Ech tenellus changing colour!

Has any one ever experienced this before or know what causes it. I've got a few leaves that are turning a kind of rust colour, they look healthy as far as I can tell. I'll try to get a pic if I can.

Regards Wayne,

 

have you trimmed it recently? it goes a rust red after being trimmed. i trim mine every week now and it allways grows back in red kinda nice. i think there is atrue red variety which i'd love to get my hands on. it stay smaller too.

 

I have'nt trimmed it yet but i might at do the weekend. I kind of like the colour actually, it breaks up the solid mass of green a bit. Thanks Mark.

 

Cheers Graeme, I think it's fair to say that it gets plenty of light *approx 4.3wpg* . I just hope it keeps the colour as it's growing on me the more I see it

Regards Wayne,

 

Hi Wayne, The colours are awesome aren't they!?
Read this somewhere, if I remember where I'll post the link!
It's basically the leaves' natural sunblock, optical filters called anthocyanins, they're produced when leaves receive more light energy than can be used in photochemistry & photosynthesis begins to fail, photoinhibition, which in a severe case could cause reactive oxygen which would in turn damage the plant causing DNA damage etc & the anthocyanins produced reduce the damage caused by this & help aid recovery.
Hope I got that right-no doubt someone will help out if not!?
Wish I had the something along the lines of a natural sunblock, when I go red it's too late & it's aloe vera time, gotta love those plants!

Will

 

This is exactly what I found, although its getting longer!! maybe too long for where it is.

 

Wayne, I'm curious how much wpg you've got and what depth the plant is?

I added some about a month a go and it has turned 'rusty' already. It's looks healthy like this and is also fairly compact at the moment, fingers crossed it stays this way.

The thing is I have just under 2wpg and a depth of nearly 2 foot. Not what I would call high light

 

I'm running about 4.3wpg with co2 at 3-4bps and 2x EI dosing, the tank is 18" deep but where the tenellus is at the back the aquasoil is sloped up to about 6" high. I've noticed that it's mainly new leaves that have this rust colour and then fades with time.

 

Wow, thats a lot more lighting than I have!

I have also read that red in aquatic plants can be induced by nutrient starvation. Lack of iron in swords, and lack of nitrates in vallis are two that spring to mind. I tend to take this with a pinch of salt though.

Then when you mention you are dosing EI at a high rate, that tends to support the sunburnt plants theory much more

Maybe its a sword thing, I have other varieties of sword that have new leaves that come out red then fade to green over time. I've never noticed it with anything else other than echinodorus sp.