Echinodorus Aflame

[Martin296]

Hello all.

Thinking of getting some Echinodorus Aflame for my semi-low tech tank.
Its a 3ft - 200l - 20" deep, with co2 injection (1BPS) sand and aquatic compost substrate.

Would it grow happy in my tank? or will it be a complete flop?

 

[EnderUK]

You'd have to really be doing something wrong to kill an amazon sword. It looks pretty good in my tank, with a good substrate it will get pretty big so have it as your feature plant near the mid ground

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[Martin296]

I was aiming for it to be more background, but it'll be in with low plants, so its there to add some height.
I'm mostly worried because its a red plant, and I've read that red plant require a lot of light. I've only got 1.5wpg (par 130) in my tank.

 

[EnderUK]

Well you could have it in the background just don't plant it right up aginst the glass. I have a similar setup low light, co2 and soil capped with sand. I EI dose which you should be doing if you're using CO2. The new leaves on mine are mostly a red wine color but as the leaves become older they get a nice mix of green and red with twisting leaves.



This is a picture of my Echinodorus red flamed (basically the same plant) just after I replanted it after it was in a poor flow area of my tank, it was behind some massive Crypt growth. As you can see it leaves are mainly green with red in them in a low light poor co2/flow enviroment. I haven't got a recent picture on hand will try to get one tonight.

 

[Martin296]

The space I want it to go is in the left hand backcorner which is right by the co2 diffuser.



I was hoping to keep it with the nice red wine colour leaves though.

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Should be fine there, but if you want one that remains red, you might be better off with E. "Hot Pepper", which leaves remain red.

 

[Martin296]

I would like it to stay red - what the sprific name for the "hot pepper"

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

That is the specific name; it's a non-natural species...

http://www.flowgrow.de/db/aquaticplants/echinodorus-hot-pepper

 

[Martin296]

Ah ha I see.

Either that, or how would a Red Lotus fair in a low light tank?

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

If you want red, you will need some decent light, doesn't need to be Las Vegas bright, but you will need a fair bit of light. How low light is low light in your case?

 

[Martin296]

130 par/1.4WPG (x2 T5 38w over a 20" deep tank 56 us gallon (212L))

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

That might be okay...

 

[Martin296]

Guessing all it'll do is go green rather than red if the light isn't enough? Or I could put a small LED spot light over it to give just that one plant a little more?

Trying to avoid going into high-tech stages....

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

That's what usually happens, the red will not be as deep and as bright as under higher lighting.

You could use a spotlight, but that would make the tank hideous to look at IMHO, plus you risk ruining the equilibrium in your tank. I'd give it a go as is, and see what happens. Better chance with the Echinodorus than with the Lotus I would say.

 

[Martin296]

Ok, thanks for the advice 🙂 one way of finding out I guess.