Red Plants

[dave_m13]

Hi

I have 110 litre tank that I am trying to grow plants in, they all seem to be growing nicely, some algae but nothing major.

My question is why are the Red plants that I brought growing with green leaves? Its nice that they are growing but bit of a pain that they are not growing red leaves.

Any Ideas
thanks
Dave

 

[catxx]

i'm no plant genius, but maybe it's something to do with a genetic mutation that makes the leaves grow red, like with variagated plants, they grow their normal colour if left to their own devices.
or maybe the leaves go red with age?

 

[jimbooo]

what plant is it. some plants like ludwigia only go red in high light. they will survive in lower light but wont go red. i'd guess this is why your new leaves are green.

are the very top leaves redder then the mid stem leaves? if so this is the case as the light is strongest at the surface of the water.

 

[The-Wolf]

I alway thought that the red was gained from trace amounts of iron in the water

 

[Jen]

I was under the impression that red plants needed very high levels of light to stay red. My ludwiga is very red at the surface, and much less intence at the bottom.

 

[Lateral Line]

Very many red plants appear red not because they are red but because, due to adequate light, they are not as green as they would be otherwise have to be. Thus, in low light, "red" plants will be green and may survive. Add brighter light and they become pink or red.

Green photosynthetic pigments are much more efficient then others, (carotinoids and flavinoids), thus in low light, the plant preferentially produces chlorophyll, (green).

 

[dave_m13]

I am not sure what the plants are, 1 may be a ludwiga of some sort but not sure.

I will have to check tonight whether the top is redder than mid, still nice plants just a pity they are not all red.

thats great info, so basically have to get brighter lights, may have to wait a while on this tank. Have just brought a 400 litre tank.

 

[zig]

In highlight tanks if you keep your nitrates or phosphates on the lean side this will "colour" up your plants, you just have to do one or the other, running the nitrates lean will usually have the most effect on red plant species, you would need to run the nitrates at around <5ppm and the phosphates at around 0.5ppm the only problem with this is you run the risk of bga when you run the nitrate levels so low, but this how most of the amazing tanks that you see in competitons will achieve such intense colours by manipulating the nitrate or phosphate levels, when people are doing this they would normally dose small amounts of fertiliser each day to minimise the risk of either bottoming out to minimise the risk of algae.

Heres another trick (they do this in competitions as well although few will admit it) if you have a tank with with some red species plants in it, and you are going to enter a competition or you want to photograph the tank for display purposes, if you use Seachem Excel at double the dose for a few days (i think its double, its either that or just use a normal dose for your tank size volume) this will also redden your plants up very nicely, so i suppose you could call that cheating, but it works anyway.

 

[jimbooo]

zig you old diamond why have you not told me this before!! i'm now keeping nitrate at 10 so will vary day to day between 5 and 10 ish and phosphate is at 0.5 i'll keep an eye on the lillies and ludwigia and let you know if i notice any major difference.

very interesting stuff there mate, corner cutting is my speciality LOL

 

[zig]

jimbooo keep an eye on the substrate at the front glass, where the substrate meets the front glass if you know what i mean, this is where the bga will most likely show up first of all if you run the nitrate levels very low you will normally see green areas just below the substrate at the front glass, anyway just keep an eye out for it and increase your no3 dosing if you start to see it.

You can also do it by lowering the phosphate level to about 0.5ppm and keeping the no3 at around <10ppm, like i say you can manipulate either just dont let either bottom out, most people will dose a little each day to top up the levels although its not a good idea to dose phosphate the same days you dose iron as they precipitate out of the water column and can cause cloudyness.

It definatly works you just have to be careful and probably prepared to dose a little each day instead of every other day, let us know how you get on with it.

 

[jimbooo]

i've had BGA before mate, and your right it was along the front glass.

i'm trying to get away from dosing every day i just cant do it with the 3 tanks it's way too much effort. i'm a lazy sod remember. miss one day and the week is all out of sinc.

i'll keep playing with it and let you know. i haven't totally worked out the schedule yet, still testing every day to see whats going on.

 

[Jen]

jimbooo keep an eye on the substrate at the front glass, where the substrate meets the front glass if you know what i mean, this is where the bga will most likely show up first of all if you run the nitrate levels very low you will normally see green areas just below the substrate at the front glass, anyway just keep an eye out for it and increase your no3 dosing if you start to see it.

Ah Ha! I was wondering what that was. I just tend to scrape it away. I keep my kno3 around 15, and the po4 at 1.5. I'll have to play around a bit and change the levels a bit.

 

[jimbooo]

be careful Jen dont let your fish eat it, it's toxic. i lost a sterbai cory that way. get as much out as you can and if in doubt pm hondour. i'm sure with all her BGA disasters she'll be able to help you out

 

[Jen]

I don't think I'm able to get it out... right now it is just a single layer thick... I scrap it and it disintegrates. Maybe I'll have to pull the sand back a bit and scrape it while im vacuuming tonight and try to suck it all up

 

[zig]

If you see it at the front of the glass canoechiq just keep removing it, like you say just keep scraping it away keep at it and it usually disappears, although im surprised you are seeing it at no3 levels of 15ppm, other times you will see this buildup is if you have a tank that gets daylight along the front glass or is near a window, again just keep agitating it by scraping it away, using a credit card type device for this is very effective as a scraper, you can siophon out the bits of bga with an airline hosing.