Am I Killing My Plants With Fertilizer?

[33elanora]

I have a 200 litre tank in which I change 10 litres of water a day. I test the water daily for Iron

I have just started using Aquasonic "Plant Food" and have been adding 7 ml per day to maintain the 0.5 ppm of Iron in the water as recommended by Aquasonic (On testing each day the iron content seems to be about 0.25 ppm)This seems a lot. Am I doing the right thing or will I overdose the plants with nutrients in an attempt to keep the iron at recommended level?

[GoGuppy]

I have a 200 litre tank in which I change 10 litres of water a day. I test the water daily for Iron

I have just started using Aquasonic "Plant Food" and have been adding 7 ml per day to maintain the 0.5 ppm of Iron in the water as recommended by Aquasonic (On testing each day the iron content seems to be about 0.25 ppm)This seems a lot. Am I doing the right thing or will I overdose the plants with nutrients in an attempt to keep the iron at recommended level?[/b]

Hi 33elanora

As usual, it depends. Under the right conditions, plants get really hungry for fertiliser.

If you you are injecting CO2 into the tank and have a high level of light, then 0.5ppm of iron is about right. When I started injecting CO2 into my tank water, my LFS keeper suggested that I add iron and use a test kit to monitor its level. I said something like "yeah, I don't want to kill all my fish by overdosing iron, upon which he said that it's not the monitoring for overdosing, but rather that you put enough iron in to keep up the required level!! :ohmy:

Mind you, overdosing iron is certainly possible, if you don't add CO2 and have high light levels!!

Cheers

[33elanora]

I am not adding CO2

[joz]

Just to keep in mind that other things such as correct temp,ph and lighting parameters should also be looked at.
You haven't metioned anything about your lighting type and duration.
Your plants absorbtion of ferts and general health will depend on more than just correct amounts of fertilizer you add daily.

Sometimes some little things are overlooked which could contribute to a lack of performance.
Some small changes may have a dramatic improvement in your tank :)