Yea it's a pigment that won't change. There are all
kinds of different colored algaes. There are a lot
of differences between true plants and algae. By the
way, you probably already know this, but kelp is an
algae. There is one type of red algae that will
change color in high intense lighting, like right
under 400w mh light.

As for ammonia, macroalgaes prefer nitrate over
amonia. I think land plants prefer nitrate over
ammonia, ammonia is used to fertilize, but it gets
converted by bacteria into nitrate. Water plants
prefer ammonia over nitrate, and green water prefer
ammonia over nitrate.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


jthread wrote on 7/26/2007 12:45 AM:
"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
...
Don't count on it dropping ammonia levels.

thanks man

we'll check all levels. what do you think makes it red? the internet says
it's the pigment in the chlorophyll implying it cant be changed. when i
worked at a greenhouse it was ph levels. but not here. light more/less or
type of light maybe? it's a real pretty deep red. but there is a green
variety that looks just like it.

my wife got some live rock out of a old aquarium. with (real cool) mini-mini
5cm beach ball algae growing too