Fe Test Kits

[@ombomb]

Can anyone recommend a good Fe test kit?

I have been getting a bit of thread algae recently. It's a piece of cake to remove, but I have read that too much iron can be the cause and want to make sure.

Other stats are all about right:

Nitrate: 20ppm
Phosphates: 2-3ppm
CO²: 30ppm
Lighting: 3 WPG, 5 hours on, 2 off, 5 on

Currently dosing Potassium Nitrate, phosphates are straight from the tap (moving to RO water soon hopefully) and I dose Kent Grow and Kent Micro weekly..

 

[George Farmer]

Phosphates: 2-3ppm...............phosphates are straight from the tap

Are you measuring 2-3ppm PO4 at the end of week (just before water change)?

With your lighting, CO2 etc. I'd expect your PO4 to drop throughout the week.

My tap is 5+ppm PO4 (I mix 50:50 RO/tap so 2.5+ppm PO4 with water change) and I still need to add KH2PO4 to reach an average of 1-2ppm PO4.

I assume you're heavily planted?

If you're dosing the recommended levels of Kent products then I doubt your Fe levels will be excessive. Even if it's a little high your plant growth should deal with it.

I've never tested for iron so cannot recommend a kit I'm afraid, I'd also doubt most kit's accuracy due to the unstable nature of iron in water.

If you do buy a kit I think you can get some that test for chelated and non-chelated iron.

 

[@ombomb]

That's the average phosphate reading about halfway through the week (water changes every 7 days) it's about 5 from the tap. I meant straight from the tap as in "I don't dose phosphates".

Tank is heavily planted, all healthy and growing well, far too well some of them actually, as however many I leaves I remove from swords, they seem to remain convinced that they are not aquatic and really should be growing straight out of the tank!

 

[jimbooo]

i use the JBL iron test. i cant link to it as they have a daft website but you'll find it on www.jbl.de

i'm not sure of the accuracy level but if you have way too much iron this will tell you.

i've tested on a few occasions after seeing algae growth and the iron was through the roof. this usually happens after you add laterite or too much of a pure iron fert like kent FE. i doubt you could overload it with grow as there isn't a lot of iron in it.

 

[George Farmer]

That's the average phosphate reading about halfway through the week (water changes every 7 days) it's about 5 from the tap. I meant straight from the tap as in "I don't dose phosphates".

Tank is heavily planted, all healthy and growing well, far too well some of them actually, as however many I leaves I remove from swords, they seem to remain convinced that they are not aquatic and really should be growing straight out of the tank!

I see.

It is odd that you're experiencing algae then, one thing you don't often hear is problem algae in a tank with lots of plant growth.

One thought - if you're reading 2-3ppm PO4 half way through the week then one can assume that by day 7 your PO4 will be near zero. I wonder if this is a trigger.

Do you have any green spot algae (GSA) anywhere, especially on slower growers or your tank glass?

 

[@ombomb]

A little GSA by the end of the week, which is when any thread algae would also appear.

Maybe it is worth dosing phosphate mid week after all. The levels would be on the high side all week, but at least they'll be stable that way.

 

[George Farmer]

A little GSA by the end of the week, which is when any thread algae would also appear.

Maybe it is worth dosing phosphate mid week after all. The levels would be on the high side all week, but at least they'll be stable that way.

My thoughts exactly mate. In my experience the more stable the nutrients the better, in fact I would go as far to say that actual levels of nutrients are relatively unimportant (within reason and providing there's plenty of plant growth), it's their ratios and their consistancy that is key in healthy plant versus algae growth.

Aqua Essentials sell KH2PO4 and they despatch within 24 hours.

 

[@ombomb]

I actually have some bottled and ready to go, just never bothered as the readings were high from the tap

Will give a try, thanks for the help.