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But think about the coexistence of Iron and Phosphate in a tank.
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I was thinking about it as I was typing it--and in ways it doesn't make any sense....But I'm not a chemist and I don't claim to fully understand all the ins and outs of these things.
That said, Why
Doesn't the P that's already in the tank precipitate the Iron that we add...??? Many of us add little or no P--so its always there--regardless of alternating days or anything else. Every time we add Iron--the P is already in the tank--Soooo, why doesn't it precipitate the Iron and render it useless--I don't know.
Maybe:
We add sufficiently enough Iron to overcome the precipitive ability of the P that's in the tank...!?! (Yes: Concentrations). Maybe adding X amount of Plantex (or whatever) would give a Higher Iron reading on the same tank--if it was tested after being added when there were no P vs. When P was high--I don't know. Maybe, X amount of P only has the ability to precipitate X amount of Iron. Then we get into MagicMagni's thoughts on "Types" of Iron. There are different types of Nitrates (NH4, N03)...Are there different "Types" of Phosphates...? I have no idea. Is the phoshpate that naturally occurs in the tank somehow "different" than the phosphate that we dose---I don't know. NH4 occurs in the tank naturally, but we dose NO3.
Truth is: I don't have all of these answers. And
to a Degree I am just passing along what "I've Heard".
But, that said: I have Heard it more than just here at PT. The Tech Support at SC pointed out the P precipitation issue in the thread that I referenced earlier. They are in the Aquarium chemical business and they make good products, so I am willing to factor all of that in to its credibility.
I have little doubt that P precipitates Fe. Exactly how it works and all the details of it--I'm under-educated....
