Re: [AGA Member] iron testers

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

Sure! Throw that in my face! ;-)


Otoh, if you dose a bit, say, with a good trace mix like
Flourish or TMG, then you know the tank always has some and
you don't need to test at all. Okay, I don't mean to be
flip.  Here's my case: My tap water is as clean as a new
baby's dreams -- pH 7.0, barely any carbonates), etc. So
all the iron in my tanks come from the Flourite or from the
trace mix. I haven't had iron deficiencies show up. 

I have tested to confirm the iron levels -- what gadget
haven't I bought? ;-)  Actually I bought the Hach kit to
test the levels in two 20g tanks I set up for substrate
comparison, one with Eco-C and one with Onyx Sand. Since I
had the iron kit, I checked all my other tanks, why not?
What else am I going to do with 100 iron tests?

I've tried supplementally dosing iron on top of the trace
mix, assuming that with all the iron some folks put into
their water, I must be wrong about mine plants. But I
haven't seen that it makes a diff in the plants -- but then
I really didn't see an iron deficiency to begin with so I
wasn't too surprised that I didn't see it improve.

For those on a budget, I'd recommend *not testing for iron
at all* unless strong suspicions of an iron deficiency need
to be allayed.

And then, I'd probably recommend making sure the traces are
dosed at the recommended rates or a little heavier rather
than trying to test for iron.

And then, if I *still* had doubts to assuage, I might get a
cheap kit just to confirm that iron is present.

If I wanted to know how much iron was in my tanks, I'd want
a good low range kit but I think it's an unnecessary luxury
for most folks.

Scott H.

--- Cheryl Rogers <cheryl@rightstuffwebsites.com> wrote:
> I have no trouble using the Hagen test kit. (I also had
> no trouble 
> reading the Seachem kit, but it was a little fiddley.) I
> am not 
> concerned with How Much iron is in there. I only want to
> know if there 
> is "Some" or "None." Hagen is just fine for that purpose.


=====
S. Hieber

-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Amano Returns
to the AGA Annual Convention
Nov 2004 -- Baltimore

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