Red Plants Turning Green

[marle]

Dear All,

I have experienced Red Plants turning green despite a pretty high lighting and regular dosing of ADA Step 1, Potassium and Iron.

When i bought the plants, they are really red, and after planting them a week or two after, they turned green.

One of the plants is Rotala Indica.

Any suggestions? Thank you!

[seudzar]

Your lights may not be strong enough

[skytan]

What sort of lights you using and What plants are they.

Bright =/= Correct Spectrum

[Urban Aquaria]

Usually the Rotala indica or rotundafolia from LFS are in emersed form, so they tend to have bright red leaves due to being grown under bright sunlight... i've seen those plants at various stages of growth at plant farms and the emersed form is always the reddest.

Not sure about indica, but the rotundafolia that i've kept usually exhibit reddish coloured leaves at the top (closest to the lights), orange coloured leaves at the middle, and then green leaves at the bottom, so looks like it's all about lighting. In my case, i use relatively low-mid intensity lights for my tank (ie. 20W-30W LED lights on a 2ft tank)... so you'll probably have to use much higher intensity lights to get the full red coloration out of all the plant leaves.

[marle]

Thank you for the replies.

My light is the LED Lights from East Ocean. It may be the spectrum. I am really not sure. I am waiting for the plant to grow taller and see if it turns red?

Ideally i hope the whole stalk is red because thats the color i bought them.

Could it also be because i just planted them for a week and its not really rooted yet?

This is the shot of the plant at the middle background.

[Xiaozhuang]

Rotala rotundifolia requires nitrate limitation to be red, not so much as strong lights per se. Same for ludwigia arcuata and some others. Other plants such as luwigia sp. red will be red even when nitrates are plentiful. So different strokes for different plants

[Urban Aquaria]

Rotala rotundifolia requires nitrate limitation to be red, not so much as strong lights per se. Same for ludwigia arcuata and some others. Other plants such as luwigia sp. red will be red even when nitrates are plentiful. So different strokes for different plants

Interesting, i've read about the possibility of nitrate limitation to create a "stress" red coloration in certain plants like Blyxia japonica, so i guess that could be the trigger for some other plants too.

Just curious, what would be the levels to create this sort of nutrient limited environment, low nitrate levels like below 5ppm... or even lower to zero? I'd suppose that would be tricky to balance as it may also cause stunted growth issues with plants which require sufficient nitrates to grow? Sort of like a trade-off type of situation.

[TS168]

try ada eca

[Xiaozhuang]

Interesting, i've read about the possibility of nitrate limitation to create a "stress" red coloration in certain plants like Blyxia japonica, so i guess that could be the trigger for some other plants too.

Just curious, what would be the levels to create this sort of nutrient limited environment, low nitrate levels like below 5ppm... or even lower to zero? I'd suppose that would be tricky to balance as it may also cause stunted growth issues with plants which require sufficient nitrates to grow? Sort of like a trade-off type of situation.

Plants that are grown in non-limiting environments are more robust, and yes some plants will not do well in very lean dosing environments. Others will just get a touch more color, push it too far and growth slows a lot and algae invades. Usually below 5ppm is enough to get good color.but the closer to the zero point you get, the redder the plants get but the more some other plants will suffer. This is quite common in ADA tanks whose substrates have depleted, but the user has not switched to using ferts with nitrates/phosphates and has low fish load.



Rotala rotundifolia with nitrates around 5-10ppm.

Glosso under severe nutrient deficiency also turns red


Arcuata with nitrates below 5ppm but non-zero...



Whereas some plants such as the mini macrandra will stay very red, even under non-limiting nutrients


Nothing to do with ADA ECA or iron levels either.

[marle]

then i guess to make my life easier, should just go for the mini macrandra!

Anywhere sells this plant?

Looks great!

I believe it might also be the spectrum of my light as well as my lights seem to be yellowish thus the Indica remains greenish. I am testing it with another light now. Reason why i say this is because the ADA tanks on display also has plants which display a decent reddish tint and i dont think they limit their nutrients?

[Sudipto]

Xiaozhuang - that's one awesome tank, my friend. Fantastic. And very illuminating discussion on nutrient limitation to bring out the red in certain plants. I didn't know this.