I have been studying about dosing Iron in my tank. According to The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com adding iron to a tank with lots of macro algaes can be beneficial. In other articles it stated that mangroves benefit from it as well. Also in the articles it states that trying to decide how much to dose is inconsequential because it doesn't matter how much you dose, the extra doesn't harm anything, which makes testing not necessary but something I would probably like to do anyway. My questions are..
1:is anyone here dosing?
2:how much?
3:what source of iron are you using?
4:what benefits have you noticed?

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Greg
"fuckin' A dittybag"

Sometimes you need a little live rock to fall down and when you put it back it's in a better spot -Kathleen Hunt

Sorry Greg. I don't dose iron. But I would be interested in seeing what others have to say. I am doing a macro tank myself and this could help me out too.

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I spoke briefly about this with Boomer, he says that Randy uses Flourish iron, dose wise ??? the 100,00 dollar question

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We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

At the writing of the article he was using a pharmacy available product that he dissolved in RODI water. I have been looking at the Flourish Iron. I can't find info on whether or not it is chelated. I am not entirely sure what chelated is but here is an excerpt from the article...
Does you guys understand the difference? If I do dose Iron, and I think I am going to, I will probably use the Flourish Iron. It seems to be specifically made for what I need. I will try and let you know of any changes I see.

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Greg
"fuckin' A dittybag"

Sometimes you need a little live rock to fall down and when you put it back it's in a better spot -Kathleen Hunt

quote from one of my fresh water sites(flourish is non chelated )

Btw, it is mildly amusing to find out that Flourish is ferrous gluconate.
I sometimes take an iron supplement to prevent anemia, and I buy a local
'house brand' of ferrous gluconate or fumarate about $5Cdn (~$3+US) for
100 tablets containing 300mg Fe gluconate each. 300mg of Fe gluconate
contains 34.7mg of elemental iron, according to the bottle. This may be of
interest to anyone who wants to make their own Flourish-equivalent and has
access to a drugstore. Personally, I bought 250g of Fe-DTPA for $3 some
years ago, and I expect it to last me far into the new millenium.

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We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

Chelation is the pharmaceutical process of bonding a mineral to an amino acid to make it easier for the body to digest, assimilate and utilize it.

Chelated minerals, or chelates for short, are designed to mimic the way minerals occur naturally in the diet as well.

Chelated iron, while not as widely known as iron sulfate, is ten to fifteen times more bioavailable per mg than other types of dietary iron supplements.

I don't know how this relates to aquarium's but hope it helps.
Interesting concept.

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Dang V! There is a scientist in the house! That did help and was just what I needed. Thanks.

Sas, I have read in other articles as well that the pharmacy bottles of Iron will last forever. Many use it, including Randy when he wrote the article. I didn't think the Flourish was chelated since it seemed to be more specifically for fresh water plants after further investigation on the seachem site. Kent makes a product that is chelated but also included manganese which Randy mentions by brand as one he doesn't like, but that may not mean it is bad. I am going to Rite-Aide today and look at the supplements counter. I will let you know what I find.

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Greg
"fuckin' A dittybag"

Sometimes you need a little live rock to fall down and when you put it back it's in a better spot -Kathleen Hunt

Mangroves on supplements. I loce it.

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A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. ~ Albert Einstein

"We're all stars now in the dope show"

Thanks Greg for the vote of confidence in my intelligence.
Unforunately it's all google.
I had heard the term before, but never did know what it meant.
Now we know.
And knowing is half the battle.
G.I. JOE!

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If I put LOL at the end of my post you are not allowed by law to be offended.
Thank You.
The management. lol

Enter the land of the vikings. If ye' be not scared....
http://users.wolfcrews.com/toys/vikings/