I can create a message on my ipad but contacts appear in red and im unable to send

If you're trying to text to non-Apple devices, the iPad has to be a cellular model (with an active cellular connection) or you have to have an iPhone that is set up to share it's SMS/MMS texting capability with your iPad. If your situation does not match these requirements, then this is likely why you're seeing this.

The iPad can iMessage to other Apple devices, but in order to send "regular" text messages you need a cellular iPad or an iPhone with the same Apple ID as the iPad (and set to share text messaging, called Text Message Forwarding).