DIY Iron Supplement?
- Thread starter radiata
- Start date
ostrow
It's Dr. Goodluck Himself
Hi. Maybe Randy knows. I just bought Fergon from the drug store (anyone who can't find it, ask the pharmacist. They may have it behind the counter....)
The bottle says 27mg of ferrous gluconate. Other threads indicate widely disparate amounts of iron in the Fergon. Are there different Fergons? I have only found one online with that brand and they are 27mg.
Just wondering about dosing is all.
The bottle says 27mg of ferrous gluconate. Other threads indicate widely disparate amounts of iron in the Fergon. Are there different Fergons? I have only found one online with that brand and they are 27mg.
Just wondering about dosing is all.
Hi,
I purchased some fergon tablets as Randy mentioned above after struggling to grow cheato. I have a Red Sea iron test kit which reads zero. Even after I dose the 1-5ml per 200g it still reads zero. With some further research it seemed that iron was fairly safe to dose at higher levels so I have dosed a fair amount more and still the test read zero. Frustrated I dosed 5 times the amount and still zero. Any thoughts?
Thanks
I purchased some fergon tablets as Randy mentioned above after struggling to grow cheato. I have a Red Sea iron test kit which reads zero. Even after I dose the 1-5ml per 200g it still reads zero. With some further research it seemed that iron was fairly safe to dose at higher levels so I have dosed a fair amount more and still the test read zero. Frustrated I dosed 5 times the amount and still zero. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Some iron kits may be of use in freshwater tanks, but not seawater. 
Some iron kits may be of use in freshwater tanks, but not seawater.
When you say "dose occasionally" 2-5ml per 200gal would that be every couple weeks?
I think that iron dosing amounts and frequency is very noncritical. Once you've supplied enough for the tank organisms, more is not needed, and they may only need to suck up iron once in a while.
If you are growing a lot of macroalgae, once a week may be useful. If you have less growth, then once every two weeks may be fine.
If you are growing a lot of macroalgae, once a week may be useful. If you have less growth, then once every two weeks may be fine.
You're welcome.
Happy Reefing.
Happy Reefing.
entropygain
New member
I was recently having a problem with the growth of my chaeto.
Up until recently it was doubling every week and my nitrates were zero.
Then it started turning pale and stopped growing and had a big problem with cyano in the display. After a lot of reading here decided it was probably iron deficiency. We use ferric chloride (FeCl3) in my lab as a trace element for growing bacterial cultures so I tried it in the tank at the same molar dose Randy recommended. Chaeto greened up nicely, nitrates came down and cyano disappeared. Now I add it to the top-off water whenever I fill it up.
Thanks to all for the help on these threads.
Up until recently it was doubling every week and my nitrates were zero.
Then it started turning pale and stopped growing and had a big problem with cyano in the display. After a lot of reading here decided it was probably iron deficiency. We use ferric chloride (FeCl3) in my lab as a trace element for growing bacterial cultures so I tried it in the tank at the same molar dose Randy recommended. Chaeto greened up nicely, nitrates came down and cyano disappeared. Now I add it to the top-off water whenever I fill it up.
Thanks to all for the help on these threads.
:thumbsup:
Thanks for the info!
Happy New Year!
Thanks for the info!
Happy New Year!
Top off water? That's a great idea.
How much top off water does your tank go through a day?
How much Iron are you placing in the top off reservoir?
entropygain
New member
(apologies in advance for the scientific notation, but I don't know how else to do the math)
In one of Randy's early articles
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/8/chemistry
he dosed 0.1 to 0.3 ml of a ~0.7 Molar solution into a 250 gallon system 2-3 times/week
this is ~2.76e-7 moles iron/gallon
I had 0.1 molar FeCl3 on my bench or 1e-7 moles/uL.
My system is ~140 gallons so I needed 386 uL of the 0.1 molar solution 2-3 times/week
or rounding 1200 uL/week
My topoff tank lasts about a week and a half so I put 2000 uL (2 mL) into the topoff tank every time I fill it up.
Sorry again for all the math, but bottom line is FeCL3 stays in solution and no reason not to put it in the topoff. Then I only have to remember every week or so, not every couple days.
In one of Randy's early articles
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/8/chemistry
he dosed 0.1 to 0.3 ml of a ~0.7 Molar solution into a 250 gallon system 2-3 times/week
this is ~2.76e-7 moles iron/gallon
I had 0.1 molar FeCl3 on my bench or 1e-7 moles/uL.
My system is ~140 gallons so I needed 386 uL of the 0.1 molar solution 2-3 times/week
or rounding 1200 uL/week
My topoff tank lasts about a week and a half so I put 2000 uL (2 mL) into the topoff tank every time I fill it up.
Sorry again for all the math, but bottom line is FeCL3 stays in solution and no reason not to put it in the topoff. Then I only have to remember every week or so, not every couple days.
Yyyeeeeeaaaaa.................:wildone::wave:
Happy new year!!!:celeb3:
I don't understand any of that.
