OK, 
       Most of if not all the responses say to increase washing times and make sure the slides are deparaffinized completely. One also said to filter the substrate prior to use. Another said try Tween 20 in the washes as well as decreasing the staining time. 
       I use a Ventana automated immunostainer with charged slides and set wash times. I used the Nova Red for a total of 3 minutes and get bright red cells. I think the consensus is to try longer washes and make sure my slides are de-waxed, I'll also try filtering the nova red. 

Thanks for all the responses...

Jamie