[APD] Re: Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 14, Issue 2

["Michi Henning" <michi at zeroc_com>]

> From: "S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>

> Apparently, even if photoreduction breaks down the
> chelators and thereby allows the iron to oxidize faster
> than it would otherwise, the Fe is still in the aquarium
> and the plants can still make use of it. Tom Barr and Dr.
> Greg Morin have added a lot to the discussion on this
> topic.

I would agree with you. At least, I haven't noticed anything
like iron deficiency in my tank. I simply keep adding trace
elements and to heck with what the iron test says, and
whether the chelators are destroyed or not ;-)
(I do notice very fine brown sludge in my filter though --
I assume that at least some of that is rust.)

> As for reasonably affordable iron tests, I've concluded
> that they are as Samuel Goldwyn once said of verbal
> contracts, "not worth the paper they're printed on." ;-)
> They are perhaps the 2nd-most notorious of unreliable
> tests, after CO2 test kits.

Out of interest, what's unreliable about the CO2 tests?
I take it that you mean the permanent indicator tests that
stay in the tank and change blue-green-yellow with
increasing CO2? I wasn't aware that these are unreliable.
In what way? Do they read low, or high (or sideways ;-) ?

Cheers,

Michi.

--
Michi Henning              Ph: +61 4 1118-2700
ZeroC, Inc.                http://www.zeroc.com

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