Iron testing and dosing

Susan Edwards

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I got in a seachems iron test kit. My results are basically 0. Should I be dosing iron? what is the ideal iron to have?
Thanks in advance
 

Vette67

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I just bought the Hanna iron tester and have started dosing the Fergon tablets. I literally started this week, so I can’t say how things will react yet. But here’s a good article on using Fergon tablets. I am going to aim for about .02. I’m at zero as well.

 
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Susan Edwards

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I just bought the Hanna iron tester and have started dosing the Fergon tablets. I literally started this week, so I can’t say how things will react yet. But here’s a good article on using Fergon tablets. I am going to aim for about .02. I’m at zero as well.

I will order some tablets and try. My strontium test kit comes tomorrow. anything else aside from the normal test to do?
 

Vette67

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I will order some tablets and try. My strontium test kit comes tomorrow. anything else aside from the normal test to do?
I’ve been going down a trace element rabbit hole. Dosing potassium, manganese and iron. I think potassium is another big one that gets overlooked. I even bought a gram scale to measure out manganese chloride tetrahydrate
Once you disolve and mix with water, how long does it last? Can it be stored?
I mix the solution and keep it in a sealed container. I’m assuming it can be stored, but I don’t know for sure. I added like a 10x dose this evening and I’m going to see what the kit says my iron value is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s above zero. As long as it doesn’t all get consumed over night!
 
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Susan Edwards

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I’ve been going down a trace element rabbit hole. Dosing potassium, manganese and iron. I think potassium is another big one that gets overlooked. I even bought a gram scale to measure out manganese chloride tetrahydrate

I mix the solution and keep it in a sealed container. I’m assuming it can be stored, but I don’t know for sure. I added like a 10x dose this evening and I’m going to see what the kit says my iron value is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s above zero. As long as it doesn’t all get consumed over night!
Let me know!
 

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I’ve been going down a trace element rabbit hole. Dosing potassium, manganese and iron. I think potassium is another big one that gets overlooked. I even bought a gram scale to measure out manganese chloride tetrahydrate
Have you seen a difference in the tank? I have never been a believer in dosing trace elements other than those doing no WC type system, but always curious to hear anecdotal evidence of success as i am open to it.
 

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It has been too soon testing to say I have noticed anything. But at this point, it looks like my tank consumes iron faster than I can dose it. Even after dosing almost about half of a Fergon tablet worth of iron yesterday, my tank still shows an iron value of zero. So I dissolved another tablet today and dosed half of it again. I’ll check tomorrow and see if I can detect iron in my water.
34B047DD-0CA8-4311-8848-47E98AA6524B.jpeg
 

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It has been too soon testing to say I have noticed anything. But at this point, it looks like my tank consumes iron faster than I can dose it. Even after dosing almost about half of a Fergon tablet worth of iron yesterday, my tank still shows an iron value of zero. So I dissolved another tablet today and dosed half of it again. I’ll check tomorrow and see if I can detect iron in my water.
34B047DD-0CA8-4311-8848-47E98AA6524B.jpeg
How did it go?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I got in a seachems iron test kit. My results are basically 0. Should I be dosing iron? what is the ideal iron to have?
Thanks in advance

Iron results will typically be zero even when dosing. No kit can detect natural elvels.

I'd stop testing, but dosing is a fine plan. A good DIY can be made from Fergon tablets from the drug store.

This has more:

 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Have you seen a difference in the tank? I have never been a believer in dosing trace elements other than those doing no WC type system, but always curious to hear anecdotal evidence of success as i am open to it.

The owner of Reef Central from long ago had pale macroalgae that colored up in one day after dosing iron based on my recommendation.
 
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Susan Edwards

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I ordered the stuff you recommended and will start dosing today 1ml per 100 gal so about 1.5 ml or a bit less for me (150 g total water but minus rock and a sump not full)
 

Vette67

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Iron results will typically be zero even when dosing. No kit can detect natural elvels.

I'd stop testing, but dosing is a fine plan. A good DIY can be made from Fergon tablets from the drug store.

This has more:

I was sort of wondering the same thing; if the Hanna kit was even capable of testing down to .01 or .02, which is somewhere around where the target value is.... There's no doubt that the vial turns bright red when I inject a few drops of the Fergon liquid into the test vial, so it is capable of detecting Iron, I just don't know how low the capability is....

I have been dosing your Fergon recipe almost daily, and I still can't get this test kit to detect anything. So either the tester isn't capable, or it is being consumed so quickly, that it is really zero....

But so far, I have not noticed any difference. But I do have several pounds of chaeto in 2 of my tanks, so I may need to dose a lot before I notice much.
 

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I started and have noticed no noticeable difference in my tank after several months. About ready to stop as i have to dose quite a lot just to keep it registering on test kits and seeing no difference makes me feel i am just pouring money away. It may be great for some tanks, but for me I just not seeing a benefit.
 
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