If you are relying on an Fe test kit, they are crap! How many watts?
Iron is pegged but where did my reds go?
I recently switched from dosing the suite of Flourish products to dosing Chelated Iron, KNO3 and KPO4 but I am still using the classic flourish and excel. This is a high tech tank with 200+ par throughout the tank, lotsa CO2 and flow, my values are
Fe=1mg/l
NO3=10mg/l
PO4=0.25mg/l
KH=2
GH=5
pH=6.3
I can't understand why I am getting the worst reds even though the iron is higher than its ever been. My formerly brilliant red plants include Ludwigia guinea, Nesea red and Polygonum SP.
Additionally, my narrow leaf stellatus is picture perfect with 1/4" internodes, 1/2" stem and 6" diameter but my Eichornia, Eriocaulon setaceum and Tonina are noticeably stringy with long internodes and thin stems.
What is going on guys? Am I missing something? I have some thoughts but I am interested to see what you come up with.
Fe=1mg/l
NO3=10mg/l
PO4=0.25mg/l
KH=2
GH=5
pH=6.3
I can't understand why I am getting the worst reds even though the iron is higher than its ever been. My formerly brilliant red plants include Ludwigia guinea, Nesea red and Polygonum SP.
Additionally, my narrow leaf stellatus is picture perfect with 1/4" internodes, 1/2" stem and 6" diameter but my Eichornia, Eriocaulon setaceum and Tonina are noticeably stringy with long internodes and thin stems.
What is going on guys? Am I missing something? I have some thoughts but I am interested to see what you come up with.
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
your pics show such plus-plus plants I hope you take this with salt. and besides, if you have perfect unstunted P. stellatus "narrow leaf" your consistency and solid dosing speaks for itself.
high fe leading to reds is bs. there is no physiological evidence to support this, and plenty of tests by your fellow hobbyists agree. keeping iron available does avoid pale growth and stunting for this hobbyist, as well as improve overall (not necessarily red) color by avoiding yellows.
what does/has always helped for me is high P dosing (>2ppm input weekly. in sunlight I use 3-5ppm.). my understanding of plants and my attempts to correlate my experience to expert opinion leads me to think that this probably has something to do with some optimum concentration leading to N uptake (the stressing plants via low N brings red method), but personally I think there's only three levels of N: lots (fast growth), little (slower growth), and not enough (algae). but if you're crashing N to bring reds, I would remove the P limitation and expect both reds and greens to improve. I would also expect uptake of N to increase (while dosing excess K) and the P stellatus to stunt while I adjusted and regained stability :\
high fe leading to reds is bs. there is no physiological evidence to support this, and plenty of tests by your fellow hobbyists agree. keeping iron available does avoid pale growth and stunting for this hobbyist, as well as improve overall (not necessarily red) color by avoiding yellows.
what does/has always helped for me is high P dosing (>2ppm input weekly. in sunlight I use 3-5ppm.). my understanding of plants and my attempts to correlate my experience to expert opinion leads me to think that this probably has something to do with some optimum concentration leading to N uptake (the stressing plants via low N brings red method), but personally I think there's only three levels of N: lots (fast growth), little (slower growth), and not enough (algae). but if you're crashing N to bring reds, I would remove the P limitation and expect both reds and greens to improve. I would also expect uptake of N to increase (while dosing excess K) and the P stellatus to stunt while I adjusted and regained stability :\
How are you seeing pxs? I don't see any...
The biggest varient for reds is light. Seems like if you have enough light these plants will get red. 9How old are your bulbs) I've heard people say to limit the N but I do EI dosing and my plants get RED with light. I do does extra iron. I moved L. arcuata into a dark corner. The entire plant is now green (from red) except a runner that has grown enough to get to the light. It's brilliant red. Same tank, same nutrients, same plant....
The biggest varient for reds is light. Seems like if you have enough light these plants will get red. 9How old are your bulbs) I've heard people say to limit the N but I do EI dosing and my plants get RED with light. I do does extra iron. I moved L. arcuata into a dark corner. The entire plant is now green (from red) except a runner that has grown enough to get to the light. It's brilliant red. Same tank, same nutrients, same plant....
I fan boy Coralite (and all good farmers) and am referring to his excellent pictures of plus plant health of difficult species elsewhere 
<3
<31 - 5 of 5 Posts
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