Liquid Fert for red plants

[StanChung]

woah...
thanks for the detailed explanation...
honestly i tried the azoo thing. for sure the plant became a little tenny bit redder assuming i didn't have optimum conditions in the tank.
that bottle costs a lot of money but later when i stopped using it, it made little difference... plants still looked good, but can't really tell somebody who's bought it it's useless...ahem, let you do that tom, you have more cred. hee...

what i've understood from reading and observation is that when no3 levels dropped some of the younger leaves became very red-magenta red and were stunted. the later ones that came out when tank conditions always becomes bigger healthier leaves. not as red perhaps but def red enough.

[Plantbrain]

You can buy diet pills here, much like you can in SG, doesn't imply nor mean they work. Especially when unsubstantitated.

Same thing here.
I've been in the hobby for 30 years.....
I've seen all sort of monkey meat being sold.

Remember heating cables?
I'm the one that seriously went after that whole business.

But "maybe they work......."

If something does not give you a practical level, not a scientific subtly, improvement in growth, and it provides long term stability etc, that BS for it really doesn't work.

Many things provide "long term stability" and the longer and more subtle the effect is, the harder it becomes to show it does anything one way or another.

Adding CO2? You can see a dramatic effect.
Adding KNO3? gain , same thing.
Traces are much more subtle but definitely there. 3 weeks is a minimum time frame for using them with stem plants.

I've been most pleased with TMG and then Sera/Flourish.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[sonique]

when lowering NO3 is said tat it will make the plant stunted, izzit all the plants in the tank or onli red plants are affected...?
adding KNO3 somehow or rather will lower NO3 izit?

[Plantbrain]

The issues with lower NO3, say maintaining a tight level of control are several fold.

1. Test kit errors.
Even the best Lamotte test kit at 60$ US can only hope to provide 1-5ppm error on the readings.

2. High light = => fast uptake , too fast to maintain in a stable manner.

3. Like a drug(NO3), too much kills the patient, too little does not cure the diease.

Too much NO3: no color
Too little, stunted plants.

Just right: red growth and decent, but slower growth
You can slow NO3 upt ake by limiting PO4, this works okay, but you get more GSA on the glass and have more algae potential/less pearling.

Less light will also help, 2 w/gal is slower than 4-5 w/gal as far as growth rates, CO2 uptake etc, and................NO3 uptake.

So it you only add say 2-3 ppm per day, at 2w/gal, you maintain and low amount easily, but at 5w/gal, it'll be gone in a few hours.

So it's a timing issue.
Adding a good fish load to low light tank, some light supplemental dosing etc allow you to have more red colored plants, some folks do. But it's more the exception than the norm and is means their tank is lean, or else they took the photo right when or before the stunting occurs.
Substrate ferts that use NH4, can help to some degree.

But again, more trouble than all this is worth.
I'm curious about such things, most are not, they see some little bottle that makes some clainms that it makes their plant nice a red/healthy, they buy it.

But that does not mean it works.

Azoo also sells Plant hormones, these have never been shown to improve plant health or growth in submersed plant growth.

Once again, selling things that have no support and no impact on your plants, it's marketing from a terrestrial presepctive, not some research they did on the submersed planmts themselves.

I know more than anyone they have there about that.
I'd never suggest many such things because I know they do not help the hobbyist, they only help market more products.

Regards,
Tom Barr