Low Iron

[farma]

I did a few tests tonight and got 0 iron. I am guessing that is not good.
Ammonia was at 0 and nitrite was 0.
I am just using Daily Grow for the plants.
would you all recommend I start using?
66 Gal tank maybe light to medium planted.
Farma

[docrak]

What test kit are you using? I've found most of the test kits out there to be useless. The only one I trust anymore is the one from SeaChem:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...mmultitestiron

Chelated iron can fool many test kits. It requires you to let the test stand much longer than normal tests require.

Most universal fertilizers have so little iron in them that you're better off getting an iron only fertalizer, again like SeaChem's:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...urishiron250ml

[Jchillin]

I agree with Docrak, using a better product will provide significantly better results. If you prefer a dry mix that contains a few more traces, GregWatson.com has a very good one:

Plantex Dry

[Plantbrain]

There is extremely weak, I'd say No correlation between a residual Fe reading and plant health.

None as near as anyone can tell.

So the real question becomes: why test for it?

You are wasting your $$$.
Buy a nice Lamotte NO3 or PO4 test kit, get a decent scale, a good pipette etc if you enjoy testing water and trying to relate it to plant growth/uptake etc.

Otherwise it's a waste of your time, energy, $$ etc.

I do not how many have done those wild goose cases about a misread/interpted test kit reading.

It's much higher than I could count though.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[farma]

Thanks for the replys PPL.
So you are telling me I waisted my $$$ on a test kit?
The one I have is a Red Sea Kit It tests for about 10 diff things maybe a few more.
Farma

[docrak]

Originally Posted by Plantbrain

There is extremely weak, I'd say No correlation between a residual Fe reading and plant health.

None as near as anyone can tell.

So the real question becomes: why test for it?

You are wasting your $$$.

Regards,
Tom Barr

You use that system you invented EI or something like that. I don't mean to be disrespectful, I'm still learning. How do you dose Iron and how do you know your doing enough? I'm starting to evolve my doing system into a hybrid of the EI system with 50% water changes. I'm still having a hard time of getting used to knowing how much nutrients to does at any time. The EI system is based on being reactive and going off of what deficiency signs the plants are showing, if I remember correctly.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying I need more. I've been doing pretty will using my system of measuring iron and dosing to adjust. I've come to the point now where I just know how much iron the tank needs and dose accordingly without measuring everyday.

[Jchillin]

Originally Posted by docrak

The EI system is based on being reactive and going off of what deficiency signs the plants are showing, if I remember correctly.

Not exactly. EI is proactive in that you are dosing probably a bit more nutrients than actually needed and then resetting everything with your 50% water change.

[fish_4_all]

EI is based on the idea that excess is not a bad thing in moderation and you should never see a deficiency. Since I have swtiched to it I never have except when I cut back my dosing. I haven't tested my NO3 nor PO4 but once every other week since then just to see the results and try to tweek my worksheet to account for the levels.

To give you an idea, I dose at .3 ppm iron 3x a week in a CO2 tank and 0.25ppm iron in a non CO2 injected tank and have never had problems with too much nor too little iron.

I don't completely know exactly why it works yet, aklthoguh I am developing an understanding, but it does so I use EI religiously in both of my planted tanks.

[rkilling1]

This is EI:

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative...test-kits.html

http://www.barrreport.com/articles/1...ive-index.html