Re: 120 x 55 x 55cm 'On the sea shore'
viktorlantos said:
I'd not fear too much about the colors...........just work on growth in general, this is the path to good color, everyone thinks there's a trick.
T5's are nice and can reflect a lot of red color also. Eg red blubs make the tank look redder, but then your greens do not look as nice.
but i wanted to highlight with the same powerful light same things plants will get different hue based on the ferts.
I do not disagree with this, I showed this 14 years ago on the APD mailing list(err.before they even had forum software........okay, I'm "that" old) using NO3 limitation to reduce Chlorophyll, thereby unmasking the red and yellow pigments that lack any N in their structure(mostly all reduced carbon chains). Many wetlands are N limited due to denificiation to NO3=> N2 gas.
Fear not, low NO3 and micromanagement can yeild real red plants.
A trick is to do this for only 1-2 weeks and not stunt the plants too much, then go back to higher KNO3 dosing.
they get nice and red, then you take the picture, have the club come over, oooo's ahhhs..........then back to the old routine. Many Dutch NBAT's folks do this since they lose points if the NO3/PO4 is high.
Big water changes etc before the judges come over etc.
Trickery.
Then i see your journal Tom and the whole thing above may lost it's point 😀 Damn colors there 😉
We do run mutiple tanks on a long term and not changing plants there frequently so we have a chance to test different fertilizers too. This thing i've seen a couple times changing one ferts to another.
Is redder a sign if plant health or stress or that is a human condition/desire?
I can limit and fuss with dosing and micromanage that, but why? This is not a superior method at all, a wiser decision is
to chose a different plant that is easy and has the nice color both, regardless of a dosing routine.
A simple GOOD plant choice resolve any of this.
Also, if you prefer a leaner routine, simply add less KNO3, no reason you cannot, no method is written in stone.
My tanks rarely ever go above 20ppm, and rarely below 10ppm. I use to run things at the 5-10ppm range, but I had less wiggle room. Some like to mess with this, I no longer care much truthfully.
Since this seems to be a big issue for many, and the ADA fan boys.........ADA AS and PS have a lot of Nitrogen, this last about 6-12 months, depending...........so the same can be said about ADA methods also, they are non limiting
initially. Many species that are in plain sand get bigger, grow faster, lose red color when you use fresh ADA AS.
ADA sediments lose N more than anything else over time(I'd say around 12 months and all gone at 18 months), the rest of the nutrients likely last a decade or so.
So why don't folks complain about this? It's a bit two faced if you ask me, sort of like the folks that complain about EI and the large water changes, but ADA gets a free pass for suggesting the exact same thing. These methods are not that different really, plants still get at the ferts easily and in either location, or in my case the last few years: both locations. Bunch of chicken manures not willing to question Amano? hehe, seems like it.
Still, DTPA Fe is good stuff and you can make your own Trace mix and doctor it up, add more DTPA or Fe gluconate just to "be sexy". I dose more than many and Claus said my tank was about the only one in the USA he saw that was not trace limited.
Is it some key or trick? No.........but each bit, light, CO2, and dosing all combine....then things like good filters, good attention to trimming and removing plant leaves, cleaning filters, wiping glass etc........also work together to make a decent end result.
Cannot see the forest because they are looking at the trees?? Ads hobbyists, we ofter......look for a silver bullet or one trick, Amano is pretty plain about this not being the case also. Nor does he fuss with ferts, if you have a richer sediment, you do not have to much. I really do not either. We have 400+ species of plants, I've got 30-50 red plants to work with, and i had like 5-6 when I got into this hobby, so life is better/good these days, you have choices, so make use and try different species and see what fits best.
Excuse me while i pick my jaw up off the floor! Amazing tank, simply amazing, well done Mark!
