In article .com,
Adam wrote:
I was reading a magazine last night (tropical fish hobby something?)

Uh yeah, something.

the section on planted tanks said that anacharis is known for its color
changing growth, usually because it is farmed in natural light and
changing this causes the different color, nothing to worry about...
just may not be the color you wanted.

Lots of plants have red growth tpis if exposed to bright enough light;
right under a tubesl, I mean inches away, from any fluorescent tube is
usually enough to do it. Hornwort, mriophyllum, hygrophilia, Mexican
oaf leaf (sort of a new world water sprite) nd red marble val will
all go red to varying amounts as a function of the amount of light.

Things like Ludwigia repens will srtay green(ish) in moderate light but
scream scarlet under intense light. Other more exotic ludwigias are the
same: glandulosis is downright purple under good light, olive green otherwise,
L. arcuata similarly so, although its more red than purple. Neither
are common now but seem to be around wherever Tropica plants are sold.

http://images.aquaria.net/plants/Lud.../P0011900s.jpg
http://www.tropica.com/productcard_1.asp?id=035

he point is various plants have various amounts of redness. It's pretty
normal for almsot all aquatic plants to have some for there are more than
just green photosynthetic pigments.

In fact, when nitrates are low and plants cannot produce enough green
photosynthetic pigment they tend to make more red; in this sense it
can be used as in indicaor of low nitrate.

So how do you tell low nitrate red from "it's just strong light" red?
Expereinces. Just observe your plants, you'll figure out whats normal
for them and you'll learn to recognize one from the other.


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