# Scarlet Temple Questions



## coreyh (Dec 1, 2012)

While picking up a few plants, I was roped into buying four little scarlet temple plants in a plastic package by my mother who I now believe owns a share of petco with all the products she pushes on me. 

I did get an iron supplement for them since they're red and I know from my minimal research that they would need it. Otherwise, I'm at a complete loss. They were planted in the gravel in my fry tank that has 2 watts per gallon light and crazy high nitrates (daily water changes and minimal feedings barely keep it under 15ppm). 

For these plants would I need root tabs for them? I couldn't find if they were big root feeders or not. And if they do like nutrient rich substrate would it be better to dirt the tanks instead of buying tabs?

I know they're mid-high light plants, would 3-5 watts per gallon be okay? 

Any other fertilizers I should get or would iron and whatever gets into the water from the food and waste, be alright?


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

I've had scarlet temple in a variety of conditions. It was the very first red plant we got and took awhile to really adjust and take off but once it did, it's been going great ever since. 

To low light and it will start to grow some crazy algae. Every few months I throw a root tab under them and just recently started dosing once a week or every 2 weeks with Seachem Flourish Iron. I don't really see much difference in the plants before and after but they were pretty happy to begin with.

Seems really easy to care for and in our noobish brand new to plants phase we didn't kill it off, so that is saying something  So long as you have 6500k lighting it should be fine.


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## coreyh (Dec 1, 2012)

Thanks Peachii, I'm completely new to aquarium plants and I really want them to make it. Good to know they're not the super difficult plants I thought they were. I think I'll just plant them in the 2.5 gallons once the finrot treatments are over and see how they do there with nice bright lights. I'll leave out the root tabs for now and just see how they're doing in a few weeks before I decide to splurge.

One thing I noticed from all the tube or packaged plants I've gotten so far is that they seem so grateful for water. As soon as these little guys hit the water their leaves started unfurling and any green on them is quickly becoming pink. They really are gorgeous plants


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