Hey I had a nice bright green amazon sword that I planted once. Then it
seemed that the green leaves were not the emersed color. All the new leaves
that sprouted were a deep burgundy red and they grew HUGE like 3 feet high.
I realized that this wasn't a green sword but a Red Rubin Sword. That's what
your's might be. Also, I have a forest of crypts that have green leaves when
they are small and new and turn a reddish brown when they grow older. Pretty
standard for most of the crypts I have.

Chlorophyll gives plants their green color. The reddish color on plants not
typically red, from what I understand, is caused from the lack of nitrates.
Chloropasts need nitrogen for their green pigment. With higher light the
plants will grow quickly and have much less time to create more chlorophyll.

Dave.

"Fishman" wrote in message
news:y0hBf.31040$RK3.4117@trnddc06...
Sorry that I don't know what kinds of plants they are, but I do know that
they should not be turning red like this.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the plants are Broad Leaf
Tropical Sword and Crypt beckettii

Fishman

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Fishman wrote:
Hello all,
I'm not much of an aquatic gardener but I do enjoy the use of some live
plants in my tanks.

I've acquired a small collection of plants and placed them in my 240
gal
tank which uses an overflow and sump for circulation. This means that
there
is unfortunately a large amount of air/water turbulence.

I understand that this practically strips out the CO2 from the water
and
am
trying to create a more laminar flow to reduce the air/water mixture.
My
last modification helped and now the air/water turbulence is low enough
that
I suspect some CO2 is remaining in the water column (albeit not much
though).

I do not currently have many test kits that seem customary for planted
tanks
(KH, CO2, etc.) So my question is more of a suspicion type. Could it
be
that my tank is also short on other elements such as iron or nitrate
that
would make the leaves less green?

The plants are still showing new growth and the new leaves begin a nice
green color, but as they age, they become less green.

Lighting consist of two 250watt MH @6500K each running 10 hours a day.

Thank you,
Fishman



What type of plants are they? Some go naturally reddish at the top as
they grow....Hygrophila being a prime example...I find it quite
attractive...

Gill