i reckon you need to dose some iron, in order to make the plant red....

Not really, unfortunately it's a myth. Iron is essential for all plants, but excessively dosing won't cause plant to become red. If you dig deeper into this how to make plant red topic, you'll be surprise by the result.

Based on my findings, here's how some people make the plant red:
1. Low nitrate - it's hard to control, need test kit and usually quite expensive. If not mistaken, by reducing nitrate will reduce the production of green pigment. But if it's not done carefully, it will affect other plants. That's why sometimes your red plants seems to be redder after WC.
2. Long hour of high light - Red color plants (and some green plants) possess red color pigment cells called Anthocyanin which serve as a "sunscreen protection" to prevent leaves damage when plant exposed to highlight. That's when you'll see your plant become red color. High light alone isn't enough, the photo period need to be lengthy enough to have the red pigments production.

Just recently, I switched my LED to 3 T5 24watt for my 60cm tank. I can see my rotala and ludwigia turn red day by day. But then, I have this Green dust algae bloom Did a huge cleaninig and WC and followed by a 3 days blackout routine for the first time to get rid any sort of algae. Wish my luck


This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:20 AM

thanks for the info.
lol, if that's the case, i would rather not have super red plants, but an algae free tank. hehe...

Haha, my GDA was caused by something else, but the new high light accelerated its growth and hence the outbreak. It's a different challenge to deal with GDA, quite interesting.

Anyway, you definitely can have high light, red plant and algae free tank for sure.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:33 AM

yeah i know..... i quit planted long time ago, but lately itchy and made a 1 ft cube with lots of moss. now waiting to reap results, but gonna take super long since without the infusion of co2.

how about yours? with co2??

Yeah, with CO2, more plant choices, but more maintenance. It's a 2ft tank but recently itching to setup a nano tank too.

I'm also quite into moss lately after seeing my christmas moss is doing quite well in my tank, CO2 does make a huge different for sure. I bought mini fissiden which to be arrived this week and also looking for coral moss.

Which moss do you have?

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:46 AM

I had issues trying to make my red plants red. All of them turned green lol..

yeah, with co2, more choices you have there.
i have mini christmas moss in my tank, and some crystal moss, they initially looked dead, all turn brown and grey. but now, new green leaves turn alive! they will come back strongly!
how much you bought mini fissiden? and its portion?

it's not easy bro, you still having them?

I bought 2 for RM24, I think that's the cheapest I can find. 3cm diameter, tight on rock. I'll post photo once I got it this week.

What's your setup?

okok, tonite when playing around with the tank i'll try to snap some close up pics.
but they won't look so good though, can see algae all over the place

that's why purposely take far away shot LOL

bought some odessa and tiger barbs and rummies. Quarantined them first in a separate tank. Ending with the demise of the rummy nose and got eaten by the tiger barbs and odessa bard. This morning woke up to another dead odessa barb!
Sad sad ....

wah, where from???
do you mind pm me pls?

Just did.

Wanna join me for blackout routine to get rid of algae? Hehe.

I think it could be your intense light.

yes ur right, should cut down light. effectively i have 24X4 = 96 watts of high output lights on.let me cut it down to 7-8 hrs and see.
when u say blackout, mean no light at all and cover up the aquarium so that no light gets in?

I got this blackout treatment from Tom Barr. He is a popular guy in planted tank. He has done a lot of research in planted tank. I think he invented EI dosing.

Basically:

Day 1, clean, trim leaf with algae and do a 50% WC. Dose excel, switch off co2, no fertz, and 0% light, cover it with blanket/rubbish bin plastic.
Day 2, black out
Day 3, black out, You can feed during blackout but some fish might not able to see it.
Day 4, WC 50-70%, light on for 3 days, heavy dose of co2 and dose fertz.
Day 5, light on, fertz
Day 6, light on, fertz
Day 7, Repeat day 1 - day 7.

Usually need 2 cycle, can be more. That'd kill algae effectively. I'm doing it for the first time, so maybe you can wait to see my result first, I use it to get rid of my green dust algae, those stick on glass.

some ppl said some of their plants melted during this treatment but it does kill algae.

Hi artsy,
Can please PM me where you got the mini fissidens for that price?

GDA - are you referring to Green spot algae? The one that stick on the glass? Or green water algae - the one that makes your water green?

Green dust algae. The one stick on glass. I'm having an outbreak. Some said let it stay for 2-3 weeks for the full life cycle and it will go away, but I don't think I can stand looking at it for 2-3 weeks, so I try the blackout method instead.

my GDA stuck on glass, wood and stones,...

glass - easy to remove
wood- difficult
stone - very difficult..

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