Iron Dosing, Is it too much? 3ppm total a week.

aamir9110

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Reason for posting - yellow water throughout the week.

Solution requested - To figure out if I am overdosing iron??

Problem :

Aquarium data - Water ~ 25 Gal.
wood, stones, fish, RCS etc.

I make my trace solution based on Wet's Calculator.
Since the tap water Kh is bad ~ 10. I use Fe- DTPA in addition to CSM-B

Here is the mix.
24 gm CSM-B ( 0.5ppm iron) + 14gm DTPA 11% Fe ( 0.5 ppm). This is mixed in 500ml of RO water and then dosed 15ml x 3 times a week. Total Iron dosing of 1ppm per dose ,3 times weekly..

The water looks Jaundiced :confused-new: And progressively becomes slightly more yellow as the week passes till I do a 50% WC

I had the impression that 3 ppm total weekly iron is not a whole lot. and plant growth is not bad. Rotala routinely grows ~ 3 - 4 inch per week or more.

What should I be doing, I don't like the pale yellow look ...
Advice requested.

Regards,
AR
 
Mar 20, 2013
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The moment you mentioned the color, it was excess Fe. You can cut that amount to 1/4 your dosing. As well, you probably don't have a lot of light so it's a waste.
 

Tug

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Throw in an extra water change or two and try dosing the "mix" at, 5mL a day.
I expect the water should clear up, if due to the iron.

Look for any change and/or returning pale yellow color.
To continue to lower the Fe dose, remove any DTPA added to the mix, by as much as 8 grams.
That's still plenty.
 

aamir9110

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Iron dosing in water

Thanks guys. I will mix some new chelate - iron doses and dose accordingly.