Ludwigia Repens NOT RED

[YourPalCM]

I have some Ludwigia Repens that was fairly red when I bought it, and is now 99% green. There's a touch of red on the underside of the newly growing leaves. It's in direct light, my iron is at a normal level, and I had iron every day. It's growing quickly and looks pretty, but I kind of wanted it to be green AND red. I have some Red Temple in the tank as well and it is thriving and a dark maroon. Any ideas?

[Anthony]

I had the exact same problem with it in my tank. It was red when it was shaded by large lotus leaves, but after I removed the lotus it turned green. I could never get it red. I also had the same problem with r. indica.

[pk-sd]

Same problem here. And its not due to lack of bright lights. I have almost 4wpg. Can't wait to hear from some experts. Mine is nice olive green. I like the color, but its not red.

[Marc]

Check my signature- I was once a Repens farmer!
What are your tank conditions? What size are your tanks?

Mine were
3.4 WPG
30ppm CO2
KH 4
PH 6.6
Dosed N, P, and K every other day and dosed micros on alternating days.

[Anthony]

I had 3.25 wpg and co2 higher (4.5, ph 6.4). I was even dosing 8 ml traces and 2ml iron in a 37 gallon 3x's per week.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I had 3.25 wpg and co2 higher (4.5, ph 6.4). I was even dosing 8 ml traces and 2ml iron in a 37 gallon 3x's per week.

What bulbs or fixture are you running?

[Anthony]

65 watts pc 6700k/10000k, 15 watss no 2800k, 40 watts screw in cf 6500k

[Marc]

You may need more light- My friend has a 55 watt set up over his 10 gal tank and its still not enough to keep the glosso down. From my understanding- the WPG rule doesnt apply too well in smaller tanks. How small i dont know. Since your pretty good on ferts and co2, I'm going to bet more light.

[sarahbobarah]

Hey guys, I've got the lud. repens growing in a 10g with only 30 watts on it (2 normal flo strips) And the usual CO2 and ferts regime. The difference is that I'm using flo strips with really high blue spectrum output.

My logic as this - I wanted really red plants, and since the red plants would be reflecting the red spectrum instead of absorbing it, the leaves would have to be receiving energy from the purple/blue end. So far, this has worked. My red temple and other red stem plants have all been developing new leaves that turn corvette red.

So Marc, I wouldn't say more light necessarily, but perhaps a different light temperature.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by sarahbobarah

So Marc, I wouldn't say more light necessarily, but perhaps a different light temperature.

Your probably right- I'm sure light temps would also work well. Im running 67k's tho and dont have a problem with getting red out of most plants. Intensity of the bulbs may also play a large factor- Im running 2x96 watt bulbs.

[Troy McClure]

I was doing a search on red plants, and I think Sarah might be on to something. For a long time, my 10gal had only 36W @ 10000K and the ludwigia was consistently a nice dark red. I was having a small problems with hair and thread algae which I ignorantly blamed on the color temp, not the fact my fert dosing sucked. So out came the 10000K bulb (it had cracked accidently) and currently under the hood sits 1x36W @ 6700K and 2x13W @ 6700K. More light, less red. The underside of the leaves are a beautiful shade of red, but under the 10000K bulbs the tops of the leaves were less green/more red as well. The Rotala indica is only slightly pink at the tips. Like Anthony, I dose macros on S days and T days, .5ml-1ml traces and .5ml Flourish Iron on MWFs.

I may order a 10000K bulb to carry out a three week ultra-unscientific experiment.


....hmmm I just noticed that I said my dosing sucked during the 10000K period. Could it have been the lack of nitrates that were the source of the redness as well as the hair algae? If plants exhibit more red at low nitrate levels, how low is low? 10? 5? 2? 0???

[sarahbobarah]

My theory is that it depends on the plants. My Red temple grows super red with high nitrates, while the L Repens does not. Sounds like we SHOULD conduct some kind of experiment....

[Marc]

well in my tank N levels were 10-15ppm and they were red.

[YourPalCM]

Oh my GOD! That is beautiful. I can most definitely tell you that mine does not look like that. Mine is growing fine, but it's mostly green with a hint of red on the underside of the top-most leaves.

[Marc]

if you look at the picture, the plants that are exposed to the light are very red. The ones that are deeper in the tank or shaded are less red.