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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #219




>While picking up a plant order at my favorite LFS this afternoon, the
>manager gave me a bottle of AZOO RED PLANT NUTRIENTS to try out. Since part
>of my order was some beautiful Althernanthera reineckii, I agreed. The label
>reads, in part:
>
>"Anthocyanidins is the main pigment that turns water plants red. AZOO RED
>PLANT NUTRIENTS contains  unique formulas that activate and transform the
>Anthocyanidins enzyme in water into anthocyanidins [???] Meanwhile, AZOO RED
>PLANT NUTRIENTS contains critical trace elements that are essential to turn
>water plants red. It turns the leaves of all red water plants and some green
>water plants reddish under  the illumination of light with the 300-400 nm
>wave length. It is the best activator of reddish enhancement for water
>plants."
>
>Anything in square brackets [], is editorial comment. The label gives no
>specific nutrient breakdown or list of ingredients.
>
>Question for the botanists and/or chemists: Are these claims reasonable (the
>one about the Anthocyanidins "enzyme")?

Typically what will happen, as with us and our metabolism, is before the
plant will take it in, it will break it down into the monomers then
reassimilate these to form it's own specific coded chemicals that may be
very close but the plant doesn't ID them as their own or in the right spot
in the plant etc so it gets chewed up by other enzymes and remade. Many of
these enzymes are very specific to each plant also. It would be hard to say
that it works for all red aquatic plants therefore if any- beyond adding
some extra monomers that already likely exist in your tank.

 It may help some but it is no miracle. The 300-400nm range of light will
help more IMO if the rest of your tank is doing well. These are not small
chemicals like NO3 or CO2 that don't need to pass through a ID filter so to
speak. These are typically chewed up by the plant first before being
assimilated but the smaller ones are not "typically". There are exceptions
but I don't think this is one of them.
Let me know what your experiences are with it though as I didn't find it
that great but perhaps you will have a better experience! 

Generally- Enzymes are good for digestion; for assimilation cycles you will
not find them to be all that useful. The hormones are another story. I think
these deserve more interest/research. 
Regards,
Tom Barr