# Mixing my own Fe



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Hey all,

I jsut got soe CSM+b and 10% Fe chelated form Greg Watson. MIxing the CSM was easy but I also wanted to either add some more Fe or mix a seperate batch. Unfortunately, my chemistry/math skills are limited so I am unsure how to mix the 10%Fe chelate. Can anybody help?

Dennis


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

as per the gregwatson website it says

"Mix 3.53 ounces to make 1 litre of concentrated Iron Supplement solution."

http://www.gregwatson.com/products.asp?cat=8

ofcourse I am not a chemist so I dont know what to dose or the % of iron in that mix.


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## Rolo (May 12, 2004)

3.53oz = 100g. The compound is 10% iron so that 10g iron in 1 liter, or 10,000mg/L. Coincidently that is the same concentration of Flourish Iron. So if you would like you could dose per Seachem's directions (?) - http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/FlourishIron.html

I guess it's up to you how exactly to dose. CSM+B does have iron too.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Ok, sorry, I looked on Gegs site but did not see that So according to Seachem, Flourish Fe is 1%Fe, how do I calculate how much I add per liter of aquarium water, in ppm?

In my high light 10 gallon, I dose 3ml Flourish and 2ml Flourish Fe 3x week. The Fertilator tells me my dosing is this(based on Fe): Flourish=4.66ppm Fe, Flourish Fe=.62ppm. Does this seem right?

According to the Fertilator, to get this 5.28ppm Fe I need to add 2.6g of CSM+B. 1tbl of CSM+B is 14.7grams. If I mix 1tbl CSM+B in 500ml H2O, I need to add 17.5 ml. 

This seems wrong as the % of elements in CSM+B is MUCH higher than in Flourish. Seems like I would need less CSM+B rather than the 25% moe as is often suggested in comparing CSM+B with Flourish.

Man, I am confused now. I assume my math is completely screwed up. Can anyone help?


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Hi dennis
If the product contains 10% Fe then 1 gram in 100 liters make 1 ppm.

Edward


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Oh, thats easy Duh, ppm=mg/l So CSM+B is 7%Fe so that would mean 1g of CSM+B in 1liter is .7ppm?

Thank you!


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Yes, at 7%
1.000 gram / 100 l = 0.7 ppm
1.429 gram / 100 l = 1.0 ppm

Edward


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

So, if I want to add 1ppm to 40liters(10gallons) I do this math..
1.429/100=.01429
.01429*40=.57g

my stock solution of CSM+B is 14.7g in 500ml. So....
14.7/500=.294 (grams of CSM+B per ml of solution)
.57g/.294= 1.9
S0, 1.9ml of the solution would give me 1.0mg/l
Fe in 40liter aquarium

Fertilator says I currently add 5.2mg/l Fe, so...
1.9*5.2=9.88ml of my CSM+B stock solution to equal the Fe in Flourish/Fl. Fe

Of course, all this math makes me realize I seem to be adding alot of Fe to this tank. Remember this is 3x week so I am adding 15.6mg/l Fe weekly to this tank! I slowly built my dosing up starting at 1ml Flourish 3x week and over about 2 months I upped it to where I am now. The plants are growing nicely and I did notice a difference between 1ml and 2ml, all other params. stayed the same when I was doing this.

Anyway, sorry if I seems so math illiterate and thanks for checking over my calculations Maybe this will help someone else also.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Sorry, another math dummy question

If Floursih has .32%fe then what does 1ml of Flourish give, in say 1liter?


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## jart (Mar 13, 2005)

dennis said:


> If Floursih has .32%fe then what does 1ml of Flourish give, in say 1liter?


0.32 % by definition is 0.32 g/100 mL.

0.32 g/100 mL = 320 mg/ 100 mL = 3.2 mg/ mL.

So each mL of Flourish contains 3.2 mg. Add it to 1 L and you will have 3.2 mg/L.

The only dummy questions are those that are not asked.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Thanks jart Welcome to APC!

So, 1ml Flourish adds 3.2mg/l Fe. If I add 1ml to 40l(~10gallons)...
3.2/40=.08 mg/l (Fe in 40 liters) 

I dose 3ml so...
.08*3=.24mg/l (Fe in 40l)

The fertilator says adding 3ml of Flourish to 40l gives me 4.41mg/l Fe per dose.

Where did I go wrong?


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## jart (Mar 13, 2005)

True the fertilator says adding 3 mL FLOURISH to 40 L gives you 4.41 ppm.

It says that adding 3 mL FLOURISH IRON to the same volume gives you 0.88 ppm.

I can't make sense of this, given that Flourish Iron is more concentrated in terms of iron. I am new to the fertilator though. And Dennis I appreciate the welcome.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Can anybody check my math in my last post? It is based on Flourish containing .32% Fe. Sorry, math is not my friend usually


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## jart (Mar 13, 2005)

dennis said:


> So, 1ml Flourish adds 3.2mg/l Fe.


Sorry for the late reply. Your math looks good, except for semantics:
1 mL Flourish adds 3.2 mg, not 3.2 mg/L.

As I previously pointed out, the fact that Flourish Iron seems to yield less iron content than Flourish may mean there is a bug in the system. Sorry I can't help more than this Dennis.


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