How to keep E. tennulus short and red

[williamng]

Hi

Anyone have any experience on keeping this plant short and red?

[uklau]

High lighting will keep it red but I've no idea how to keep it short. Mine grows like a monster !

[williamng]

My light is very strong but no sign of red leave yet. Mine grow light 4cm to 7cm in length. My current lighting is 6hours only. The last time i increase to 8 hours, I see a lot of green dust algae on the glass..

[uklau]

My lighting is only 2x18W FL tubes on 2 footer & I have a mixture of green & red leaves. Like any other Echinodorus species, this is a heavy root feeder. You will need to have a rich/fertile substrate for them to grow well.

[samuelgoh]

My light is very strong but no sign of red leave yet. Mine grow light 4cm to 7cm in length. My current lighting is 6hours only. The last time i increase to 8 hours, I see a lot of green dust algae on the glass..

hw strong is strong ?
i assume u need 3-4 wpg to get the plant really red...
i am having around 2.5 wpg, some red some not red... haha

[o2bubble]

My experience is have to trim many times before they started growing short. The pre-condition for this to happen tho are:

1. Strong light of 3.5 to 4 wpg.
2. Good CO2 ard 30 ppm.
3. High level NPK and trace elements (Try ADA Lights + ADA Step + Brighty K)
4. High level of Iron (Try ADA ECA)

Can also try to put in Ferka Rosetta or Wondergro root+. However, with such a configuration, they grow very fast and every 2 weeks have to trim to keep short. Alot of effort

[danbryans]

On my 35g my previous lighting was at 3.8wpg of CFL's. With that much light the tenellus had red leaves and stayed below 3 inches. I recently changed to 3.1wpg of PL's. Now the length of the leaves is probably 2X or even 3X longer and the redness was gone. I dose via EI with pressurized CO2. Substrate is just plain gravel.