Feed The Red!

U

unseenone00

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Sep 30, 2011
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Nick
Okay, I will end up splitting my question into 2, both with the same goal in mind. My high-tech heavily planted tank is up and running, and so far seems balanced with the lights, pressurized Co2, and dry ferts. However some plants have orange to them, or purple, and 2 plants that are red. But the color is not holding, the red leaves are turning green on top, and all the new growth is bright green... Now first question... #What Keeps the Plants Red/Colorful?# I have red its the lights, or maybe the Iron, or CO2, or GH, or low low low nitrates??? Question 2, What bulb should I have in my T5HO fixture? I have read some brands are much better than others, and some lights like the ADA 8,000 are better than 6,500s or 6,700. Also read something about 9325k bulbs? not as T5HOs I believe though, but saw some comparative pictures, and some seemed to have great effect (might be photoshop color alterations?) Can some1 shed some light on this stuff for me? :perv:
 
Added Iron really helps the red plants hold true.

As for the light, I only use standard daylight bulbs. I tried one of the fancy "plant bulbs" before. I got better results with the regular ones so I just stick with them.
 
Im using the EI method, adjusted for my tank size (72gallon) but im adding an 1/8 tsp of iron on the days with trace dosage.
example29gallonchartuu9.png


These numbers here are NOT my dosage btw. Theres a list of what to do for tanks 60-80 gallons and I use that.
 
Also I am using the Odyssea T5HO quad light system with their 6,500k bulbs- So im almost certain there is better out there. Im wondering if I should switch 2 out to get some pink bulbs that have higher red output in the spectrum
 
So through reading on more sites and such it does appear pink/reddish bulbs contain higher spectrum of red light, which they are saying brings out more color in plants/fish. So I am thinking out of my 4x 54w 6,500k bulbs I'll change 2 into pinkish bulbs. However I came across info talking about 4,000ks and 8,000ks... both being red/pink bulbs... what would fair better? Who here uses these kinds of bulbs?
 
Keeping the nitrates a little lean will help with the red plants, as well.
 
i have been reading hours and hours across the net looking for how people keep theirs red. The only one thats making sense to me now is stress on the plants. Stress seems to pull out the red, but when the plant becomes healthy and starts to grow, it springs out some green. I am still balancing out my ferts for now and just recovered from having the BGA from 0nitrates. Ill find a way to keep it 5-8ppm eventually and see how it works. Sitting at about 20-30ppm now
 
unseenone00 said:
Also I am using the Odyssea T5HO quad light system with their 6,500k bulbs- So im almost certain there is better out there. Im wondering if I should switch 2 out to get some pink bulbs that have higher red output in the spectrum
Click to expand...

Depending on the plants..... What plants are you trying? Water and light conditions are next. Things such as Water temps, Hardness, how high or low your Nitrates are and making sure your feeding the plants what they need how they need them. Some feed from Column and some from Substrate. Co2 can be an asset as well. But making sure you have enough and arent to low of an amount makes a difference. You cant go off a drop checker. Use the plants and fish to tell you when you have enough.

BUT one of the biggest factors is...... Light

Dont get to wrapped up in spectrum. First you need to qualify if your tank meets a true High light tank. PAR data is really the best way to determine NOT watts per gallon. While the Odyssea lights are affordible and they are T5HO, They lack alot of things to make many tanks be a High light or even a Medium to high light set up. The 2 biggest things you will find is the Reflectors and the Ballasts. The stuff that Odyssea and other budget minded lights uses are cheaper and have or create less out put or just plain waste the energy emitted. Im not trying to knock your lights. BUT there is a big difference in manufactures and what your return on investment is.

First you would need to see if by using PAR data if you would really be a High light tank. If you measure from the top of your substrate to the bottom of your light how far is it? How many bulbs? How long is the fixture? How wide are the bulbs split apart? Once we have that we can look at a chart to see where our starting point is and what your light would be considered.
 
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