Re: Iron and such

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> Tom I thought I heard you say that you raise your Iron up to 1.0- is that
> straight tmg or is it the normal dose of tmg + iron?
> 
> Jeff Vamos
> cessnabum1 at aol_com

Jeff 
I'd simply do a few big water changes and re set(add fresh macro/traces back
after) the tank. You have cornered yourself with this issue. Something's up
and you don't seem to be able to test for it(it might be something you've
spilled into the tank, organic etc). Plants do fine when the CO2, light and
nutrients are good, especially with this commonly raised plant. Give it
sometime if you have made changes and see if the plant improves after an
initial shock. Give it 1-2 weeks.

I've used both TMG and Sera and Flourish and Flourish iron in various mixes.
I feel flourish by itself is weak on the iron. Others have said this as
well. It's hard to really say when dealing with a trace and a funny one at
that. I simply quit testing iron altogether with a colormetric test instead
opting for an "everything else"(CO2/NPK/GH etc) measurement and use the
trace as the last variable for comparisons in plant growth.

I and others have tested my water at very high levels of Fe. So what does
that really mean though? You are seeing what I have in the past, a marked
drop off.

Is it due to plant uptake? Is it complexed or is it precipitated? How much
of each is going to the plant? Is daily dosing any better?

Daily dosing seems to make no difference. High initial levels right after
dosing may help plants take the nutrient in better than a low residual
level. These two methods may equal each other out.

I do know that adding a certain amount of a trace liquid by volume to tank
volume is FAR more duplicable/accurate than using test kits. These are also
traces meaning that a small amount of variance will not produce noticeable
differences in plant growth.

Regards, 
Tom Barr