Hello,

I have a 27 gallon fresh water planted tank... Plants have been doing
fairly well over the last year, but have never really been thriving...
After much testing, I discovered that I have an iron deficiency in the
water... I have been using the Red Sea "Plant Success" products for a
year... The recommended dose of FE is 5 ml per 60 gallons every week..

Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

I have an external canister filter with no active carbon... Only ceramic
pre-filter media and filter pads (Fluval 204)..

Any ideas for me??

Other info:

CO2 injection; Ph=6.8-7.0; DKh = 5; Temp = 79-82

(If anyone can help me identify the plants too, that would be great!)

Thanks,
Troy

Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

Iron test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Especially if you've got a Red Sea
test kit. A lot of people complain they are worthless.

You don't say how much light you have over your tank, but it's possible you
need a more complete fertilizer than you are using. I would switch to Tropica
Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish. And don't bother measuring iron. Just keep
adding more until the plants are nice and green.

Depending on how much light you have, and your fish load, you may need to add
nitrate and phospate, too.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

I had a similar experience, I couldn't get the iron level up to the
recommended 0.3mg/l so I changed to Hagen's "Nutrafin Plant Grow- Iron
Enriched" I got the iron levels up to the recommended level by adding 25ml
to a 170 litre tank. I now add about 10 ml once a fortnight after I do a
partial water change, the other week I use my old fertilizer as it does have
some different trace elements. I have noticed a marked difference to the
colour of my plants, they now look very green and lush as before the were
more a khaki colour. I regularly test and my level is between 0.25 - 0.5
Be careful with its use as too much iron isn't beneficial to fish.


"Troy Bruder" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a 27 gallon fresh water planted tank... Plants have been doing
fairly well over the last year, but have never really been thriving...
After much testing, I discovered that I have an iron deficiency in the
water... I have been using the Red Sea "Plant Success" products for a
year... The recommended dose of FE is 5 ml per 60 gallons every week..

Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

I have an external canister filter with no active carbon... Only ceramic
pre-filter media and filter pads (Fluval 204)..

Any ideas for me??

Other info:

CO2 injection; Ph=6.8-7.0; DKh = 5; Temp = 79-82

(If anyone can help me identify the plants too, that would be great!)

Thanks,
Troy

Thank you for the feedback Leigh.. I have a 96 Watt pc above the tank...
I'm already using Flourish and Plant Success FloraVit... But I'll check
into those you mentioned.

Thanks again,
Troy


"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

Iron test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Especially if you've got a Red
Sea
test kit. A lot of people complain they are worthless.

You don't say how much light you have over your tank, but it's possible
you
need a more complete fertilizer than you are using. I would switch to
Tropica
Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish. And don't bother measuring iron. Just
keep
adding more until the plants are nice and green.

Depending on how much light you have, and your fish load, you may need to
add
nitrate and phospate, too.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Leigh,

Since I have a 27 gallon, what would you recommend as a dosage of Flourish
to try and get things back on track??? They recommend 1-2 ml per WEEK for
60 gallons...

Troy




"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

Iron test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Especially if you've got a Red
Sea
test kit. A lot of people complain they are worthless.

You don't say how much light you have over your tank, but it's possible
you
need a more complete fertilizer than you are using. I would switch to
Tropica
Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish. And don't bother measuring iron. Just
keep
adding more until the plants are nice and green.

Depending on how much light you have, and your fish load, you may need to
add
nitrate and phospate, too.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

if my amazon sword is nice and bright green, but the new anubias leaf is a
bit yellow, I guess this would be excess iron? or something else?

I've been adding Flourish and Flourish iron weekly (prescribed amount for
the tank)... should I stop iron until the sword plants start showing some
paleness, or...?

linda

"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
Here's the problem... I have a test kit which shows ZERO FE in the water
after doing this for at least a YEAR.. Over the last week or so, I have
added over 600 ml of FE to the water and still can't get a reading
(actually, I think it's reading .1 ppm right now)... What gives?!?!?

Iron test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Especially if you've got a Red
Sea
test kit. A lot of people complain they are worthless.

You don't say how much light you have over your tank, but it's possible
you
need a more complete fertilizer than you are using. I would switch to
Tropica
Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish. And don't bother measuring iron. Just
keep
adding more until the plants are nice and green.

Depending on how much light you have, and your fish load, you may need to
add
nitrate and phospate, too.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

I have a 96 Watt pc above the tank...
I'm already using Flourish and Plant Success FloraVit... But I'll check
into those you mentioned.

Whoa, Nellie. That's a lot of light!

With that much light, you may need to add nitrate and phosphate to the tank.

And you should find out what kind of plants you have. Can you take pictures?

If not, trying looking around at aquaticplantdepot.com, or similar places, and
see if you can find pictures of your plants.

You don't say exactly what the problem is. Some plants naturally grow slowly,
no matter how much light you have. Some plants won't do well submersed in an
aquarium, even if they were sold for that purpose.

In any case, if you've had this tank set up with that much lighting for a year
and it's not an algae hell, then it sounds like you're doing something right.
:-)





Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Can I send the pics to you directly? When I posted them last time, someone
deleted the message for some reason... I've noticed today, that I have a
massive bubble production going on... so, the iron and trace elements must
be kicking back in..

Troy


"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I have a 96 Watt pc above the tank...
I'm already using Flourish and Plant Success FloraVit... But I'll check
into those you mentioned.

Whoa, Nellie. That's a lot of light!

With that much light, you may need to add nitrate and phosphate to the
tank.

And you should find out what kind of plants you have. Can you take
pictures?

If not, trying looking around at aquaticplantdepot.com, or similar places,
and
see if you can find pictures of your plants.

You don't say exactly what the problem is. Some plants naturally grow
slowly,
no matter how much light you have. Some plants won't do well submersed in
an
aquarium, even if they were sold for that purpose.

In any case, if you've had this tank set up with that much lighting for a
year
and it's not an algae hell, then it sounds like you're doing something
right.
:-)





Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Can I send the pics to you directly?

Sure. I'll put them up on the web so we can all look at them.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/