[Murazaki]

Hello Guys,

i been adding Iron daily about FL IRON 2ml for my 200L according to http://calc.petalphile.com/

things picked up alot plants coming back very nice and big leaves,

Now i got my self a FE test kit.

i tested the water and 0ml registered..

i keep dosing and i keep testing ,again and again , 0 0 0,
i added a drop of Iron directly in to the test tube to see if the solution works and it does..

now i already added 40ml in the last 12h and still 0...

my question :
do is still go ahead and dose more and more till i get any reading??

 

[tetra73]

The recommended level is under .5 ppm. If you calculate the dosage correctly via the calculator, I won't worry about not having enough iron. Yes, you can overdose iron... Makes sure you are calculating your iron dosage level correctly.

I just did the calculation. Well, 2ml to a 200L tank would only give you .1 ppm. Hardly detectable by most kits, I think. Try to add more per the EI dosing schedule...try 6 to 10ml.

 

[Murazaki]

The recommended level is under .5 ppm. If you calculate the dosage correctly via the calculator, I won't worry about not having enough iron. Yes, you can overdose iron... Makes sure you are calculating your iron dosage level correctly.

calc says to maintain 0.1ppm dose 2ml daily..
i dont get any reading att all not even after 40ml
according to the calculater i should have 2.0ppm with 40ml, tested and still 0?


any change the plants needed iron really bad and everything i dose will be used straight away???

 

[OVT]

Does the test kit specify what range it can test?

v3

 

[Murazaki]

Does the test kit specify what range it can test?

v3

yes, Aqua one freshwater, Testing range 0-2.0ppm
also has a color chart included

 

[Darkblade48]

yes, Aqua one freshwater, Testing range 0-2.0ppm
also has a color chart included

What are the measurable increments in? Every 0.5 ppm? 0.25 ppm?

 

[Murazaki]

What are the measurable increments in? Every 0.5 ppm? 0.25 ppm?

its 0 0,25 0,5 1 2

clear 0
pink 0,25
and gets darker up to 2

my water is always clear as clear can be =)

 

[Darkblade48]

its 0 0,25 0,5 1 2

clear 0
pink 0,25
and gets darker up to 2

my water is always clear as clear can be =)

I would calibrate your test kit.

Add some of your iron to some distilled water to bring it up to a known concentration of iron, and then test using your test kit.

Make sure you shake everything well (the fertilizer, the test reagents, etc) before you begin.

This should tell us if your test kit is wrong, or if simply your plants are sucking up iron as fast as you can dose it.

 

[Murazaki]

I would calibrate your test kit.

Add some of your iron to some distilled water to bring it up to a known concentration of iron, and then test using your test kit.

Make sure you shake everything well (the fertilizer, the test reagents, etc) before you begin.

This should tell us if your test kit is wrong, or if simply your plants are sucking up iron as fast as you can dose it.

i talked to an expert today he explained that:
its very hard to get any reading on the FE test and its very hard to ever have too much iron in a tank with lots of plants, thats why many people find it hard to use the FE test kit as its always 0 in the most chases..
also explained that iron is taken up by plants super quick especially in my heavy planted tank, thats why my testing results are always 0...
Apparently Flourish Iron doesnt last longer than 10 hours in the water. thats why it has to be dosed daily.

His advise was to dose iron daily according to calculator 2ml/200L and judge according to plant condition/growth not according to the test.
when i asked what about maintaining 0,1 iron... he replied that if you keep alot of red plants you can keep 0,1-0,2 but you would have to dose about 10x the recommended amount daily to get there for just a few minutes.

 

[Murazaki]

also just saw this on the seachem site, confirming the plant intake and test kit gets no reading
http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/FlourishIron.html

Q: I've got a 40 gal heavily planted tank with Flourite substrate. I started dosing with Flourish Iron a few weeks ago due to pale leaves on pennywort, etc. The color has improved. I'm adding a capful every day to the tank; an hour after adding, my tank shows no iron with the Hagen test kit. Are the plants grabbing the iron? Or is it precipitating out somehow.

A: I am confident that the iron is being consumed. If it was precipitating out of solution, you would notice a white chalky haze to your water and a white colored coating to your aquarium walls, heater, filter, etc.
Our Flourish Iron is a very different type of iron. Our's is bound to a carbohydrate that is very easily metabolized by your plants. Most of the others on the market are chelated iron supplements and your plants has to expend large amounts of energy to get the iron from the chelate to be able to use it.

 

[plantbrain]

If you have higher KH's in the tank's water, then you will want to use something else. Fe Gluconate is best suited for soft low KH tap water, eg, 3-4 dKH or less.

Higher, ETDA is okay, but a lot of that never makes it to the plants also, but it's not as bad as the weaker ligand Gluconate.

DTPA I think it the best for most folks with harder KH's from 3-15 etc.
I use it even with my low KH's of 1-2 dKH.

Some folks add a mix, Gluconate, DTPA and the EDTA chelators, this hits every angle/pro/con for dosing most any Tap's KH.



.

 

[happi]

Hello Guys,

i been adding Iron daily about FL IRON 2ml for my 200L according to http://calc.petalphile.com/

things picked up alot plants coming back very nice and big leaves,

Now i got my self a FE test kit.

i tested the water and 0ml registered..

i keep dosing and i keep testing ,again and again , 0 0 0,
i added a drop of Iron directly in to the test tube to see if the solution works and it does..

now i already added 40ml in the last 12h and still 0...

my question :
do is still go ahead and dose more and more till i get any reading??

this will depend on what kind of Iron you are dosing, DTPA, EDTA, Gluconate etc, if you are dosing Gluconate then you will most likely get 0 on the reading after few minutes.

 

[Murazaki]

thanks for all the help guys,
flourish iron is FE2+ Gluconate,
im still a noob but do my best trying to understand more and more about keeping plants..
not sure what that is DTPA, EDTA``? can you guys point out another product thats would work better than or combine with Flourish iron? or is that something i have to mix my self?

another thing:
i forgot to clean the test tube yesterday after my last check were i added about 40ml iron in total and today the test tube shows color.. just under 0,25ppm
Manual says 3 min for results to show...but is this result a day after still accurate?

 

[Darkblade48]

another thing:
i forgot to clean the test tube yesterday after my last check were i added about 40ml iron in total and today the test tube shows color.. just under 0,25ppm
Manual says 3 min for results to show...but is this result a day after still accurate?

I would not trust the test after the prescribed reading time.

 

[DarkCobra]

Testing for iron is not as simple and foolproof as many other nutrients. My iron test kit has separate methods for testing chelated and non-chelated iron. Chelated requires the addition of an additional reagent, which presumably breaks the chelation and converts it to a detectable non-chelated form.

I haven't tried testing Fe gluconate, but I hear gluconate is exceptionally stable, and that might present detection problems. Perhaps the test is successfully converting it, but at such a slow rate that you're only starting to get a reading a day later.

In any event, trust that your iron is not being consumed at such a high rate, and maintain sane dosages despite what the test is telling you.