Re: iron levels

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> 
> 
> Hello, Could someone tell what the iron level should be in a planted
> tank?  Thank-you,  Ray
> 

No.

It's not a simple concept of a certain level you can test. What is it that
are you testing ? What does this tested level tell you? Not much.
It does NOT tell you the plant's uptake rate, nutrient demand status,
health, etc. It really doesn't tell much of anything.

The iron level can go from .7ppm to 0.0ppm in a few hours. Does 0.0ppm hurt
plants for any length of TIME? Cewrtainly not for a few days depending on
how much light, CO2 and other nutrients are being supplied.

I don't need any iron for my non CO2 tank, the plants get all they need from
the substrate. My high light CO2 enriched tank need a good shot of
traces/iron once every 3 days or so. But the level drops to zero pretty
fast. But adding it daily etc makes NO DIFFERENCE vs once every 3 days or
so. More light/CO2 etc = more frequency. But 3 day dosing works just fine.
Fretting over maintaining a specific level is a waste of time.

Try dosing volume of trace mix based on tank volume over a period of time
based on the tank's plant density/size works much better and can be applied
to anyone's tank rather than using a test kit. Basically the idea is to
maintain good Macro nutrients/CO2 and add enough traces to yield the best
plant health.

This level is about 5mls per 20 gal 3x a week at very high light levels.
Adding more does nothing if the CO2/macro's etc are in good shape, but
simply waste the traces. So if you add this amount to your tank which is
likely less light/less good nutrient levels etc, then you have more than
enough traces.
You can scale this amount up/down to suit your tank size and works for most
trace mixes(Flourish, TMG etc)
 
 

Regards, 
Tom Barr