# Dosing Flourish Iron - Measuring Iron



## FreakIndeed (Jun 17, 2007)

Hi there,

On the recommendation of someone in another thread, I purchased some Flourish Iron to provide Iron to my newly planted tank. I have no supplemental substrate.

I need some recommendations on how much I should dose. The instructions say to maintain about 0.10mg/l of iron, dosing 1 cap for every 50 gallons of water. However, I was unable to find any API test kits for measuring iron. I know to dose one capful for my 55 gallon tank, but I have no idea how often to dose.

My tank is 55 gallons with 110 watts of compact fluorescent. I dose Flourish Comprehensive and Excel at normal doses. No Co2 (yet!). Mostly stem plants and a large Amazon Sword.

Thanks!!!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You won't be very successful with that much light unless you use CO2, or at least use Excel, and unless you dose nitrates, phosphates and potassium, to go along with the trace elements the Flourish provides. Excel will soon become a financial drag in the amounts you will need to dose in that size tank. So, why not just spend that money on a pressurized CO2 set up now?

Once you are dosing all of the nutrients in adequate quantities, and supplying CO2, you can follow the EI method of dosing, per:http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...zing/15225-estimative-index-dosing-guide.html


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## FreakIndeed (Jun 17, 2007)

I'm going to add pressurized Co2 just as soon as possible. In the meantime I'm going to setup a couple DIY bottles just to get _something_ in there. I am dosing Excel at recommended levels. A bottle should last me a few months... and there is a big difference between spending $9.00 every couple months and having to spend $200 right now.

I was just hoping to find out how much Flourish Iron I should be adding, just to give the plants as much help as possible... in the meantime.


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## FreakIndeed (Jun 17, 2007)

After re-reading my own post I found that I almost sounded like I didn't care about your advise... well that couldn't be further from the truth! Sorry if it sounded that way... lol.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Unless you are dosing nitrates and phosphates and potassium it doesn't matter if you dose Flourish Iron or not. Flourish contains enough iron already. But plants will not grow with only a trace element mix as a fertilizer. That's why your question is not answerable.


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

Here's a little more info.

I don't know what size Excel that you buy, but until you can get a good CO2 system; buying Excel in the 2L or 4L sizes will be cheaper:
Excel 2L
Excel 4L

You can get your dry ferts from two sources:
Aquarium Plant Food
Rex Grigg

You'll need:
KNO3 - potassium nitrate for dosing nitrate and potassium
KH2PO4 - monopotassium phosphate for dosing phosphate and a tiny amount of potassium
K2SO4 - (optional) potassium sulfate for dosing potassium
GH Booster - (optional) you can use it if your water is soft; contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese {Seachem's Equilibrium is similar plus it add so iron as well.}
Trace - Flourish (You can use it will F. Iron), Tropica's Plant Nutrition _liquid_, Plantex CSM+B

It's much cheaper to use these dry ferts, but you can use Seachem's line as well.
Flourish Nitrogen
Flourise Phosphorus
Flourish Potassium

I have Seachem's recommended dosing in a Microsoft Excel calculator. Here's the dosing plan for your 55g aquarium assuming that it holds ~ 45g of water:
F. Excel - 22.5 ml on w/c day and then 4.5 ml daily
F. Iron - 4.5 ml daily
Flourish - 3.7 ml 2x per week
F. Nitrogen - 2.8 ml 2x per week
F. Phosphorus - 2.8 ml 2x per week
F. Potassium - 7.5 ml 2x per week

Good luck with your aquarium.


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## FreakIndeed (Jun 17, 2007)

Thanks Left C for that very resourceful information!

I'm going to make some runs around town over the next couple days and pick up some stump killer, fleet enema, and Nu-Salt to begin adding some nutrients like Hoppycalif suggested.

I have hard water with a GH of about 10 so I'm hoping I won't need anything for that.


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

You are welcome Freak.

That sounds like a good plant to me. Plants need their nutrients.

Did you notice the Excel dosing amounts that I gave you? 

It calls for 49.5 mL or ~ 50 mL per week. 
A 250 ml bottle @ $4.99 is 5 weeks of dosing. 
With a 500 ml bottle @ $7.49, that's 10 weeks of dosing. 
A 2 liter jug @ $24.99 will last you 40 weeks.
A 4 liter jug @ $37.99 will last you 80 weeks.

Using Big Al's prices, this works out to:
250 mL bottle - 10¢ per week
500 mL bottle - 7½ ¢ per week
2 liter jug - 6¼ ¢ per week
4 liter jug - 4¾ ¢ per week


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## tg3 (Jul 9, 2007)

Left C said:


> I don't know what size Excel that you buy, but until you can get a good CO2 system; buying Excel in the 2L or 4L sizes will be cheaper:
> Excel 2L
> Excel 4L


I get the 4L size from Big Al, a big savings when you're feeding a 100G tank. Get on their mailing list. They run free shipping specials about twice a year, a nice bonus when ordering liquids in gallon jugs.


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