Rescaped the 90p, and stuff has grown in... probably going to grow the AR bushes a bit fatter though
Arcuata in the 6 gallon thickening up
Wow.. Nice set up.
Thanks man
Spend some time taking plant pics this time round:
Eriocaulon quinquangular - took a long time to convert, but the new submersed leaves have good coloration by now
Unknown species of Bucep, new submersed leaves
Varigated Alternanthera reineckii (Rosanervig)
Hygro pinnatifida reddish under nitrate limitation
@XiaoZhuang when you limit nitrate to encourage red leaf growth, will it have bad side effects on green plants? How do you balance it? Dose just enough so nitrate is zero while controlling deficiencies?
I generally try to keep nitrate positive but low, so say between 1-5ppm... The downside of this is that some plants (can be green or red) may not do well in such lean waters. So plants that do well in lean nutrient waters ideally shouldn't be kept with those that only do well in rich waters. Many plants are flexible, some troublesome species need nitrate limitation to show their colors(ludwigia arcuata/H.pinnatifida), while some do much better with nutrient rich water(ludwigia pantanal), so there is no universal situation that is the best for all.
Thanks Dennis for your reply.
If we consider the NO3 contributed by the fishes, Nitrate limiting can be even more challenging isn't it?
Lean-dosing seems to bring a slew of problems for me (N-lacking = BGA, PO4-lacking = GSA). So if I understand you correctly, the important takeaway is to keep nutrients lean AND in the positive region, right?
I've read that Iron contributes to more redness in some plants. Can extra Iron dosing be used in place of N-limiting in general? Or again, is it species specific?
BTW, love your youtube videos. The episode on stem plant trimming has helped me a lot, I've been following your guidance and practising.
Yep, but generally if you have lots of plants & light, N will be low as plants can take up quite a lot of it. Its the most used element besides carbon in plant dry mass. Smaller daily doses can effective - or follow ADA system and feed the plants mainly through the ammonia rich substrate - and only dose nitrates when its severely depleted.
Iron allows the pigments in plants to form properly, but not necessarily more is better. The thing is iron fertilizer can precipitate out of the water fairly quickly (depending on type of iron and KH of your water)and iron is immobile in plants - plants can draw NPK from storage so to say (or old leaves) to make new leaves but iron must be present at the moment for plants to utilize. Else you get yellow leaves or poor coloration. To this end, iron should be dosed more frequently (2-4 times a week ?) compared to other ferts which can be dosed once a week. Unlike NPK, usable iron is not provided from fish waste etc, it must be dosed in fert form. It is for these reasons that iron is emphasized more than other ferts
added Rotala ramosior florida. The deep magenta coloration is pretty striking and easy to get as long as the plant is healthy
Hey man may I know where you got the magenta Rotala ramosior florida?
Scaped with higher rock on this one to grow Buceps ~ Taking a longer time to fill in though
nice!!! the antennas looks a bit distracting ... also if the bottom of the front can cover up the dirt, it will look even better!
what rocks did you use?
Really impressive, beautiful layout and sculpting.
Can I know what is the plant infront of the Ludwigia Acruata? I think I have similar plant and it typically get redder than the Acruata but not sure about its name!
Thanks for the reply, so it's Ludwgia Brevipes. The best I could get is copper red, have you ever get it Blood Red before, if yes, how do you do it
The healthy color of Brevipes is actually orange. It belongs to the class of plants (rotala rotundifolia/arcuata etc) that gets redder with nitrate limitation/lower nitrates. However, if you run very low nitrates or other form of nutrient deprivation for long periods to get that color, the other plants in your tank may/will suffer. You can do this with green plants as well. I.e. nitrate limitation also produces say reddish glosso
Rather than do that, if you want red plants, choose the species that are naturally red under good health; Ludwigia sp. red, Macrandra, etc....
Thank you for the advise. I think I will try nitrate limiting one day when my tank matures.
Bookmarks