Iron dosing, sulfer, and my macro

[rinckemd]

I’m running core7 base elements. Recently I had my cheato start to die off, and nutrients increased. I was not at 0, so I do not think the die off was from that. After nutrients increased it still did not recover. I thought it might be an iron deficiency. I dose your iron supplement each week as based on the ICP test suggestions (higher really), but it always comes back 0.

I tried adding some pax bellum iron supplement I had for a cheato reactor daily. It has iron and manganese in it. The chaeto is greening up I think, and the ulva took off! But...on the next ICP test I had high red level sulfer, and the iron was still 0.

Can iron react and change into sulfer or should I be looking for other causes? I keep it pretty tight, nothing has changed in a year except switching from Rods food to LRS.
Should I just add more of your iron supplement instead? Start low and watch the macro?

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m running core7 base elements. Recently I had my cheato start to die off, and nutrients increased. I thought it might be an iron deficiency. I dose your iron supplement each week as based on the ICP test suggestions (higher really), but it always comes back 0.

I tried adding some pax bellum iron supplement I had for a cheato reactor daily. It has iron and manganese in it. The chaeto is greening up I think, and the ulva took off! But...on the next ICP test I had red level sulfer, and the iron was still 0.

Can iron react and change into sulfer or should I be looking for other causes? I keep it pretty tight, nothing has changed in a year except switching from Rods food to LRS.
Should I just add more of your iron supplement instead? Start low and watch the macro?

Thanks

Iron rapidly depletes in all reef tanks and normally shouldn't be detectable, except right after dosing (if you do).

It both precipitates (mostly as iron oxide/hydroxide) and is taken up by all photosynthetic organisms. There's should not be a lot of iron sulfide forming in most tanks, but it might if you have anaerobic/stagnant areas where hydrogen sulfide is produced.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Low sulfur relates to sulfate, one of the highest concentration ions in seawater. It and chloride are the main negatively charged ions in seawater.

The only way for sulfate to get especially low is to use a salt mix with an unnatural ratio of sulfate to chloride, or dose a lot of calcium chloride without an appropriate amount of sulfate dosed somehow (such as via magnesium sulfate)

 

[Tim@Triton Verified Sponsor]

I’m running core7 base elements. Recently I had my cheato start to die off, and nutrients increased. I was not at 0, so I do not think the die off was from that. After nutrients increased it still did not recover. I thought it might be an iron deficiency. I dose your iron supplement each week as based on the ICP test suggestions (higher really), but it always comes back 0.

I tried adding some pax bellum iron supplement I had for a cheato reactor daily. It has iron and manganese in it. The chaeto is greening up I think, and the ulva took off! But...on the next ICP test I had high red level sulfer, and the iron was still 0.

Can iron react and change into sulfer or should I be looking for other causes? I keep it pretty tight, nothing has changed in a year except switching from Rods food to LRS.
Should I just add more of your iron supplement instead? Start low and watch the macro?

Thanks

What dosage instructions are you referring to regarding Fe (Iron), we don't have the dosage information for that in the dose page. I presume you mean from the quick reference guide?

The reading for Fe will always appear as Zero on the ICP under normal levels as it is below the Limit Of Detection (LOD) of the ICP machine. If you follow the dosage instructions and do not increase more than 3 times then that dosage should be more than sufficient, and still display as zero...

We do not recommend using trace mixes at all as we do not know what they contain along with the element that you require as contaminants.

 

[BlueCursor]

I've kept a refugium with lots of macro and no Fe dosing. I do partial water changes and that is it. Granted, my macro looks more light green than dark green at times, but this is rarely an issue.

I would look to another cause of the die off.

 

[Joe Batt]

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[Joe Batt]

The reading for Fe will always appear as Zero on the ICP under normal levels as it is below the Limit Of Detection (LOD) of the ICP machine. If you follow the dosage instructions and do not increase more than 3 times then that dosage should be more than sufficient, and still display as zero...
.

The quick reference guide for Iron states that you should

Dose 1ml per 500l. The dose can be increased up to a maximum of 3 times using the same procedure of 1ml per 500L.

Is this a daily dose? ie you can dose from 1 to 3ml per 500L daily?