Hi all,
As some of you would know I have moved house and was supposed to have moved my tank about a month ago - I haven't had time yet (Have a three month old, makes it tricky!) which has turned out to be a really good thing, I have done a lot of redesign for my tank and have learnt HEAPS from this site. IT's the best community on the web IMHO.
My tank has always been really beautiful and gets a lot of attention from people who see it, but I think I can take it too the next level with a lot of the things I've learnt here and have a few questions.
The first one is about iron. I know that Iron has various forms, some useful and some not useful. In my previous setup I dosed Iron (WAY higher than I needed to) and waited until I had zero iron reading before re dosing, I did the same with Phosphate, I believed letting it run down like this would beat algae, funnily enough it always did but I now know there is a better way!! Does the fact that iron was being used up mean that it was in a usable form, or once it is not usable by plants is it no longer detectable??
I run a VERY slow RUGF and I dose all my ferts into this, so they only entire the water column via the substrate(and are taken up within the vermiculite within the substrate). The flow through the UGF comes from my cannister directly into an uptake pipe (Which is higher than the water level). I am assuming that at least some parts of my substrate is anaeorobic which I believes keeps iron in it's usable form but I am not entirely sure.
Can anyone tell me how the whole iron thing works? What is Chelate?? How do I ensure that the iron is usable? Why does an Anaerobic substrate keep iron available? Why can't Iron be mixed with macros?
My next question is easier and a real long shot - Does anyone know where you can buy dry ferts in Australia? - I have tried garden shops, bunnings, Hydroponics shops - to no avail.
Thanks all, I really appreciate the help!
As some of you would know I have moved house and was supposed to have moved my tank about a month ago - I haven't had time yet (Have a three month old, makes it tricky!) which has turned out to be a really good thing, I have done a lot of redesign for my tank and have learnt HEAPS from this site. IT's the best community on the web IMHO.
My tank has always been really beautiful and gets a lot of attention from people who see it, but I think I can take it too the next level with a lot of the things I've learnt here and have a few questions.
The first one is about iron. I know that Iron has various forms, some useful and some not useful. In my previous setup I dosed Iron (WAY higher than I needed to) and waited until I had zero iron reading before re dosing, I did the same with Phosphate, I believed letting it run down like this would beat algae, funnily enough it always did but I now know there is a better way!! Does the fact that iron was being used up mean that it was in a usable form, or once it is not usable by plants is it no longer detectable??
I run a VERY slow RUGF and I dose all my ferts into this, so they only entire the water column via the substrate(and are taken up within the vermiculite within the substrate). The flow through the UGF comes from my cannister directly into an uptake pipe (Which is higher than the water level). I am assuming that at least some parts of my substrate is anaeorobic which I believes keeps iron in it's usable form but I am not entirely sure.
Can anyone tell me how the whole iron thing works? What is Chelate?? How do I ensure that the iron is usable? Why does an Anaerobic substrate keep iron available? Why can't Iron be mixed with macros?
My next question is easier and a real long shot - Does anyone know where you can buy dry ferts in Australia? - I have tried garden shops, bunnings, Hydroponics shops - to no avail.
Thanks all, I really appreciate the help!