Question on Iron dosing

[FreshSaltyGuy]

Hi @Randy Holmes-Farley I just have a quick question. So I recently stopped water changes and noticed my iron went to zero. I have around 250-260 gallons of water for my reef tank. I have read your documentation on using Fergon Iron tablets so I ordered some and diluted 1 tablet in 27ml or water. I saw you mentioned you add 1ml of this to your 300 gallon tank once or twice a week? But I see others using your methods staying that you say 1ml for every 100 gallons or even 4ml for every 100 gallons to the point that I'm so confused lol. So for my 250 gallon do I just add 1ml once a week?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Iron dosing is very forgiving. Acceptable ranges are truly staggering, certainly being at least 1,000x in concentration. Both my dose and those other doses are all plenty and I don’t think it matters much.

 

[Dan_P]

Iron dosing is very forgiving. Acceptable ranges are truly staggering, certainly being at least 1,000x in concentration. Both my dose and those other doses are all plenty and I don’t think it matters much.

Why Is the acceptable range large?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Why Is the acceptable range large?

Well, I assume it’s because iron is very low to start with, but creatures need it so they develop methods to find it. Couple that with lowish toxicity and the range gets large.

That said, I’m not basing it on theory but on the fact that iron on reefs is super low (around 0.000006 in surface water) while some reefers keep it vastly higher, either due to the high Red Sea recommendation (0.15 ppm), or by using it to precipitate phosphate (glennf says up to 0.25 ppm).

 

[Dan_P]

Well, I assume it’s because iron is very low to start with, but creatures need it so they develop methods to find it. Couple that with lowish toxicity and the range gets large.

That said, I’m not basing it on theory but on the fact that iron on reefs is super low (around 0.000006 in surface water) while some reefers keep it vastly higher, either due to the high Red Sea recommendation (0.15 ppm), or by using it to precipitate phosphate (glennf says up to 0.25 ppm).

OK, that makes sense.