Iron test kit???

[AQUAN8TOR]

Does anyone know of an iron test kit for saltwater?? I have a LaMotte kit from a decade ago for fresh, only good as a paperweight at this point.
I've heard of some folks actually putting a cast iron nail in their fuge as iron supplementation; I'm not even going to comment on this.

Anyone have suggestions? I've got a pretty productive refugium, and dose a lot of iron. I want to know if I'm dosing enough. Call me anal retentive.

 

[Quiet1]

I can say that too much iron can be dangerious to corals and inverts. So I would be careful. Also, I think Salifert has an iron test kit.

Quiet1

 

[AQUAN8TOR]

Of course. I just have such a productive refugium, I know that iron is always in short supply. As for Salifert, I'm unaware of their iron kit. I use their iodine kit regularly, but my supplier doesn't have iron available. I'll have to get on salifert's forum. thanks.

 

[sjvl51]

Here are a couple of articles on iron in our aquariums - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/chem.htm - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/chem.htm

I quote from the second article - "Given these various concerns, and the fact that we do not really know how these experiments translate to a reef tank, I would, at present, not recommend significant iron additions for reef tanks with no macroalgae. I made this point in the previous article on the basis of driving microalgae growth when there is no macroalgae to take up the nutrients. The topics discussed in this article serve to support the contention that there is little reason to add iron in the absence of macroalgae.

I do believe, however, that the benefits outweigh the risks when one is growing macroalgae. To date there have been no claims of a demonstrated problem in a reef tank from reasonable iron additions. Now that people have some clues as to what to look for, however, we may have such reports in the future."

Vickie

 

[AQUAN8TOR]

thanks very much for the articles. Very informative reading. I now think I should increase even more the amount of iron I'm dosing. I've not found any evidence of decreased scleractinian coral growth, but I do notice cyanobacteria in my refugium growing rampant if I forget for a week to dose iron. I'm switching to daily dosing as with Lugol's solution.

Thanks again.