The Planted Tank Forum banner

Worst luck with reds

487 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Mikeygmzmg 
#1 ·
For some reason all of my red plants do terrible... I have tried Ludwigia SP Red, AR mini, and AR variegated..

I have a feeling it has to do with my extremely hard water but I haven't been able to find research to back that up...

The Ludwigia SP Red slowly becomes smaller and smaller, grows whispy and with a long stem, no leaves towards the bottom.

The AR Mini keeps getting uprooted time after time.. It's the most successful of the 3 but still doesn't do too great

The AR Variegated just stays at a stand still and eventually collects algae from not growing

It's an absolute mystery to me because none of my other plants are like this. I have excellent growth, very low algae, super high light, good EI dosing schedule, weekly water changes, etc.

Does anyone know what's causing this? Or anyone ever experience the same things with their red plants?
 
#2 ·
I have the same red plants, plus many other red plants and they don't seem more difficult than other plants. Sure they might not color up as red as they could if not given high enough light or iron, but the overall health would be fine if the other non-red plants are fine. Just my experience though. From the sounds of it, it would seem all your plants would be hurting, not just the reds, but you say they aren't, so I don't know. Maybe it's a iron thing? Maybe where they are planted they are lacking flow/distribution of nutrients?

Any chance you could get a picture of the red plants and the whole tank?
Any info on the planted tank? (tank height, lighting, fert regime, co2?, etc.)
Water parameters/chemistry?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Maybe it could be an iron thing? I have been dosing some of the seachem iron every other day but it just never seems to improve. Good idea on the flow/distribution.

Here is a pic of the tank. I use the ADA beetle diffuser and the co2 saturation is very high. fert regiment is EI. Height is 24" - 2 finnex Ray 2's and a Satellite pro for coloration. The water is extremely hard in Santa Clarita Valley, I do about 25% RO water with my water changes and all top offs are RO. As you can see in the pic, the Ludwigia Reds in front of the rocks on the left are doing bad. The AR mini looks fine in the pic, but they really don't grow much and get uprooted all the time.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top