# Help! How to get red colour in plants?



## vraev (Mar 29, 2012)

Hi guys,

I noticed that all my red plants have gone yellow. The current specs are:

4 x T5 96watt Odyssey 24" fixture : 6500K bulbs (8h)
CO2: 2bps
Fertz: Pfertz N,P, K and micro (Dosing twice a week 1 pump of each)

Should I get flourish iron or Aquavitro iron or something? Do u guys think that may help with getting back the red?

I plan on replacing a couple of the bulbs with Giessemann bulbs in the future, but not right away (they are expensive).

Please let me know what I should do to get the plants growing well again.




























As u can see, the ludwiga, rotala are all yellow/yellowish green and the ludwiga is not growing too well.

thanks for looking,

V


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I am not familiar with the Pfertz line of fertilizers, but the amount of iron you are dosing may not be enough.

Your lighting seems to be enough.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

The lighting seems enough at first glance, but, in general terms, red plants losing the red is usually due to lack of light intensity.


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## vraev (Mar 29, 2012)

yeah. I wil go pick up some aquavitro Fe or Flourish Iron today. yeah Bill...I think the odyssey bulbs are crap. there is a huge green/yellow portion in its spectrum. I am just waiting for some good sales as aquarium bulbs are really expensive. Also, if I would get a nice hagen fixture for cheap during boxing day, I might just replace the crappy odyssey with that.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

vraev said:


> yeah. I wil go pick up some aquavitro Fe or Flourish Iron today. yeah Bill...I think the odyssey bulbs are crap. there is a huge green/yellow portion in its spectrum. I am just waiting for some good sales as aquarium bulbs are really expensive. Also, if I would get a nice hagen fixture for cheap during boxing day, I might just replace the crappy odyssey with that.


The fixture isn't bad. The reflector is great but the bulbs are just horrible.. Just replace the bulbs - nice bulbs go for 22$+ and would go fr around a year.
And the Hagen lights don't come with bulbs, add it up and it's expensive. I got a aquaticlife fixture, loving it, separate reflectors but the only thing is the bulbs that are included are a pink and 6000k bulb. But it's weird my odyssea fixture and bulbs made my plants red - my rotala was red and orange.


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## vraev (Mar 29, 2012)

yeah! I think I'll buy some bulbs next month after getting paid. I started adding some iron today. Lets see if that helps as well.


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## archgop (Sep 19, 2010)

Sorry to hijack ....
Is that riccia carpet? How do you keep it tied down to the ground?


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

He has them tied down on ss mesh I believe.


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## vraev (Mar 29, 2012)

They are tied down on riccia stone.The mesh is useless as it floats after the riccia grows well.


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

Your issue is not caused by lighting. It is more than likely u are missing trace elements/minerals as well as an iron deficieny. I would recommend 10 to 14 hrs of light as well, 8 is not enough. did you recently change your lighting?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I disagree with the 10-14 hours of lighting. In general, lighting intensity, and not duration will help increase the redness in plants.

Also, as mentioned, however, try to increase trace elements.


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

Darkblade48 said:


> I disagree with the 10-14 hours of lighting. In general, lighting intensity, and not duration will help increase the redness in plants.
> 
> Also, as mentioned, however, try to increase trace elements.


There is never only 8 hours of light in nature. Think about it. No matter what the intensity of the light there is always more then 8 hours.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

GDidycz said:


> There is never only 8 hours of light in nature. Think about it. No matter what the intensity of the light there is always more then 8 hours.


While this is true, increasing the duration of lighting will not cause the plants to redden. If it did, people would be using low intensity lighting for long durations with equal effectiveness as shorter (8-10 hours) lighting durations, but with high intensity.


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

Darkblade48 said:


> While this is true, increasing the duration of lighting will not cause the plants to redden. If it did, people would be using low intensity lighting for long durations with equal effectiveness as shorter (8-10 hours) lighting durations, but with high intensity.


What you say makes sense. I wonder how often the water is being changed? I have found that a water change with a nutrient application stimulates the plants into absorbing more of the nutrients.

Gregory


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## vraev (Mar 29, 2012)

Hi,

I do water changes once/twice a week. I have started adding aquavitro Fe and slowed down on the regular N, P, K ferts which should help with the plants. Sam from AI has suggested that excessive fertilization might be responsible for the pale growth as well. Perhaps the plants grow too fast and are unable to synthesize the caratenoids and other pigments.

V


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

vraev said:


> Hi,
> 
> I do water changes once/twice a week. I have started adding aquavitro Fe and slowed down on the regular N, P, K ferts which should help with the plants. Sam from AI has suggested that excessive fertilization might be responsible for the pale growth as well. Perhaps the plants grow too fast and are unable to synthesize the caratenoids and other pigments.
> 
> V


I never thought of that but it could be the case as well. May I suggest a water change without any ferts for the next 2 weeks. Let the plants flush out it wont hurt them. Don't worry they will keep what they need.


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## Boogerboy (Sep 23, 2008)

Honestly though, you can hypothesise about the chemistry all you like but you're missing the foundation: Odyssea bulbs are shit at growing red plants.

Solution: Ideally Giesemann as you mentioned, but it really doesn't have to be. Coldmantis mentioned he had some bulbs that helped his plant growth explode and they were cheaper. You'll want some pink bulbs too a la Giesemann AquaFlora. (All the tanks with red plants in AI have at least 1 pink bulb)

Then if you're not seeing any red growth still, you can continue this reductionist approach, eliminating most likely factors first until you reach the desired effect. But yes, going lean on N always helps. 

PS. your tank looks gorgeous, I knew you were off to a great start but am still surprised at how great it looks!


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## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

To OP you might find this thread on the Barrrepot useful
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/10332-Iron-amp-Red-Plants


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