Feed The Red!

Bulbs are 5" from the surface, 24" from the substrate. 4x 46" bulbs (54w) Bulbs are probably 3/4"-1" from each other. Also the zoo med flora sun pink bulb i swapped for one of the 6,500k in my fixture seems to have a bit of effect on the plants this morning... the plants are maybe 8"-11" tall and the tops of the leaves are turning red again it seems.
 
I second the Iron, it's going to be the one your low on if your red plants start to lose their color. Some plants will turn more red with lower nitrates and lots of co2......but most of the time it's the iron, IME. Your oddysea didn't come with a built in reflector? I paid around the same price for my AquaticLife T5HO, but mine came with a reflector and decent ballast.....Mine only cost me about 130 bucks......I think it works really well.
 
oh no, mine has a reflector, it seems to work great but i have no idea how to tell the difference between them? different materials?
 
I keep reading posters who are saying not every T5 is the same.....while I agree in most cases you get what you pay for, when I looked for T5HO fixtures for myself, the 130 dollar range for my 30" fixture was pretty consistent and competitive. My AquaticLife has a reflector and T5HO ballast. It's sold at Marinedepot.com which I trust has some pretty good quality products(I have been buying stuff from them for years and never been mislead by their reviews of items). Anyway, it would be nice to see some kind of chart stating exactly what the differences in PAR if any, there are between these so called T5's of different quality. I don't mind paying extra for good quality, but I want to know what the numbers are exactly before I spend the extra money.....
 
so the top leaves are turning reddish now, and the ones under it are tinging toward pink. So either this new MedZoo pink flora sun bulb i got yesterday really has a hold on them, or since I actually planted them 8days ago, maybe they turned green only because they were just rooting and getting used to my tank, and now that they have adjusted are going red again. They have alot of new leaves down lower, mostly green, but tints of yellow/red. I really got to put my worries on the back burner for now :/ im too impatient lol
 
now i feel stupid. When I ordered these plants I got
Ludwigia glandulosa instead of rotala macrandra... and the glandulosa seems to get green on the top of the leaves and red on the bottom normally.... even though now its turning red on top today?? Well this does make me feel better, lol. But I would still like to know what is making it red over green. I'll be looking into it more incase I decide to alter my plant stock, lol​
 
besides good light there are alot of other factors that allow Red plants to do well. Some plants for them to do well and get nice and red you have to have lower nitrates. like sub 10ppm. So its Iron or other nutrients. Water conditions im sure play a very important part of it as does even using Pressurized Co2. Most the tanks ive seen wit nice red have Co2. Its a balancing act. How many red plants do you actually see in the wild?

Macrandra is a more difficult plant to grow. Ive got a fair amount. Ive seen lots of folks have issues with it melting. Im pretty sure they are very water quality specific and need to have pressurized Co2.
 
How are you introducing the Co2 into the water? I'm running my Co2 at just a little more then 10bps. I've still got a little more room to increase. I don't worry to much about bps or my drop checker color. I let the fish and the plants tell me. What lights are you running? You might have a ton of watts but still low Par.

Wouldn't mind having a 72 bowfront. I like my 46 gallon bowfront. Would love the 180 bowfront to.
 
its entering into a power head and getting chopped up and pushed downwards in a tube so the bubbles go back up and chopped up again, no gas hits the surface, its all being entered into the water. Drop checker is always a strong green. The lights are 3x 6,500k t5ho from odyssea, and 1x 5,000k flora sun (pink) from Zoo Med
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom