# How to E. Oriental requirements



## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

I know there are certain nutrients that bring out the red in plants, any ideas on how I could get my echinodorus oriental looking like this? Any nutrients that bring out more of the pink? My new leaves come out pinkish reddish but this sword looks divine.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

That picture almost looks like they are using a pinkish light bulb on their tank.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

Yeah it does look like a pink bulb is used. For the best color have lots of Iron (ferts and in substrate), mucho lighting and co2. Orientals are a pain to keep happy.


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## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

legomaniac89 said:


> Yeah it does look like a pink bulb is used. For the best color have lots of Iron (ferts and in substrate), mucho lighting and co2. Orientals are a pain to keep happy.


F Y information most swords I've kept have been easily maintained and easily kept "happy". Ie: Radicans, Autumnleaves, Compacta, Indianred, Schuelteri, Trialatus, I haven't kept all these examples but all echinodorus mostly I believe are simple. : )


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

> F Y information most swords I've kept have been easily maintained and easily kept "happy". Ie: Radicans, Autumnleaves, Compacta, Indianred, Schuelteri, Trialatus, I haven't kept all these examples but all echinodorus mostly I believe are simple. : )


Yeah most of them are pretty simple to keep. Have you kept an Oriental though? We've tried several in a 29G at my job at a LFS and they would die off after about 2 weeks. This is with 4.5wpg, co2, Eco-Complete and potting soil substrate and tons of nutrients. There just was something not right that they didn't like.


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## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

With 4.5 wpg its very hard to keep up with nutrients and co2, were all the other plants doing well? My Echinodorus is doing just fine.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Yeah it does look like a pink bulb is used. For the best color have lots of Iron (ferts and in substrate), mucho lighting and co2. Orientals are a pain to keep happy.


couldn't say it better myself lots of iron 4 wpg and high co2 bring out the true vibrant color of swords variants


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

There can be a lot of reason to why legomaniac89's EO died. Shock, emersed culture, handling etc. I am in the same dilemma with you Strungout. I just added new lights with higher wattage, CO2, iron and more freq change of water. It seems to be working.

I ve 110W of lights, change water to reduce nitrates which is believed to dampen efforts to make plants red and squirt iron supp everyday. I cant say how much iron i put in my tank - i do it instinctively by looking at the algae pop in my tank. very unscientific, but heck. IMHO!


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Low NO3 rather than high Fe content is the key to getting those deeper reds.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

Raul-7 said:


> Low NO3 rather than high Fe content is the key to getting those deeper reds.


I respectfully disagree, I keep my No3 pretty high in my sword tank as well as my Fe and no one can say my swords aren't bright red. Low No3 and high Fe is good for bringing out reds in plants like Rotala Macrandra and alternanthera this has been tested many times and proven however I don't believe this same rule holds true for swords. at least not from what Ive seen Fe and adequate Co2 is the key ingredient to bright swords


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

> With 4.5 wpg its very hard to keep up with nutrients and co2, were all the other plants doing well?


Yeah all the other plants were absolutely thriving. co2 is kept at 27ppm and the entire Flourish line was dosed. Plus a very good substrate.



> There can be a lot of reason to why legomaniac89's EO died. Shock, emersed culture, handling etc


The thing was it would do fine for the first week. It would get new growth and one even sent out a plantlet before it melted and died. Finally just gave up on EOs all together.

And I agree with jazzlvr123, high co2 and Fe are better for reds in Echinodorus than low no3.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

jazzlvr123 said:


> I respectfully disagree, I keep my No3 pretty high in my sword tank as well as my Fe and no one can say my swords aren't bright red. Low No3 and high Fe is good for bringing out reds in plants like Rotala Macrandra and alternanthera this has been tested many times and proven however I don't believe this same rule holds true for swords. at least not from what Ive seen Fe and adequate Co2 is the key ingredient to bright swords


I believe it isn't necessarily true.  Anthocyanin, responsible for the red coloration in plants, contains no iron ions in it's structure.

Is the intense red coloration in the older leaves too? I notice that the red coloration is more intense in the youngest leaves and slowly fades as they grow older.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

Raul-7 said:


> I notice that the red coloration is more intense in the youngest leaves and slowly fades as they grow older.


this holds true for most swords the older leaves slowly turn green however some red swords like E. rocter october, red diamond or even red rubin give off bright red new leafs and the older leafs never turn green they stay a very pronounced red however they become darker not as fluorescent as the younger leaves. but high co2 and light prolong the fluorescents of young sword leafs keeping them bright well into maturity.


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