Dosing red sea trace colors

Miller535 · Sep 20, 2020

So the color of some of my coral has not been as vivid as I'd like. And after a few triton test many of the things in the red sea color program are super low or zero. I thought I'd give it a try. They recommend dosing their iron supplement to a level of .15ppm. Is that not really high? Or am I missing something. I bought their trace color test kit also. My thought was that id test initially and dose their program, then switch to dosing based off of calcium consumption, which for me is 70ml a day.

Lasse · Sep 21, 2020

As I remember Tritons setpoint is 0.1. It is their detection level. I dose iron as long as I do not get a reading on Tritons analyses. I dose with Triton iron.

Sincerely Lasse

Miller535 · Sep 21, 2020

Lasse said:
As I remember Tritons setpoint is 0.1. It is their detection level. I dose iron as long as I do not get a reading on Tritons analyses. I dose with Triton iron.

Sincerely Lasse

Triton set point is .1ug/l. Red sea is saying to dose to .15 ppm. Wouldn't .15ppm be 150ug/l?

Miller535 · Sep 22, 2020

anyone?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2020

Their iron recommendation is way overkill, IMO.

IMO, it is so their kit can detect it. That much is definitely not needed.

Miller535 · Sep 22, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Their iron recommendation is way overkill, IMO.

IMO, it is so their kit can detect it. That much is definitely not needed.

That's what I was thinking. I read one of your old articles where you said you dosed at (I believe) around 1-2 ug\l of Iron. I think I will skip dosing it. Or is there a benefit to dosing small amounts?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2020

Miller535 said:
That's what I was thinking. I read one of your old articles where you said you dosed at (I believe) around 1-2 ug\l of Iron. I think I will skip dosing it. Or is there a benefit to dosing small amounts?

Many organisms, especially macroalgae, seem to benefit for it, but experimenting and seeing is fine too.

Some folks dose high amounts to control phosphate by iron phosphate precipitation. IMO, that's the only plausible rationale for high doses.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2020

From my Triton Tests results article:

My Triton Testing Results: By Randy Holmes-Farley - REEFEDITION

Recently, Triton GmbH in Germany has initiated a method of testing many ions at once for a single price. In the US, that service is coordinated by Unique Corals. For $49 they will send you a couple of tubes to collect a tank water sample, and a prepaid mailer to send the sample back to them...

www.reefedition.com

Iron (Fe). The natural iron level varies a lot with depth, but surface seawater may have only 0.006 µg/L. The Triton LOD = 0.3 µg/L. I dose iron, and when I dose it I boost iron to roughly 1-2 µg/L, which would be detectable. This sample was taken more than a week after the last iron dosing, and none was detected as it gets depleted in the meanwhile. I’ve not yet seen a Triton test result for a real aquarium sample that had detectable iron, but that doesn’t mean these tanks are necessarily deficient. Iron is also a case where the form is critical, and ICP cannot distinguish form. Binding to organic matter, for example, can alter the bioavailability of iron.