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Iron rich substrate and PMAS



After some off-list exchanges with Steve Pushak, I used the holiday weekend to
set up two tanks, one 10 gallon and one 30, using a 3 inch, three-layered
substrate built around a PMAS (Poor man's Amano Substrate) concept for the
purpose of trying this out before setting up a 55 gallon. (Just as a sidenote:
I was in the local Petsmart today and they had 55 gallon tanks with a
Flourescent hood, UGF, two power heads, and everything else you could need for
a complete fish tank for only $199.99)  The bottom layer is 1/4 inch pumice
gravel with 10ml per gallon of Redart pottery clay and a spattering of Fluval
peat pellets.  The middle is pumice with about 1% by volume of peat.  The top
layer is aquarium gravel, to simplify vacuuming and general maintenance.

What I gleaned from Steve was that the peat would tend to make the iron in the
clay available to the water column in a metabolically useable form.  So now I
suddenly realize I have to figure out how to dose the tanks with the other
micronutrients, like Boron, Manganese, molybdenum, Zinc, and Copper I see
listed in the PMDD recipe on the Krib.  If I use the Chelated Trace Element
Mix from the recipe, I will end up with huge iron levels.  What else is
available?  And while I'm at it, where does one obtain the mix mentioned in
the Krib recipe?

Bob Dixon