Iron?

[JasonB]

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to planted aquariums this one being my first attempt. Anyway, I've been testing my iron levels daily and adding iron supplement to my tank, but I'm not sure if something's wrong. I'm in the process of cycling my tank and I have 4 Tenellus and several other plants in my tank and for the first week of testing, I was able to keep my iron levels at 0.25 mg/l, but for the past week its dropped to 0.1 mg/l and I'm adding 7-10 ml of iron daily now but no increases.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

J.

 

[Jen]

From what I have heard around the site here, the iron tests are horribly un-reliable. The best way to tell if you are low on it is to look at the plants. The leaves will start yellowing from the tips if the iron is low. If you are adding suppliments, then I would think you are ok.

 

[Themuleous]

I would second that, of all the test kits I think iron is the worst. That said, if you're cyclinging the tank and its not got any very demanding plant species in it, why do you feel the need to add iron at all? Also, I take it you're adding it daily? Even with EI you add it everyother day? And in low-light tank only weekly.

Sam

 

[JasonB]

Well, up to now, I've been adding iron based on two things - one, some of my tips are a little yellow and I wasn't aware that Iron tests had a bad rep so I was basing my additional additives on the test results. But other than that, ya, I've been adding it every day. Should I stop?

 

[Themuleous]

You dont necessarily need to stop but I wod just add it according to the guidlines on the bottle. It is an 'off the shelf iron'? What make is it?

Have you just added the plants? The brown tips could be due to just being moved.

Also, it can take a long time for plants to heal, so they might have more than enough iron so adding more may not help.

Also dont forget you can overdose iron, I dont know what the measurements, etc are but if you do if can be toxic to both plants and fish I think.

Sam

 

[JasonB]

Thanks for the tips. The Iron is Seachem Flourish Iron Supplement. The plants were picked up about two weeks ago from my LFS. I don't have that many yet, I wanted to see if I had a brown thumb or not

Thanks

J.