Water conditioners & Iron

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Water conditioners & Iron
• From: "A. Inniss" <andrewi at u_washington.edu>
• Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 02:35:38 -0800 (PST)

	It just recently occured to me that my water conditioner is most
likely affecting the iron levels in my tank, since it claims to "detoxify
heavy metals." 
	Now, it is my understanding that it does so by chelating them.
This point leads me to a few questions:
	
	1). Is the iron I add not making it to my plants? If the water
conditioner is merely chelating the heavy metals(including, presumably, iron),
then is the iron made forever unavailable,or is the iron now in effect double
chelated?  (I use Flourish, whose iron is already chelated).  If the iron
is simply "double chelated," then I presume it would eventually be
available?

	2). If it turns out that this particular water conditioner _is_
going to make iron unavailable, what water conditioners (if any), do the
rest of you use?  

	3). As a related question, what does happen to the excess
chemicals from water conditioners if they are not all used up doing their
job of eliminating chlorine etc.?  Can some of them continue to build up
in the aquarium, since they have nothing to bind with, or do they
dissipate, react with other chemicals in the aquarium, or do something
else?  


	4). The listed ingredients of the water conditioner are: K CO3,
C12H22Ca O14, Na HCO3, Na S2O3, C4H6O3, C10H14N2O6, Tween#20, C6H8NO.  I
don't recognize some of these, and with the many isomers possible, don't
even know where to begin tracking them down.  (George, think you could
pester your wife with this ;-)? ). Others I suspect are listed
inaccurately:e.g. that should be K2CO3, not K CO3, shouldn't it? 

		Thanks to all, and a Happy Holidays as well!

	PS, thanks Stephen, for your reply to the related questions I 
sent you earlier.

				Andrew

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