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Re: Sera fertilizer
On Thu, 26 Aug 1999, Bryan Bankhead wrote:
> > > Well, I just dosed my 15 gal with Sera Plant food. I ended up putting in
> > > the entire 100 ml bottle in order to put the iron content up to .5 ppm.
> >
> > I think you made a mistake here. You would have been better off following
> > the instructions.
> The instructions on the test kit were get the iron up to the 0.5 ppm
> mark. The actual calculated iron is close to .8 ppm. I think you need to
> get over 1.0ppm to trip the test 'at' 1.0
Sorry, then I guess you *did* pretty much follow the instructions on the
test kit. How about the instructions on the fertilizer?
Several years ago I bought a few pounds of chelated iron and a Sera iron
test kit. I tested my tanks which were then dosed with Tetra Florapride
and registered no iron. My tap water also registered no iron with the
kit. Then I mixed up a mild solution with the chelated iron and it read
zero iron using the Sera kit. So I increased the amount of chelated iron
in the solution to the point where the water was noticeably colored and
the test still read 0 iron.
I threw the test kit away.
This all gave me a very low opinion of Sera and their products. Your
story reinforces that opinion. Dave Gomberg may have figured out a way to
get the Sera kit to work by ignoring their instructions. Thanks Dave, but
that still does nothing for my opinion of Sera.
Incidentally, dissolved iron in unpolluted natural water is generally in
the parts per billion range - 50 parts per billion or so is fairly
common. The EPA limit for domestic use is 0.3 mg/l of iron, and their
limit for protection of aquatic life is 1.0 mg/l. Why would we ever need
0.5 mg/l of iron in aquarium water?
Roger Miller