# Pink Flamingo Crypt... Turning Green?



## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

I find that Flamingo needs really high light to throw out pink leaves. I had some in a 5 gallon with stock lighting and the best it got was a light pink with green hues. In my med-high light tank, it gets pink. Hope this helps!










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## TheLastRaven (Apr 15, 2018)

Thanks! I'll see what I can do about the lighting situation, but beyond changing the fixture I'd say not much atm. 

I was kind of hoping that as crypts are low light, that they might be ok. Right now the aquarium is fairly balanced, so I was hoping it was just dosing iron or something that'd make it grow a bit more pink. Ah well... I'll have to save up for a Fluval 3.0 or something.


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## swarley (Apr 12, 2018)

I recommend the Twinstar E or S series lights. E's are fairly affordable depending ofc, but are really great. S's are my choice, even on Non-CO2 tanks (especially if tanks are already balanced. I may just be lucky but I haven't had algae problems on my 20Tall tank that has no injected CO2. 

Amazing red rendition as well as great par output on the Twinstar lights.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

FWIW it'll probably survive and grow in your tank, but getting the pink coloration out of it seems to require high intensity lighting. This plant is on my short list, have done lots of reading about it, but haven't gotten any yet. Just my $0.02.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Hey! We're discussing these in Burr's journal as well! While neither of us have them as pink as Dennis does in his tank, mine are fairly pink under mediumish highish light and burrs are newly planted. Mine are probably a month and a half old now. Mine were also from tissue culture.


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## TheLastRaven (Apr 15, 2018)

swarley said:


> I recommend the Twinstar E or S series lights. E's are fairly affordable depending ofc, but are really great. S's are my choice, even on Non-CO2 tanks (especially if tanks are already balanced. I may just be lucky but I haven't had algae problems on my 20Tall tank that has no injected CO2.
> 
> Amazing red rendition as well as great par output on the Twinstar lights.


Yeah the tank is already pretty balanced. I just manually clean the algae from the glass and have some fry I want to catch and remove. Bunch of watersprite is in there too. I'll take a look at the E series as I do have a budget in mind for the tank, but I want pink crypts and not green hah. I have enough of those in my 29 atm. 

I was curious if I could throw on a 2nd Aqueon light setup and that would work? I don't want to freak out the fish with too intense light. I have my breeding tetras in there and don't want to ruin the eggs either. Definitely needs a balance, heh.


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## swarley (Apr 12, 2018)

sounds complicated. youll have to decide that on your own probably. I dont know anything about breeding fish.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

TheLastRaven said:


> Yeah the tank is already pretty balanced. I just manually clean the algae from the glass and have some fry I want to catch and remove. Bunch of watersprite is in there too. I'll take a look at the E series as I do have a budget in mind for the tank, but I want pink crypts and not green hah. I have enough of those in my 29 atm.
> 
> I was curious if I could throw on a 2nd Aqueon light setup and that would work? I don't want to freak out the fish with too intense light. I have my breeding tetras in there and don't want to ruin the eggs either. Definitely needs a balance, heh.


If you're looking to successfully breed tetras, you may want to separate them into a different tank. Tetras like low light conditions to breed in, as I'm sure you already know.


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## TheLastRaven (Apr 15, 2018)

varanidguy said:


> If you're looking to successfully breed tetras, you may want to separate them into a different tank. Tetras like low light conditions to breed in, as I'm sure you already know.


Well, they are successfully breeding currently, which is why I don't want to add a lot more light :grin2: I might just decide to halt the breeding project in favor of the crypts by adding the twinstar.

I honestly didn't know they bred more readily in low lighting situations, so it kind of makes sense then what's going on. I accidentally bred my trio in this tank and now I have ~9 Columbians, but will be removing the little guys to a grow out tank as soon as I can catch them. 

I'll be honest when I say I thought the pinks were a function of iron dosing content / CO2 combination as I know reds definitely benefit from Iron.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

TheLastRaven said:


> Well, they are successfully breeding currently, which is why I don't want to add a lot more light :grin2: I might just decide to halt the breeding project in favor of the crypts by adding the twinstar.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Red plants are sort of an anigma. With some, it’s lights, with others it’s nutrients (some plants get more red when they’re in a low nitrate environment, some react with iron). Unfortunately it would seem pink flamingos are lighting dependent for the nice coloration.


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