after dosing iron...

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patagonia

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
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toronto
last week i started dosing iron for my plants...its a 29 gal tank...2 20w light fixtures...i added 3 drops last sunday and 3 drops on wednesday...the species i have that was showing iron deficiency symptoms is hygrophila polysperma...after the iron the new leaves that were kind of yellowish in color turned kind of red/rusty color and now they have 2 new sets of leaves that have grown...i have the nutrafin iron test kit and after an hour of adding the iron it shows 0ppm...im also having an algae issue...the driftwood has started to get covered with green algae and i spotted some blue/green algae on the gravel....i dont know is its because of the iron or because of the extra light fixture i added 2 weeks ago :roll: ...how can i solve this algae problem? TIA
 
i dont have a test kit for phosphate...i should get one...nitrates are 5-10ppm and i have about 40watts of light...i do not inject CO2 since its a low light planted tank...i keep the lights on for 10 hours a day...and i change 30% of the water every week...i also add 2.5mL of seachem flourish excel one a week with when i change the water...
 
IMO one of the trickiest things to accomplish is a nutrient balance in a planted tank. Many of our successes come from trial and error. It's been stated that iron test kits are virtually useless and I've no reason to doubt that.

I'm suspecting that adding iron has helped the algae more than the plants. This could especially be true if the phosphates are elevated or the nitrates fall much below 10ppm.

If it were my tank patagonia, I'd get a handle on the BGA first by using the blackout method. I would stop dosing iron, but I would be dosing KNO3. :wink:

Good luck and keep us posted
 
Thanks BrianNY...its getting a little bit frustrating...im even considering taking all the plants out and replace them with silk plants...but ill keep trying for a while...the BGA is not an issue....YET...i just saw 2 or 3 gravel pieces covered with it...the green algae is not that bad either...but i dont wanna have to fight it later...my nitrates are never higher than 10ppm...i even skipped the weekly pwc and left the tank alone for 10 days and still...it was not even 10ppm...im going to get a phosphate test kit and post the results...i stopped both the iron and excel dosing as soon as i saw the BGA... but the plants are finally showing some growth...could but just the extra light added...i dont know...where do you get KNO3? at the lfs? ill test first and see what they are at...thanks a lot... :D
 
In the US, KNO3 is available as Grant's or Greenlight Stump Remover at home improvement stores. www.gregwatson.com also sells dry KNO3, and with your volume and wattage a pound should last forever. ;) It is generally agreed the best commercial liquid nitrogen supplement is Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen, but Flourish Compehensive may be the better choice for your setup. There is info and links to dosing calculators in the fertilization sticky.
 
thanks czcz...ill try to get the phosphate test kit tomorrow and post the result here...does seachem make any fertilizer that contains KNO3? thanks again!
 
sorry...what i meant was whats the difference between seachem flourish nitrogen and the comprehensive one? too much thanksgiving dinner...makes me sleepy :lol:
 
I've not used either, but their site -- www.seachem.com -- has info. I've read Flourish Nitrogen is composed of KNO3 and NH4 as plants prefer N from ammonia, and they've developed some ratio that they feel is best. You would get K and N from such a supplement (as you would from dry KNO3).

Fourish broad spectrum ("comprehensive") is marketed as a one bottle solution for macros and micros, and Malkore recommends it for low light tanks in the fertiliation sticky. Published percentages of solution are so low it makes sense that it is a good low light supplement.
 
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