Aquascaping, the art of creating stunning underwater landscapes in aquariums, has evolved significantly over the years. A key aspect of successful aquascaping is maintaining a healthy and balanced aquatic ecosystem. To achieve this balance, it's crucial to understand the role of essential nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, in supporting aquatic plant growth. The introduction of innovative products like Aquavitro Synthesis & Activate has revolutionized the way aquascapers manage these critical nutrients.
Understanding Nitrogen and Phosphorus
Nitrogen and phosphorus are two primary macronutrients that play a pivotal role in aquatic plant growth. Nitrogen is essential for the formation of chlorophyll and leaf growth, while phosphorus is crucial for energy transfer within cells and DNA synthesis and root development. In aquascaping, maintaining appropriate levels of these nutrients is crucial to promoting healthy and vibrant plant growth.
Phosphorus and nitrogen are both essential nutrients for plants, but they play distinct roles in plant growth and development:
Nitrogen
- Protein Synthesis: Nitrogen is a fundamental element in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Proteins are crucial for various plant functions, including growth, enzyme production, and defense mechanisms.
- Chlorophyll Formation: Nitrogen is a component of chlorophyll, the pigment responsible for capturing light energy during photosynthesis. It's essential for the plant's ability to convert light into energy.
- Leaf Growth and Color: Nitrogen plays a role in promoting leaf growth and maintaining the green color of leaves. Deficiencies can lead to yellowing of leaves (chlorosis).
- Nutrient Transport: Nitrogen is vital for nutrient transport within plants. It helps move nutrients from older leaves to younger ones, ensuring proper distribution.
- Root Development: While phosphorus is more directly associated with root development, nitrogen also influences root growth and architecture.
Phosphorus
- Energy Transfer: Phosphorus is crucial for energy transfer within cells. It's a key component of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which stores and transfers energy needed for various cellular processes.
- DNA and RNA Formation: Phosphorus is a building block of DNA and RNA, the genetic materials of plants. It's essential for cell division, growth, and the transmission of genetic information.
- Root Development: Adequate phosphorus levels are necessary for strong root development. Healthy roots enable plants to absorb water and nutrients from the soil effectively.
Nitrogen and Red Leafed Plants
High levels of nitrogen will also affect the color of red leafed plants and render them appear less red. This is because red leafed plants have a much lower amount of chlorophyll. They rely on anthocyanin and carotenoid to absorb light for photosynthesis. Unlike chlorophyll that absorb red and blue light while reflecting green making leaves appear green, anthocyanin and carotenoid excel in absorbing green and blue while reflecting yellow and red making them appear red. When there’s abundant nitrogen available, it will encourage red leafed plants to develop more chlorophyll to grow faster. The extra chlorophyll will make the leaves appear more green then red. That being said, nitrogen deficiency will stunt plant growth. Maintaining around 2mg/l of nitrogen will be sufficient to maintain plant growth while not affecting red leafed plant color.
While nitrogen control play is important to maintain the color of red leafed plants, other factors should be placed into consideration as well. Sufficient lighting, cold water temperature and acidic water will all result in a red color leaf. The ability of anthocyanin and carotenoid to block UV will also affect the color of the leaf. When there’s access to UV radiation, plants will be encouraged to produce more anthocyanin or carotenoid to shield themselves from UV.
Benefits of Aquavitro Synthesis & Activate
Aquavitro Synthesis and Activate are highly potent. 30,000mg/l of nitrogen source in Synthesis and 6000mg/l of phosphorus in Activate. Which is double the amount in our highly concentrated Seachem Flourish Nitrogen and 1500mg/l phosphorus more than Seachem Flourish Phosphorus. Both Flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorus are one of the more potent liquid form nitrogen and phosphorus aquatic plant supplements in the market. Making the Aquavitro Synthesis and Activate remarkably concentrated.
Synthesis is also unique which 3 sources of nitrogen contain. Nitrate, urea and ammoniacal. Making it easily to be absorbed by all plants thus avoiding being absorbed by the opportunistic algae.