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Re: iron testing

 
> Maybe people who depend on chelated iron in the water column and
> maintain lower concentrations actually have iron-deficient plants.  They
> just don't recognize it because the plants look normal to them.

I have to agree with this one 100%. Not sure if it's a combo of the other
traces or iron by itself but iron is a big part certainly.

I tried using SeaChem's traces(no iron) and did not have the best luck with
the plant health. The sub was flourite so there was plenty of iron from that
source but the plants seemed to suffer even when adding a fair amount of the
other traces in there. We certainly need liquid iron at high CO2/light
levels. I think you can do without this at lower levels of CO2/light and non
CO2 tanks though.

IMO adding what folks are adding(to 0.1ppm) and basing it off a residual
test for iron is not telling you the whole story here about your plant's
needs or uptakes.
You need more traces than what your kits are telling you. Plants are the
best indicators for this, not the kits, at least from what I've seen. We can
go back and figure out the "whys" and "what did we miss" later.

Notice an observation, then go back and figure out why/how it is the way it
is. 
Regards, 
Tom Barr