I want to change from using Seachem Iron to a Chelated Iron Powder

Hey,

Don't be sorry for questions. I don't know the answer but would love to learn also.

 

Hi Jennifer.
If it is stated on the products package that it is EDTA chelated Iron 13% that would typically mean the Iron is 13 grams in 100 grams of the product. The rest will be the EDTA acid unless stated other wise.
On the Seachem web site I read that 1 liter of Flourish Iron contains 10000mg of Fe++ or 10 grams of Iron. To make 500 ml of Iron supplement with your chelated Iron powder you will need 38.5 grams of the powder.
To produce solution with the same accuracy as Seachem use 500 ml measurement chemical cup or anything else as accurate as you can get. Put the powder into the measurement cup and top up water up to the 500 ml mark.
There should be no problem in using the old Seachem bottle. Just wash it well first.

 

Just to check that calculation.....wouldn't it be 10 grams of chelated iron?

 

Background information - Iron chelate, also known as chelated iron, is a soluble complex of iron, sodium and a chelating agent such as ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), EDDHA, or others, used to make the iron soluble in water and, for the purposes of agriculture, accessible to plants.

Too much chelating agent like EDTA would burn the plant or toxic for handling. The rest of the percentage in the powder could be iron sulfate, potassium nitrate and salts like magnesium and sodium. The chelated iron using EDTA makes it soluble in water; without the chelating agent, iron would be hard to dissolve in water and become unavailable to plants.

 

Jennifer -

Wett's calculator, located here: http://calc.petalphile.com/ is very handy.

I also mix up an Iron solution in an old 500ml Seachen Iron bottle.

I mix 1 level tablespoon of 13% EDTA Iron with 500mls water, give it a good shake, and then dose 30mls 3x per week for my 100g tank.

I spent quite a bit of time working with the gurus on here to come up with this mix. It is working well.

I have some DTPA in my micros mix (I'm using Rexolin APN). I don't really care about the iron added here to be honest.

From previous discussions, I believe you can add quite a lot of iron before it becomes toxic to fish.

So yeah, without the chelator (DTPA, EDTA etc), the dry powder iron (e.g. Iron Sulphate) would quickly 'oxidise' once it is added to the aquarium making it unavailable to the plants. The stronger the chelator, the longer the iron takes to break down and oxidise. The trade off is that the stronger the chelator, the harder it is for the plants to 'get at' the iron.

Regularly dosing EDTA iron, such as what you have, seems like the best shot to me. It's inexpensive, readily available etc.

I'm not quite sure why Tom goes to the bother of making up a tri-iron solution given that there are plenty of people dosing with plain old EDTA without a problem..??

Scott.

 

Wouldn't the plants 'store up' enough iron to keep them going for a day or two though...?

I remember your experiments that you were conducting with iron (high dosage + spikes etc). Anything conclusive?

 

Sure Hope Wet Adds 13% Fe So I Can Do This W/O Arithmetic...


Hi Jennifer,

I am no Guru but…


Follow Aquadream and Crispino Ramos advice. Aquadream’s arithmetic is correct and as Aquadream says (always) mix for total solution. Adding the 38.5-grams to 500-ml of distilled water results in 538.5-ml solution that means your solution is about 7.7% more dilute or instead of a 10,000-ppm solution you have 9,230-ppm solution of chelated Fe[SUP]2+[/SUP].


Scott’s “approximation” is approximately [SUP]1[/SUP]⁄[SUB]3 [/SUB] Seachem’s solution strength. The Seachem Iron is a 1% solution, or 10,000-ppm.



Assuming 4.4-grams per teaspoon (3 teaspoon = 1 tablespoon), 13.2-grams of 13% chelated Fe[SUP]2+[/SUP] into 500-ml of distilled water results in 513.2-ml of solution with a concentration of 0.34% or 3400-ppm.


To approximate Seachem’s 1% solution with 13% chelated iron, mix approximately 38.5-grams (approximately 8 ¾ teaspoon) 13% Fe[SUP]2+[/SUP] into approximately 450-ml of distilled water, then add enough distilled water (approximately 12.5-ml) to make approximately 500-ml.


Biollante

 

I am only 1/8th guru, whereas Bio is 7/8ths, so go with what he said.