Iron clouding the water?

[adechazal]

Hello Team,

I am new to dosing iron (Flourish Iron) and have been adding 15mls to my 180g Monday through Friday for the last couple of weeks. Per the wisdom on this site I have been adding it in the afternoon when the lights are on in the aquarium. The rest of my ferts are done in the early AM before lights are on.

Shortly after adding the iron my water gets mildly cloudy and stays that way the rest of the day... is this a normal result of adding the Flourish Iron? Would one of the other iron supplements (CSM+B/ iron chelate) be a better option?

KH and GH are both at 6, temp is 79F.

Aaron

[Phantastron]

Hello adechazal

I just came across your message because I have a slightly cloudy tank as well. I take it from what you say that your tank was clear and that it became cloudy when you started adding Flourish.

My tank is 120 gallons and heavily planted. But it has only been in operation about 1.5 weeks. So maybe I am expecting the tank to become totally clear too soon. However I do add Flourish regularly (not as much as you) and measure the ppm content regularly. The content fluctuates between 0.25 and 1.5 ppm. The tanks appearance remains unchanged throughout the swing in concentration. From what I know of iron if it does cause discolouration it is not mild cloudiness (white in character) but a reddish brown discolouration. So I do not think that iron, as such, is causing the cloudiness in your tank.

This response is somewhat late and you may have resolved this issue. If so I would be interested in hearing what happened.

Regards,
Phantastron

[adechazal]

Hi Phantastron,

Thanks for the reply, I had given up on getting a response and happened on your post while looking for more info on iron. Yes I still get the cloudiness after adding the daily 15ml of Fluorish iron. It takes about 10-20 minutes to develop after adding the iron. The next morning the tank is perfectly clear again.
My plants are growing much better since the addition of root tabs and the Fluorish iron so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing despite the cloudiness that develops after dosing the iron. I just make sure I don't dose the iron before company comes over.
Aaron

[Biollante]

Hi Aaron,

I really do not know quite how it works, but I have heard of this.

The closest to an answer I have had is http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php?t=6393, if you can get past the peeing in the tank part.

Best I can think is the iron or the chelating agent is a flocculent operating as those ‘clear water’ drops.

Biollante

[adechazal]

Thanks for the link Biollante. I'll let the crew know what happens in a couple of days when my first bag of CSM+B shows up. According to the fertilator my 15mls of Fluorish iron is adding 0.2ppm of iron each day. I'll be dosing the CSM+B to match the 0.2ppm initially just to compare the cloudiness.

If I knew what I was doing this would be much less fun.

Aaron

[Phantastron]

As a quick follow up my tank has become completely clear now. I have also increased my dosage of Flourish iron and it has no affect on the clarity of the aquarium.

The suggestion of the iron acting as a flocculent presupposes that the aquarium water is already a colloidal solution or a solution containing very small particles and thus already a little cloudy. But would this be the case if the aquarium water were completely clear before the addition of the iron (as is the case with Adechazal's tank)? In this case the iron would have nothing to act upon to create the effect of flocculation.

Regards,
Phantastron

[Biollante]

As a quick follow up my tank has become completely clear now. I have also increased my dosage of Flourish iron and it has no affect on the clarity of the aquarium.

The suggestion of the iron acting as a flocculent presupposes that the aquarium water is already a colloidal solution or a solution containing very small particles and thus already a little cloudy. But would this be the case if the aquarium water were completely clear before the addition of the iron (as is the case with Adechazal's tank)? In this case the iron would have nothing to act upon to create the effect of flocculation.

Regards,
Phantastron

Hi Phantastron,

Like a monostable pentode circuit used to generate sharp pulses at an adjustable and accurately timed interval after receipt of a triggering signal, you have me there.

I guess my best 'think' on the subject wasn't good enough.

Not a problem I have experienced, so I should not have commented.

Good luck all,
Biollante

[Phantastron]

Hi Phantastron,

Like a monostable pentode circuit used to generate sharp pulses at an adjustable and accurately timed interval after receipt of a triggering signal, you have me there.

Hi Biollante,

What an excellent opening comment in your last post. You are the first person to make that correct observation!

I am impressed. It is observations like this that make The Barr Report so interesting.

Regards,
Phantastron

[adechazal]

Team,

After my first dosing of CSM+B at a .2ppm level there is no water clouding! I suppose with the CSM+B I get to eliminate the micro dosing from regular Flourish right? I'm not sure why the mixture of dry powders in the CSM will not settle and result in changing percentages of the various elements but hey if you all are using it it must be ok.

I've done a little research on the clouding issue and a number of other aquarists report the same issue. Seachem seems to think it's related to the water composition (high kH etc) but mine's around 4 dkH after diluting hard well water with RO. I don't have the desire to research it much further since the CSM seems to be an option.

Thanks for putting me on to the CSM product y'all!

Aaron

[Gerryd]

Aaron,

Thanks for the update and glad it worked for you......

I am sure this thread will help others down the road.