Iron dosing is killing me...

[Alshain]

The biggest problem of my tank is dosing iron, if I'm not dosing too much I'm not dosing enough. I've gone from one extreme with dying plants to the other with full algae blooms. I just can't seem to balance it. What should my target ppm iron be for using Plantex CSM+B?

I'm told I can't really overdosure I am doing the tests right, so really iron is the only thing I don't know for sure that I am doing correctly. Any other suggestions?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Iron tests are not very accurate. Don't go by ppm's by testing. I dose 3/16 tsp in my 75G, 3x weekly. For a 55G, I'd probably start at 1/8tsp, 3x weekly. Overdosing doesn't cause algae. It's one of the nutrients dropping out that does. So if you get algae when you add extra iron, something else is out of whack.

 

[Alshain]

Well when I say target ppm, I'm more thinking what a calculator gives. Based on your scenario for example I would be putting about 0.35ppm 3 times weekly into the tank (or at least according to this ) In that case the last go run I was putting way to much in, I think that could cause algae because the tank would be off balanced right? The plants consume the phosphates, nitrates, and potassium as well as the CO2 and light, and the algae grows by consuming the leftovers.

 

[rich311k]

I dose my traces to .2ppm iron. If you have an excess of everything it will not cause algae as the plants out compete the algae, since they everything they need to grow well. You are much more likely to get algae from a lack of something.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Another way to look at it is if you are getting algae from excess iron, maybe it's because the added iron causes better growth, and now one of the other nutrients is lacking. When shorting the iron, it's causing the plants to grow slower, causing a lower intake of the other nutrients. But if you up the iron, and the plants go back to maximum growth rate for your lighting and CO2, maybe another nutrient is dropping out, and you don't see it. With all nutrients in excess, you shouldn't get any algae problems.

 

[SparKy697]

Something that may need to be cleared up is the terminology used. If I understand you correctly, you are dosing enough to raise your iron by .35 ppm three times a week. That means that you are dosing 1.05 ppm weekly!

IMO you could get away with dosing that .35ppm spread over the whole week.

That was never quite clear for me when I was trying to get started. I know that we accept the fact that macros dropping out can cause algae blooms. I believe that there are types of algae that seem to thrive on high iron. I base this only on reading and not actual testing.

Bottom line is I think you may be feeding more iron (micros) than you need to.