I've read everything I can find on Alternanthera Reineckii and I'm still having trouble growing it. My question is, does a red color indicate it has enough light? I have a combination of 6500K CFLs, T8 colormax and 6500K T5NO over a 155g tank, but bulbs are all older than 8 months. After doing some reading on par levels, they drop off quite a bit toward the bottom of a 24" tank. My A. Reineckii plants are positioned in different places, some under each light, but none are growing at all. Lower leaves are full of holes, falling apart, much like photos in other threads where people have had trouble with this plant. I run pressurized CO2, thru Grigg reactor with the output directed right on the plants. pH drop is 1.2 with the CO2, and I've increased it from 4 bps to about 7 in the past couple days. The bubbles are getting tough to count at this rate, but I noticed increased pearling and no ill effect on fish. Bacopa, swords, crypts, java fern, ludwigias are all growing great and pearling, but reineckii just sits there. I've also tried shading it. Should I turn some lights off and try to grow it even though it may green up? I can't tell if I have too much light for the ferts/CO2 or perhaps too little. The reineckii are all 2-3 inches tall, so my hunch is they don't have too much light. I also notice the reineckii and narrow-leaf ludwigia leaves curling down rather than up toward the light for the whole photo period. Does this fact indicate anything?
NO3 - 10-20 ppm (reducing it from 30-40 ppm range when I was using full EI - I have good fish load and probably lower uptake than I thought)
PO4 - 1-2 ppm
K - dosing at least 10 ppm per week via K2SO4 - no sign of any deficiency in other plants
Iron/traces - dose every other day, no sign of deficiency
50 % weekly W/C
KH = 2, GH = 7, ratio of C to Mg is 4:1
Thanks.
NO3 - 10-20 ppm (reducing it from 30-40 ppm range when I was using full EI - I have good fish load and probably lower uptake than I thought)
PO4 - 1-2 ppm
K - dosing at least 10 ppm per week via K2SO4 - no sign of any deficiency in other plants
Iron/traces - dose every other day, no sign of deficiency
50 % weekly W/C
KH = 2, GH = 7, ratio of C to Mg is 4:1
Thanks.