[docrak]

I started a new regiment of EI dosing using some if my new ferts this weekend. Not really EI, my version of it based on a what I believe to be a high iron requirement of my plant selection. One of the by products of resetting the tank was that my Bacopa turned red. I don't know how I did it. I did dose my iron high the first day to .5 ppm and reduced the dosage to .25 ppm per day. After a few day it went back to being green. I also dosed phosphates the first day and ran out of my old stuff, I'm still waiting for some of my new ferts to come in. All my plants are turning red including my Hygrophila polysperma. My question is how did I get my Bacopa to go red, because I liked it and I want to do it again.

 

[hooha]

hmmm, I couldn't tell you why both H. polysperma and B. carolinia turned red. I was going to ask if you have B. carolinia or B. "colorata" which can turn red with high light and high iron.

The talk is that high phosphates, high iron, low nitrates can all influence the redness of plants....but those two species don't really have red hues.....

 

[Momotaro]

I have seen Bacopa caroliniana turn red under MH lighting.


Mike

 

[Anthony]

It could be a possibility if the above requirements were met, extremely high light being a top priority. The turning red of some plants is like a defense mechanism used to protect the chlorophyll from extreme light. Kinda like when green bushes in gardening turn red when the location of the sun changes, giving it much more sunlight than usual.

 

[docrak]

I've kind of been doing some investigating as to when the plants started to turn red. I've noticed that my tank becomes very red in the morning and looses the reds thought the day and becomes green in the evening.

This photo was taken this morning:

This photo was taken last night:

These photos were taken 10 hours appart. Regardless of any change in fert dosage or lighting I've been noticing this pattern for the past week. The weird part is that it's not just the bacopa thats effected. All of the plants look better in the morning after a black out. I'd like to know what causes this and is there any way to keep the red coloration going all day. That would be cool. The tank gets 3 to 4 watts of lighting through out the day a various times. There is no CO2 but I do use Seachem Flourish Excel. I dose EI based on a high light tank with extra Fe every other day for the swords.

Thanks

 

[dufus]

ok, biology lesson-
Plants use all color pigments except green, therefore they reflect green color.
When they no longer need red pigments(enough light and or ferts) they will reflect it too. I suspect your plant if reflecting red in the morning because it is using the light and not so much nutrients, but as it's cells warm up, they start taking in the nutrients as well, therefore making the growth rate faster, and using more nutrients, which means it needs more light to turn red when using so many nutrients.

Ok, lecture over(thank you AP biology)

 

[epicfish]

ok, biology lesson-
Plants use all color pigments except green, therefore they reflect green color.
When they no longer need red pigments(enough light and or ferts) they will reflect it too. I suspect your plant if reflecting red in the morning because it is using the light and not so much nutrients, but as it's cells warm up, they start taking in the nutrients as well, therefore making the growth rate faster, and using more nutrients, which means it needs more light to turn red when using so many nutrients.

Ok, lecture over(thank you AP biology)

If that's true, what you can do is try to keep the lights turned off for a day. See how red it is still when you get home from work/school after a dark photoperiod for just a day or two.

 

[dufus]

yea, i'm going off what my biology teacher tried to explain to the other idiots in my class.