# Dosing Flourish Iron



## Crispino L Ramos

I don't apply iron chelate or any fertilizer to my shrimp tanks.


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## scape

:confused1:


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## flwrbed

i dose seachem iron every day as per the bottle directions. 
i have been having good luck with great healthy growth. 
i also use the seachem iron test kit and i "believe" it is working fine.
i have great luck with all seachem products.


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## Brittz620

Thanks for your responses. I will take a look at the seachem iron test kit, I'm assuming it is better than nothing. 

Flwrbed, do you have shrimp in your tank? If so, have you noticed them breeding less readily than without dosing the iron every day.

I would like to have tank meant solely for shrimp tanks where I don't have to worry about dosing fertilizers but unfortunately due to space and monetary constrictions that is not an option for me. I am just keeping shrimp in my heavily planted tank where I have HC, Diandra, Rotala green, nanjenshan, blyxa japonica and my mytery red plant that I believe to be Rotala Colorata. I am more concerned about the health of my shrimp than the redness of the plant. However if the iron does not harm the shrimp then I would really like to bring out the red more in the colorata, and I have heard that dosing Iron will help with that.

Any experience/advice with this, whether it be dosing iron with shrimp present, or whether the iron noticably works to make plants more red, is greatly appreciated.


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## scape

I was dosing iron but I stopped due to an outbreak of diatoms. Who knows if they were related. That being said, I still use flourish iron + the EI system. Im adding some armanos soon so if your wondering if they survive Ill keep you posted. Imo iron helps red plants.


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## rickztahone

Crispino Ramos said:


> I don't apply iron chelate or any fertilizer to my shrimp tanks.


i did the same because i ended up loosing hundreds of rcs in my 55 when dosing 13% iron chelate.


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## Brittz620

rickztahone said:


> i did the same because i ended up loosing hundreds of rcs in my 55 when dosing 13% iron chelate.


Wow, that is good to know. However Flourish iron is apparently in the ferrous state (Fe+2) and not chelated by EDTA (Fe+3 state), so it is not an iron chelate. Do you think the iron chelate is more harmful?


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## Bigzmey

I don't have shrimps but I have a crab in my tank. I dose 0.2 ppm (1x dose) of fluorish iron twice a week with no ill effect on my crab.


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## antbug

rickztahone said:


> i did the same because i ended up loosing hundreds of rcs in my 55 when dosing 13% iron chelate.


I dose 13% iron chelate on all my tanks and I've never had any problems. Are you sure it was the iron chelate?


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## plantbrain

I doubt there is any issue with brood production and dosing. CO2/Excel are more likely issues here. Those did influence brood production in RCS and in CRS. Quite a bit. I have a non CO2 tank that is dosed fairly regularly due to emergent growth. Production is at least 3-5X higher, whereas the dosing of ferts is independent and the same between tanks. They still bred in CO2 enriched tanks, just nowhere as much.

If you have non CO2 tanks without emergent growth, then there's not a great need for dosing to begin with.
So............moss tanks without CO2, soft water, decent TDS etc......not bad places to grow them.

High light tanks, CO2 jacked up, ferts are likely the least of your issues.

How many folks kill fish with ferts?
None........
How many kill fish with CO2?
Lots........
Think the scenario is any different for shrimp?
Doubtful.


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## 150EH

I owned a small landscape business for over 20 years and chelated iron is the main source of dark green grass and I would guess it would help color in other plants. So if dosing won't harm your shrimp I would say you could either dose the smallest recommended amount on a schedule until you see a change in plant color or test for fe, or just dose away at a higher amount less often. I have a gallon of Kent freshwater plant and it states 5 to 15 ml per 30 gallons one to three times per week.


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