause them to curl like mad and at some point, blackened or yellowish. May get worsen when u keep them on higher temperature water column.
That's why so many aquascaper fail with this plant, at least for our Malaysian .
So dimmer = better.
If you still insist to run on higher intensity, ensure you put your Bolbitis as far as you can from the light source or lift your light higher.
👉 More fish always better than get confuse about fertilizer dosing .
We tried so many approaches with our Bolbitis tank. From lean dosing to super concentrated ones, all work just fine. But, for beginner, we recommed to just follow the instruction on fertilizer label, but just keep as much fish as you can ( suitable to your tank size )
Plants prefer Ammonia over Nitrate. So having more fish = more ammonia = better growth for your plants for this case Bolbitis.
At some point we did forgot to put the fertilizer like one whole week. Guess what? Nothing happened. Because we have so many fish and critters to supply the nutrients to the plants.
👉 Melting at early, just dont bother.
When u first bought, u will see at first few weeks they "maybe" not growing well. Give them some time. It's adaptation phase.
What u need to monitor is the new shoot. The old leaf, if get algae, you can just cut and remove them. The new leaf typically will grow better and more resilient towards current tank parameters and also algae, thanks to plant adaptation mechanism.
👉 Older the tank, much better. Yep you dont read this wrong. That's also sole reason why we always keep using portion of old substrate and never reset our filter media.
Stability is the key to tank maturity. And tank maturity needs time.
Unlike Dutch style or collector tank that focus more on maintenance, nature style is more about tank ecosystem and maturity.
So be patient, and let the system stabilize. At some point you will reap what you sow.
The tank will become so stable to the point no algae will drop even you dont waterchange for weeks. And that's what happening to the tank in the picture.
For Bolbitis tank, what u want is the maturity as it will give you lotsa peace of mind.
That's all the tips for today from Min 🙋♀️