Question: Iron Levels ???

[Tyger]

Greetings,

I have a quick question. When reading plant profiles, I tends to see descriptions that outline Nitrate and Phosphate levels in ppm though most plant profiles describe the Iron dosing in terms such as light, dose, heavy, or double without reference to a numeric value. Nutrafin Fe Test (Free Iron & Chelated Iron) measures Fe within the range of 0.0 and 1.0 mg/l (ppm) and suggest the following guidelines:

• Free Iron (Fe)
  • 0.0-0.1 mg/l = Ideal level
  • > 0.1 mg/l = Partial Water Change or Chelate Iron w/H2O Conditioner
• Chelated Iron
  • 0.0-0.25 mg/l = Iron level is low
  • 0.25-0.5 mg/ = Ideal level of iron in water
  • 0.5-1.0 mg/l = Too much iron is present - perform water change.

In the planted tank world... what do the relative terms - light, ideal, heavy, and double mean in these terms? Similarly, what is too much? Thanks, in advance,

~Tyger (Michael)~

[150EH]

I know this is not a quick response but, I think a level of 0.1 ppm of Fe should be good for most plants and anything more would be high. I use Flourite as my substrate and although it is very old it seems to hold iron well and I find with too much Fe I'll start to have issues with Thread algae, this is by no means a fact but just my observations. I have also found Fe very hard to test for with most kits never registering any Fe present, but I have never invested in any good kits. I no longer use any test kits but I watch the plants for yellowing leaves, holes in leaves, or weakend leaves.

I was the owner of a landscape company for 20 years and we used chelated iron to get lawns very, very green or almost black, chelated just means the iron is pre-digested and availible for imediate uptake by the plants, or like fast acting.

I hope my dribble helped you in some way.