The Truth About Red Plants?

[markandhisfish]

i always see it stated that to grow red plants high intesity lighting is a must . however ive seen tanks with people successfuly growing red plants in low to moderate lighting. so exactly what is the truth about these red plants? there are 2 that particularly take my fancy .

alternanthera reineckii and combomba furcata , altho im a bit unsure of the cambomba as it seems to be regarded as a difficult plant .

 

[SuperColey1]

i always see it stated that to grow red plants high intesity lighting is a must . however ive seen tanks with people successfuly growing red plants in low to moderate lighting. so exactly what is the truth about these red plants? there are 2 that particularly take my fancy .

alternanthera reineckii and combomba furcata , altho im a bit unsure of the cambomba as it seems to be regarded as a difficult plant .

On this subject you will get many different opinions. Sometimes min wars will arise from people not liking their theories to be wrong. lol

The way to discern the truth in these matters is simple. If someone can grow plants healthily and nice and red under low light, then it isn't the light. Saying that are we talking highlight or good light? These are 2 very different things and not necessarily influenced by a quantity of output

Some will say it is minimising nitrate. So if someone is growing healthy looking lush red plants in an EI dosed tank then it can't be that either.

Some will say it is from higher iron dosing. So if someone is getting healthy lush red plants with normal or low iron then it can't be this either.

It only takes one success against the theory to disprove it whereas a million agreements with the theory do not prove it!!

The million think hig X is the cause. 1 person with low X but the same reault renders those milion opinions defunct and they need to rule it out and move onto another theory.

Now what I will say is that what constitues 'highlight' Is it the power? Is it the placement? Is it the conditions? Is it the tank environment?

What constitutes low nitrates? Some say nitrates of 40ppm+ are unhealthy for fish. Others will show very healthy fish in 80ppm. Is low zero? Can't be or all the plants would be dead!!!

Same with iron. How do they know its high iron. Will the plant tak in that extra iron after all it only needs traces of Fe. Does all that iron remain usable so the plant can take more in if and when it needs it etc.

I should add that while many will vouch for one of the above I don't buy it. Tom Barr doesn't buy it. Worth experimenting with? Yes however don't assume if the experiment is succesful that it is directly the variable you changed that was the cause. These can all be disproved. However it may be a side-effect of something that you change.

AC

 

[markandhisfish]

thanks andy , an interesting and as usual very knowledgeable reply im at the point where i have decided on all my hardware etc and am ordering it all bit by bit , so now i can concentrate on which plants id like . i would really like to have a crack with the red cambomba as i just love the looks of it , and i figure that at £1.35 its gotta be worth a go .

from reading up on this plants requirements i do seem to tick all boxes bar 1 . the light requirements , which are given as "very bright" hence the question . but then again if you ask me simply stating "very bright" is rather vague .

opinions on this plants difficulty seem to vary greatly . some sites say medium , others say hard . 1 even went as far as to categoricly state that at least 4 wpg for 12 hours a day was a must for this plant . 4 wpg jeez thats a bit excessive if you ask me

 

[ian]

On this subject you will get many different opinions. Sometimes min wars will arise from people not liking their theories to be wrong

I can agree with this^^, I grew this plant under really low light, so IME it's really got very little to do with light

This is a Ludwigia peruviana of mine that was grown in my nano under a 9 watt bulb, which proves to me that it's not got everything to do with light. It grew well and needed trimming regularly. The tank had DIY C02 and was dosed with Profito (which has a good Mg content).

However, i'm seeing people still cranking up the light to get the redness out of plants...

 

[markandhisfish]

thanks for that ian , point well proved . it would seem the whole red plants MUST have intense lighting is along the same lines as discus MUST have soft acidic water , the bandwagon starts rolling people jump on , it gathers momentum and a myth is born which then becomes difficult to break away from .

 

[SuperColey1]

Indded Ian. Tom Barr is always showing off his red Reinecki and Tonina the latter which some people 'can't grow' let alone achieve the red. He always points out it is under low light and also in the shade under other plants. lol

That is the thread where he posted one of my favourite 'snipes' ever:

If you want real pretty reds, just buy Tom Barr's "Red Plant Paint" and get a brush. I gar-untee it'll make your plants red

He is quite dismissive of all the theories around. Worth a read:

http/www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/4768-K-rating-on-bulbs-and-Plants.

For stemmed plants try this site and get several different 'similar' looking plants like Myriophyllum or Ceratophyllum.

Look through the whole list (just scroll down 1 page worth) and get a few varieties that have the look you want. then you can work out which one is for you. Some may be easy for you and some hard. Not necessarily the ones that say easy or hard on guides

http/aquarium-gardening.com/results.php?category=5

AC

 

[markandhisfish]

thanks andy , il have a read through those. oh and where can i buy this red plant paint

 

[Geoff-]

as others have alluded to there are a range of factors, it's not just "do X to have good plants". It's about overall management of the plant's needs.

Plants with red leaves are rejecting red light (that's why you see it) therefore blue and possibly green are the colours to focus on. Green plants reject green light which is why standard house fluoros (which are green heavy) are a waste of time.

 

[PDSimon]

there are a range of echinodorus plants which will grow red leaves, such as ech. rubin and osiris amongst others. Some will grow red and turn green and some will grow red stay or mature slightly.

this is my oriris, please ignore the algae lol.

my rubin

the plant Ian shown is similar to this:

my ludwigia repens 'rubin'

these are just plants I have, i imagine there are more like polygonum, ludwigia glandulosa, hygrophila pinnatifida but I am not sure whether this will or not

 

[SuperColey1]

as others have alluded to there are a range of factors, it's not just "do X to have good plants". It's about overall management of the plant's needs.

Plants with red leaves are rejecting red light (that's why you see it) therefore blue and possibly green are the colours to focus on. Green plants reject green light which is why standard house fluoros (which are green heavy) are a waste of time.

Are you in the US? standard household fluoros in the UK are yellow!!! Many like to use them and they are 2700K which is further from gren than the specialist plant growth pink lights!! Many in this hobby believe tubes in this colour are THE best for plants!!! You can find however fabases of all sorts of colourations saying theirs is the best for plant growth

My lights are daylight (green) These plants aren't growing too bad under it though The lights above this picture are 6500K and the appearance they give the tank is a noticeable green. The ADA tubes many use are even greener!!!

Forget the colours and kelvins just use the tubes you like the appearance of and let the plants grow under them.

AC