Wednesday, February 15, 2012

How to bring out red color in aquarium plants? Which area should be taken care off, Fertiliser or light?

I am having a 78 gallon tank with 3.0 watt/gallon FL and sand gravel, although the plants are growing well, the red plants are not showing their true red colors rather turning green. Nitrate level is 2 ppm in tank water. Please suggest how to bring the red color?

How to bring out red color in aquarium plants? Which area should be taken care off, Fertiliser or light?
Watts per gallon is a HORRIBLE "rule", "guideline", or any other term you may wish to give it... it's about as useful as "one inch of fish per gallon of water" (which is crap). WPG doesn't account for tank depth, spectrum, lumens, reflectors, and true output, just how much energy is being used. I could put 50 15 watt incandescent bulbs over a 20 gallon tank and still never get any plants (other than algae and maybe Java Moss and Java Fern) to grow, even though it's nearly 40 watts per gallon. On a large tank like yours, the rule falls apart further. With so much water to penetrate, something like a standard fluorescent bulb or even a compact fluorescent bulb will not be able to reach the bottom of the tank. For such tall tanks, metal halides, mercury vapor, or LED lights would be necessary to apply the "rule".



Moving on... If none of your would-be red plants are displaying their true colors, the most likely cause is iron deficiency, which can be remedied with specific fertilization. Flourish Iron or any similar fertilizers will work to feed the plants this necessary element.
Reply:If you don't have any low light plants, you can increase the light to 5 watts per gallon, but watch out for any algal blooms. To avoid algae blooms, add more fertilizer, maybe twice as much. You also need to add more iron, which enhances the chlorophyll, either red or green, and it also strengthens the plant itself. You may also want to inject CO2, whether yeast method or the more expensive ones. Good luck with your plants.
Reply:i think the lights are fine

you need more nitrate and pottasium to stimulate root growth, leaf growth and colouring

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