Red Plants?

[burgoid]

hi i was wondering if anyone knew of anyone plants that had red leaves local to central or south america. especially if they dont need much 'Gardening'.

cheers

[BlakeyBoyR]

To my knowledge there isnt such thing as a low maitenence 'red plant'. Red plants are high maitenence by nature because the pigment in their leaves, the chemical (which ever way you want to put it), isnt as efficient in promoting photo-synthesis as green plants which have a higher level of chlorophyl in their leaves.

Red plants need (generally speaking) a lot of iron and light. The only thing low maintence about them is that if you dont give them what they need pruning wont be necessary

[burgoid]

ok well if i provide enough light and mayb add a little liquid fertilizer at each water change do you think i could keep some. could you recommened any.

[Kribbie]

ok well if i provide enough light and mayb add a little liquid fertilizer at each water change do you think i could keep some.

You can't just simply add "a little" liquid fertilizer when doing water change everytime. To successfully keep any types of plant that require heavy-lighting, especially the red coloured ones, you need to add substrate fertilizers (emerged into the substrate for a constant period of time), the right amount of liquid fertilizer every 2 - 3 days as well as sufficient CO2 injection, and most of all, you need to balance everything correctly to prevent any types of algae growth.

[BlakeyBoyR]

In short burgoid your answer is no, you cant just add a little liquid fertiliser and hope for the best.

You need substrate fertiliser like laterite or some of the granule fertilisers, you need tablets to place at the base of plant bunches, you need frequent liquid fertilisers, C02 injection and 3-4watts per gallon of water.

There are plants such as java fern, anubias sp. and java moss that are less demanding, but you will find most 'red' plants and stem plants need the things I've mentioned.

[goldfish]

Regarding red colour plants,, i keep some crypts, not sure what the name it is. When i bought from the fish shop it was green,,but after like 2 months in my tank it turned red!,,,,!,,my tank has a full CO2 setup!,,and i do add in liquid fertilisers regularly,u dont need to add in weekly as the instruction says!,,maybe add in whenever u get a gut feeling the plants need it!,,my tank is 5x2x2 and i put in the liquid fert about once a fortnight or every 3 weeks!

i prefer to put in alot at once,like the weekly dose rather than the daily doses! i notice the plant leaves are brighter green!,,,but it could be becuz my tank is big so need more fert!

a couple yrs ago when i had a 2ft tank,i used to put abit of fertilisers and it did wonders!,,,from my experience i think its how much water the tank holds!,,,it is much easier to fertilise a tank that has 100lts compare to 500!,,the fertiliser spread over the 2ft tank more evenly!

also use tablets,place it directly next to the plant roots!,,,if like a huge amazon,put once tablet at the roots!,,if like many crypts then break the tablets into a few pieces to cover all around the plants!

oh the lights too, my 2ft tank i had a twin reflector,2 x36watts!,,i used silver foil to put inside the hood(around the lights) so that it reflects the lights onto the bottom of the tank!,,it works!!

my 5x2x2 now,it has 6 x 36watts!!,,at the beginning i didnt use the silver foil!,,but after a few weeks i decided to put some silver foil around the lights, i got much better results from the plants!,,so i guess the amount of lights that the plant gets is important!!,,i leave mine on about 8-10hrs per day!,,,i must warn u though that u will porbably get heaps of the algae growing from the glass!,,make an effort to clean it up every month!,,its a hassle but atleast u get nice red/green plants!

i think i just wrote too much!