Lighting & Background for Brown-based reds?

[pastry]

I've looked through old threads on backgrounds, substrate, lighting, etc to try to figure out how to bring the colors out more. Right now I have a black background with light sand substrate, lots of driftwood, damn good LEDs from BuildmyLEDs (sp?) with some red/pink lighting mixed in with the white, but my VR's, RC's, and plus a few RT's don't have their colors really popping like I know they could. I've tried a very light, creamy yellow/gold background recently but it really didn't do anything. My lights are a few inches off the top of the tank by may set them up a little higher. I'm wondering if it's all the driftwood (contrast) making them dark.

Anyhow, for those that don't know, I have a 150 gallon (72" long) with plants & wood. Most old posts tend to be about PB's but I don't own any so this is not a peppering issue. I just want to see if I can bring out the red a little more. Would cutting down on some of the larger pieces of wood do that? I want to steer clear of a blue background so I can keep it more natural as can be but almost willing to try blue.

Well thanks for any and all help! -Elliot (ps-pics can be found in my old "Growing out in planted 150" thread in the planted section).

[OC Discus]

Elliot,

Good to see you back. Haven't seen you much lately. You might be right about the driftwood. I tried it, but really prefer crystal clear water. I've started running a micron filter with 4 purigen pouches in my canister and the water stays crystal clear all the time.

Bill's Beefheart mix with pro growth seemed make the reds pop on my fish. Other foods with red enhancer might help too. Some of the browns may not have as much red pigment as others, so the red enhancing food will definitely help.

Best of luck.