Iron dosing

[scotty333]

Guys
Triton doesn’t give a dosage for iron but they do sell the supplement

Rf on the other hand say .8ml as per my 400ltr tank

But I know the concentrations are likely different


Should I go with .8 and icp in a week see if I get a reading ? I mean it’s nothing and I don’t see it’ll register at such a low dose

 

[Pod_01]

Just an opinion, if you see lot of algae growing perhaps you dosed too much.

l suspect it is one of the safer elements to experiment with, but I would still observe the tank daily…
If iron is actually limiting your corals you should see improvement, but dosing more than what corals need is not going to help.


Good luck,

 

[scotty333]

Just an opinion, if you see lot of algae growing perhaps you dosed too much.

l suspect it is one of the safer elements to experiment with, but I would still observe the tank daily…
If iron is actually limiting your corals you should see improvement, but dosing more than what corals need is not going to help.


Good luck,

I’ve got a caluerpa forest that kinda stopped growing a few months ago
It’s not pale but grows slow so I’m thinking no iron is the cause
Will observe it as it’ll maybe indicate it was needed

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Guys
Triton doesn’t give a dosage for iron but they do sell the supplement

Rf on the other hand say .8ml as per my 400ltr tank

But I know the concentrations are likely different


Should I go with .8 and icp in a week see if I get a reading ? I mean it’s nothing and I don’t see it’ll register at such a low dose

You cannot use a different supplement brand at the same dose recommended by a different company and expect anything to be correct. Trace element mixes can vary hugely in concentration.

 

[scotty333]

You cannot use a different supplement brand at the same dose recommended by a different company and expect anything to be correct. Trace element mixes can vary hugely in concentration.

I know but I can’t find a dose ratio on tritons iron supplement
From what I’ve seen , rf seems to be weaker than tritons concentration so for now I’ll stick with the .8 and see from there

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I know but I can’t find a dose ratio on tritons iron supplement
From what I’ve seen , rf seems to be weaker than tritons concentration so for now I’ll stick with the .8 and see from there

Iron doses are very, very noncritical. Nickel likely has a much smaller acceptability window.

 

[scotty333]

Iron doses are very, very noncritical. Nickel likely has a much smaller acceptability window.

Yeah that’s why I diluted the nickel after some thought
As a seasoned pro , what would you suggest I try for iron dose ?
Could take months going down my method of .8 then send an icp ( comes back 0) go 1.6ml ( comes back 0……..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yeah that’s why I diluted the nickel after some thought
As a seasoned pro , what would you suggest I try for iron dose ?
Could take months going down my method of .8 then send an icp ( comes back 0) go 1.6ml ( comes back 0……..

This is my general iron advice:

One Fergon tablet (ferrous gluconate) contains 27 mg of iron. Dissolve that in about 27 mL RO/DI (my recommendation, but other concentrations are OK, just don't dilute too much), the concentration is about 27 mg/27 ml ~ 1 mg/mL.

I dose ~1 mL to my tank with a volume of about 300 gallons ) once or twice a week.

That corresponds to a dose of about 1 ppb. Ten or a hundred times that is also apparent find since Red Sea recommended maintaining those higher levels.

here's an older recommendation of mine (which I think works out to about 0.2 ppb):

Iron in Reef Tanks: How Much and What Form?​

Deciding how much iron to add is fairly easy because, in my experience, it doesn’t seem to matter too much. Presumably, once you add enough to eliminate iron as a limiting nutrient, extra iron does not apparently cause harm (at least that I’ve detected in my tanks or heard of from others). I selected a dose of about 0.1 to 0.3 mL of a solution containing 5 g of iron (as 25 g of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate) in 250 mL of water containing 50.7 g of sodium citrate dihydrate. This liquid is dosed 2-3 times per week to my system with a total water volume of about 250 gallons. This iron(II) citrate has turned brown and cloudy since I first made up the bottle years ago, suggesting that it is oxidizing to iron(III) and some is precipitating from solution, but I still use it. Over the past 4 years, I’ve dosed nearly all of the 5 grams of actual iron to my tank.

Now that may sound like a huge amount, and it is. It’s enough to bring 800 million gallons of completely depleted seawater up to the 0.000006 ppm level that I mentioned earlier for natural sea surface water. Still, I’ve not noticed any problem, do not know the steady state concentration, do not know how high of a solution concentration is actually optimal for my tank, do not know how much is biologically available by the mechanisms mentioned below, do not know how fast it is removed by skimming and other mechanisms, and do not know what would happen if I cut it back by a factor of 1,000.

All that I know is that microalgae has never been a problem since starting the iron, and I’ve not noticed anything negative that I could attribute to the iron (nor have I heard of any from others doing similar dosing). Still, I don’t keep all organisms available to the hobby, and if you do seem to get a negative reaction from something, I’d advise backing off on the dose or stopping completely.

 

[scotty333]

Thanks boss , do you have a definitive answer for me using tritons product ?
Or best guess will do since it seems overdosing isn’t a problem

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks boss , do you have a definitive answer for me using tritons product ?
Or best guess will do since it seems overdosing isn’t a problem

I'd use it at the dose Triton says to use.

 

[scotty333]

I'd use it at the dose Triton says to use.

Triton don’t advise but rf do

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Triton don’t advise but rf do

Ah, I see. So you have an additive of unknown concentration and no recommendation on a dosing amount.

I'd get something else.

 

[scotty333]

Ah, I see. So you have an additive of unknown concentration and no recommendation on a dosing amount.

I'd get something else.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

responded in other thread

 

[scotty333]

responded in other thread

Responded too haha

 

[Harpo]

Randy, what do I do with all the sediment in the bottom after dissolving the iron tablets in my RODI? Does this need to be stored in any special kind of container?

 

[joaocdestro]

Hello Friends and Randy,

I'm trying to increase my iron dosage through my balling solution, the goal is to reduce the Po4 that always tend to increase in my system.

Why?
I do preffer to fine tune iron dosage than using GFO that causes a mess every replacement and in Brazil is very expensive.

Balling Solution:
I'm mixing the traditional 500g of sodium bicarbonate in 5 liters of water, and adding 2g of FeSO₄·7H₂O (Iron Sulfate II) with the goal of keeping the Po4 low (0,03ppm).

I started dosing this mixture through a dosing pump, and I didn't notice my Po4 reducing.

Perceptions:
When I was setting up, producing the balling solution mixed the Iron Sulfate in the deionized water, it was clear, but as soon as I added bicarbonate the solution turned brown immediately.

I could notice that at the bottom of the solution settled a brown sludge, and when the bottle of the solution was at the end, I dosed this brown thing, the Po4 practically went from 0,12 to zero.

Questions:
- Could it be that the Iron Sulfate reacted with Bicarbonate and will no longer bind with the Po4?
- Could the Iron Sulfate be settling at the bottom of the balling solution? How Can I avoid it?
- Is the iron settled at the bottom of the balling solution? No iron floating in balling solution?
- May I increase the quantity of iron in balling solution? And throw that sludge out at every new balling solution mixed?
- Lanthanum chloride is a better option?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You precipitated iron hydroxide. Some is likely still in the mix. Solids may redissolve in the lower pH of the tank.

 

[joaocdestro]

You precipitated iron hydroxide. Some is likely still in the mix. Solids may redissolve in the lower pH of the tank.

Is there some way to not became hidroxide? Iron gluconate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there some way to not became hidroxide? Iron gluconate?

is there a reason to not put it into the calcium part? Ferrous gluconate is a good choice and is what I use, but either will remain more soluble in the calcium part since it’s pH is lower.