[Chris767]

So, I have a little 2.5 gallon that I'm working on. Plants only for now. My question is, does anyone else see a noticeable precipitation of iron when they add fertilizers containing it? When I do, I chunks of brown fall out of solution. I haven't noticed any laying around on the sand, so I assume it dissolves eventually. Is this common?

 

[Cboss]

Is it actually precipitating out or could it just be pieces that were never dissolved well to begin with?

Are you using pre-mixed liquid ferts or dry dosing?

Some people don't dose macro and micro nutrients at the same time to prevent the iron from combining with the phosphorus and forming a precipitate. Although, I've never tested this so I can't say it's important.

 

[Chris767]

My dry ferts for EI are on order, who knows when they'll show up. I'm currently dosing Tetra FloraPride and Nutrafin Plant Gro, which from what I can tell has at least the micros and potassium. The substrate is Laterite, which, from what I've gathered, has iron. Between the pride and plant gro, I might actually have reached saturation with what ever iron chelate is introduced. Neither bottle indicates what the iron is chelated with, if they're both chelated with EDTA, it could be that the water just won't hold any more.

 

[Hoppy]

My dry ferts for EI are on order, who knows when they'll show up. I'm currently dosing Tetra FloraPride and Nutrafin Plant Gro, which from what I can tell has at least the micros and potassium. The substrate is Laterite, which, from what I've gathered, has iron. Between the pride and plant gro, I might actually have reached saturation with what ever iron chelate is introduced. Neither bottle indicates what the iron is chelated with, if they're both chelated with EDTA, it could be that the water just won't hold any more.

If you are anywhere near saturation with any of the nutrients you are dosing 10 times too much. At near saturation the water is brackish and the plants and fish will suffer. I think it is safe to assume that you are far from saturation.

Some trace element mixes can get gunky after sitting in the bottle for several days. Exactly what the gunk is I don't know, but I just ignore it, and haven't seen a problem doing that.

 

[Chris767]

Found the problem, I used laterite under sand for the substrate. This left a very thin film of red dust. As I was adding the liquid ferts, it was clumping amd being pushed under.

Thanks for the input!