It's not easy being green...

["Rachel Sandage" <rachelsor at hotmail_com>]

Actually, in my case, being green is easy - it is red that is hard to do. 
Here's my story. I recently received some beautiful Ammania gracilis and 
Eusteralis stellata from Steve Maier, both showing lovely pink color. After 
two weeks in my tank they have now both become a lovely green. In addition, 
last Tuesday at our fish club meeting there were two cuttings of Ludwigia 
arcuata available. They had been grown in two different tanks, but had 
originally come from the same plant. One was green, the other a deep 
red-purple. I bought the red-purple one, and put it in my tank. You guessed 
it - it is turning green. But what is odd is that I also have Alternanthera 
reineckii in the same tank, and it is the darkest, purplest I have ever 
seen.

So my plan is to try changing some variables. The first thing I am going to 
try is P-limiting the tank. I usually add P after a water change, so this 
coming Thursday I will not add any. The next thing I might try is 
N-limiting, although that seems like a scary thing to do. Finally, I was 
thinking I might try some 10000K bulbs. The tank currently has 2-5300K and 
2-6400K bulbs with AH supply reflectors. I would expect to see results 
within 1-2 weeks, given how quickly the pink has disappeared.

Does anyone have any other suggestions to try? I will report my findings in 
the next month or so.

-Rachel







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