Re: UV-B, Anthocyanins and high kelvin bulbs

["Daniel Larsson" <defdac at hotmail_com>]

Oops. Sorry. Blue light (longer wave length) has *less*
energy than red light (shorter wave length). The damping
effect from the water is greater on shorter wave lengths.
(That's why the water gets more blue at greater depths)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Larsson" <defdac at hotmail_com>
To: <Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: UV-B, Anthocyanins and high kelvin bulbs


> Initially I had 4 GroLux (3000 K?) and 2 Biolux 
> (7200 K) bulbs (newly bought a couple of months
> ago). The L. arcuata was completely
> green. I didn't want to induce nitrogen deficiency.
> 
> I tried using a Hagen Reptiglo 5.0 (UV-A, UV-B) 40 watts 
> for a couple of weeks (without cover glass!) and my 
> L. arcuata and P. palustris changed color in a matter of 
> days. Dark and deep red, almost black. Unfortunately my
> Fe-level dropped rapidly with UV.
> The UV-bulb oxidized the nutrients in the water column.
> 
> A week ago I bought a Philips Aquarelle 10000 K as
> replacement of the UV-bulb and the new shoots of the 
> L. arcuata is turning from green to the kind of red as 
> seen in, for example, Aqua Journal.
> 
> So my experience is that anthocyanin is one kind of red
> that is easy to induce with UV-B, but the kind of red
> that one really wants will be induced by high kelvin bulbs
> and adequate nutrient levels.
> 
> (The "right" red color is also induced by my other
> low kelvin bulbs - at max depth of 20 cm. I guess
> the "blue" light from the high kelvin bulb has more 
> energy and reaches deeper down and therefore
> manages to induce red colors at deeper depths)
> 
> // Daniel Larsson
> http://www.akvarie.net/defdac/
>