Low iron. Should I dose?

[WrasseyReefer]

Just tested my iron with Red Sea. Came out to 0-0.05, and 0.15 is suppose to be the target. Should I dose iron to get it up? Is it really important for corals? Don’t want to chase numbers just for the sake of it.

 

[tbrown]

What corals do you have? Some corals require or at a minimum prefer some iron.

If you're testing you can dose.

Also, are dosing anything else that may have iron in it? Some Trace Elements contain iron. Your salt mix may contain traces of iron as well if you're doing frequent water changes.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

What corals do you have? Some corals require or at a minimum prefer some iron.

If you're testing you can dose.

Also, are dosing anything else that may have iron in it? Some Trace Elements contain iron. Your salt mix may contain traces of iron as well if you're doing frequent water changes.

Mixed reef: softies, mostly LPS, some easy SPS. Not dosing any trace elements. Only dose alk, calc, (mag infrequently), nopox, neophos. Water changes around 20% every 1-2 weeks.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Mixed reef: softies, mostly LPS, some easy SPS. Not dosing any trace elements. Only dose alk, calc, (mag infrequently), nopox, neophos. Water changes around 20% every 1-2 weeks.

Occasionally, not frequently, I’ll add some coral aminos to some mysis and use that to target feed corals.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Occasionally, not frequently, I’ll add some coral aminos to some mysis and use that to target feed corals.

Salt is Red Sea blue bucket.

 

[tbrown]

Iron can aide in algae growth as well. If you don't have anything using the iron your algae might uptake it.

I had a magnet leach iron into my tank and had an explosion of hair algae. If you're going to dose, be prepared for that.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Iron can aide in algae growth as well. If you don't have anything using the iron your algae might uptake it.

I had a magnet leach iron into my tank and had an explosion of hair algae. If you're going to dose, be prepared for that.

Yeah, that’s what I thought it was mostly used by. I do have macroalgae in my refugium that possibly is consuming all the iron? I’m mostly concerned about corals that may need it for growth and health.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Iron can aide in algae growth as well. If you don't have anything using the iron your algae might uptake it.

I had a magnet leach iron into my tank and had an explosion of hair algae. If you're going to dose, be prepared for that.

I’ve been having bad GHA in my FOWLR. I’ll test for iron there as well.

 

[tbrown]

I’ve been having bad GHA in my FOWLR. I’ll test for iron there as well.

It's just one source of food. Phosphate and Nitrate are also food for algae.

Yeah, that’s what I thought it was mostly used by. I do have macroalgae in my refugium that possibly is consuming all the iron? I’m mostly concerned about corals that may need it for growth and health.

Reef Builders has an article that states that iron helps bring out certain colors in Acros - pinks and purples I believe.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

It's just one source of food. Phosphate and Nitrate are also food for algae.

Reef Builders has an article that states that iron helps bring out certain colors in Acros - pinks and purples I believe.

Yeah, the phosphates and nitrates in the FOWLR are fine, so it’s been a mystery to me.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

It's just one source of food. Phosphate and Nitrate are also food for algae.

Reef Builders has an article that states that iron helps bring out certain colors in Acros - pinks and purples I believe.

So it sounds like maybe low iron isn’t a huge deal then.

 

[tbrown]

So it sounds like maybe low iron isn’t a huge deal then.

Most people don't dose iron beyond what's in the water changes or Trace Elements. Since you're testing you could dose, but I agree it's probably not necessary since you've got iron in your water.

 

[tbrown]

@billyocean what are your thoughts? You don't dose iron, right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Red Sea iron recommendation is super crazy high. It’s ok to keep it that high, but it definitely is not needed. Even a thousand times lower is above natural levels for surface seawater.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Expanding on the above comment, these have more:

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Iron In A Reef Tank

Randy discusses iron and its usage in our aquariums.

reefs.com

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Iron: A Look At Organisms Other Than 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.

reefs.com

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

from the last one:

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.

 

[floridareeflabs]

We dose iron almost every other month as we do less water changes than most. That said, be very careful on the type of iron you dose as some inhabitants are very sensitive to iron. An example, we dosed in the early days a popular brand of iron not knowing it is known to kill blue tangs, yes "know" but not well publicized. So, just do yor research and be sure you do not have anything that may "disapprove or react" to dosing iron.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

We dose iron almost every other month as we do less water changes than most. That said, be very careful on the type of iron you dose as some inhabitants are very sensitive to iron. An example, we dosed in the early days a popular brand of iron not knowing it is known to kill blue tangs, yes "know" but not well publicized. So, just do yor research and be sure you do not have anything that may "disapprove or react" to dosing iron.

What type of iron are you suggesting is a problem for tangs? I suspect many reports like this are coincidences.

 

[flagg37]

In a previous tank, I dosed iron because I had a refugium and didn’t do water changes. I dosed the Red Sea colors for all my trace elements but because of the chaetomorpha in the refugium, I was depleting the iron faster and needed to dose that one more.

 

[killer2001]

I have a refugium with chaetomorpha and I had crazy good production until one day I didn't. I daily dose AFR and do daily 2% water changes but still, the growth just stopped. It wasn't until I started dosing small amounts of iron daily that the chaeto started to ramp back up, and this was absolutely the only change I made so I could actively see if it made a difference, and it does.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I have a refugium with chaetomorpha and I had crazy good production until one day I didn't. I daily dose AFR and do daily 2% water changes but still, the growth just stopped. It wasn't until I started dosing small amounts of iron daily that the chaeto started to ramp back up, and this was absolutely the only change I made so I could actively see if it made a difference, and it does.

Do you test your iron?