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Re: [APD] Flourish iron & KH drop



Greg,

Sorry for suggesting that Flourish Iron contained EDTA. I grabbed my  
bottle to look at the dosage recommendations as I wrote my reply,  
skimmed the text below the dosage section very quickly, and saw the  
phrase "EDTA". I just went and read that section and it actually  
talks about why the gluconate complex is preferable to EDTA with  
iron. I should learn not to skim-read before putting things into print.

David Aiken





On 25/03/2006, at 12:21 AM, Greg Morin wrote:

>
>>
>>>  It's not organic acids.  As I said in the original post, I added
>>> 5ml of Flourish iron to 2L of tapwater & in 30 minutes the KH
>>>  dropped from 10 degrees to 7.5 degrees.  Nothing else added!
>>>
>>>  Anyway, I know the rate at which the KH drops in my 50g - I've been
>>>  running it (& monitoring it) continuously since 1997.  It's
>>>  definitely the Flourish iron which I've just started using.<snip>
>>
>>
>> So how much are you using?
>>
>> Seachem recommend dosing at 0.5 to 1 ml per 40 litres as required in
>> order to maintain iron levels at 0.1 mg/l.
>>
>> You've got a 50 gallon = 200 litre tank. Are you dosing 500 ml of
>> Flourish Iron in your tank each time, because that's the equivalent
>> to what you're adding to your 2 l sample.
>>
>> Your test uses an absolutely massive dose and the EDTA in the product
>> may well be doing something with the carbonates in the water when
>> added at those concentrations. The question isn't what the product
>> does at those concentrations. It's what does it do at the
>> concentrations you dose your tank at.
>>
>> You've got a 50 gallon tank. That's 200 litres. You're using a 2
>> litre sample. Divide the normal dose you give your tank by 100, add
>> that to a 2 L sample of water, and see what that does. If that causes
>> the KH to drop, then maybe your test is giving you the answer to why
>> your KH is dropping, but if a test using the same concentration of
>> Flourish Iron in a 2 l sample that you actually dose your tank with
>> doesn't cause the KH to drop then you probably need to look elsewhere
>> for your answer.
>>
>
> I was all set to respond and then I saw this post
> from David Aiken which succinctly makes the point
> I would have otherwise made. Flourish Iron does
> have an acidic pH as formulated (for product
> stability) however it is weakly buffered enough
> that it should not have a significant impact when
> used as directed... which begs the question of
> what your current dosing regimen is, i.e. how
> much in what volume and how often?
>
> What I would add here is that the acidity level
> employed in the product, (when used as directed-1
> mL in 40 L) would only consume 0.004 meq/L (or
> 0.012 dKH or 0.22 ppm) of carbonate alkalinity at
> a theoretical maximum, in practice it should be
> well below  even that small amount. To get the KH
> drop of 160 to 50 ppm you saw would imply a 500
> times overdose over the recommended usage.
>
> Also, as an aside... Flourish Iron does not employ EDTA.
> -- 
> Gregory Morin, Ph.D.  ~~~~~~~Chairman/CEO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Seachem Laboratories, Inc.      www.seachem.com     888-SEACHEM
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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