Ok so im wondering. My lily has exploded and growing like crazy. I love the plant as it brings out the tank with its rusty red but i am getting a ton of leaves .
Do i trim it or let it sit and if i trim how do i go about it and do i just trim at the base like the rest of the plants?

The dwarf lily will eventually start putting pads to the surface if you don't trim it. I usually break the stems off as far down as I can, and the rest of the stem will die and melt away.

Alternatively, you could let the pads get to the surface. Much less clutter in your tank, but the pads do tend to block light to the lower parts of the tank.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Just depends on what you want. If you want them to grow, let them. There is a way to keep them low, if that is the way you want. What I did was let it get over the super-fast growth spurt it had once it sprouted (I would have sprouts reach the surface in about 36hrs) and then trimmed every stem (with scissors) all the way down to the substrate. That was over 2 months ago and not a single runner has reached the surface again. It sort of hangs at about 10-12" and actually looks like part of the tank instead of the leaf resting on the surface and not seen very easily.

I have a dwarf lilly with two crowns, and it's kind of funny, one crown got more light and grew HUGE leaves (I'm hoping for actual pads in a couple of months) while the other crown didn't get anywhere near as much light and is staying very small. Maybe lighting's part of why it's growing so much?
One thing I've noticed when I got lilly pads last time though, is that once there's several pads on the surface, many or sometimes all the leaves on the bottom melt away, leaving just the bare stems of the pads. Not particularly attractive at that moment, but interesting anyways.

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Lead me not to temptation...I can make it there myself just fine, thank you

Mine I let stagger.Some leaves will reach the surface and others not.I was entertaining the idea of leting one flower if it decides too,but who know.Maybe,maybe not.

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

I've heard if the conditions are optimal the dwarf lily pads will flower.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Sorry to butt in here but what kind of lighting does everyone have for their dwarf lilies? I got given one from a fish shop that was closing down. From what I have read they are high light plants but I don't have any tanks running with high light at the moment so it is in low light. It had a couple of tiny leaves which have grown a little and it has a couple new ones but it looks nothing like jeff's. Do you think it will survive?

Snail, I've had mine in medium and high light. It did very well in both, but the growth speed was different. Will grow much slower in lower light.

Mine is in high light.I have tried them under less than stock lighting,meaning on my 29 I had years ago,I had a light from a ten gallon on it.It grew very slow.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

I've had mine under terribly crappy lighting, could barely read by it and very yellow, and now mine's under too many watts of full spectrum lighting and it's thriving. Just a note though, they change color depending on the lighting. Mine went from very red to brown-ish purple green with the changed lighting and extra ferts.

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Lead me not to temptation...I can make it there myself just fine, thank you

I have mine under 72 watts total. Just under 4 watts a gallon. Mine is a reddish -purple. ALmost a red rust. Mine was somewhat slow at first but then it just took off. My aponogetons seemed to have hit a lull. They were cruising along and now they just send up a floater but the leaves that die off take a long time to come back nce i cut them away. I do like the lily as it breaks up all the green in the tank and gives some shade (although not where i need it.. um anubius) to the fish and plants.
My next endevor is a El natural tank...