DIY Iron supplement

[Reefology1]

Hi, I'm unable to located Fergon tablets so I came across something I hope will work as well and wondering if I can get confirmation before I start dosing.

Heres what I found:

Each tablet has 27mg iron so if I dissolve 1 tablet in 100ml of RO/DI. The solution concentration is 270 mg/L or 270 ug/mL. Adding 1 mL to 270 L (71 gallons) of tank water will boost aquarium iron levels by 270 ug per 270 L or 1 ug/L.

Anyone see any issues?

Thanks

 

[DrZoidburg]

Too many other ingredients.

 

[Reefology1]

Too many other ingredients.

thank you for the reply. Can you please tell me specifically which of those other ingredients is/are an issue?

 

[DrZoidburg]

thank you for the reply. Can you please tell me specifically which of those other ingredients is/are an issue?

Almost all of them.. including the root extract and below.

 

[Reefology1]

Almost all of them.. including the root extract and below.

how about these ingredients?

 

[DrZoidburg]

Would not use this either. Can you get a hold of iron sulfate, and citric acid? Much cleaner way.

 

[Reefology1]

how about this?

 

[DrZoidburg]

Yes that with citric acid. Even iron citrate if you can find that.

 

[DrZoidburg]

Just wonder though how do you know you even need this are you testing for it?

 

[Reefology1]

icp testing regularly.

ok got the citric acid. guessing I need this because it not soluble in water?

how do I make the solution and dose it?

Thanks for all your help

 

[Reefology1]

also found this to make a mn supplement.

Manganese Suphate Monohydrate is 32% manganese by weight.

if I dissolve 1 gram in 1 L of RO/DI. That solution contains 320 mg of manganese, so the concentration is 320 mg/L or 320 ug/mL.

Adding 1 mL to 320 L (84.5 gallons) of tank water will boost aquarium manganese levels by 320 ug per 320 L or 1 ug/L.

 

[DrZoidburg]

icp testing regularly.

ok got the citric acid. guessing I need this because it not soluble in water?

how do I make the solution and dose it?

Thanks for all your help

If you look there is a recipe on here. The citrate makes it last in water longer. Also stabilizes it to a less toxic form.

 

[DrZoidburg]

I found this ratio https://patents.google.com/patent/DE2018229A1/en I can't find it on here yet. You may have to react the citric acid first with something like sodium carbonate. So the side reactions don't happen in your tank. This person can help also.

I selected a dose of about 0.1 to 0.3 mL of a solution containing 5 g of iron (as 25 g of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate) in 250 mL of water containing 50.7 g of sodium citrate dihydrate. This liquid is dosed 2-3 times per week to my system with a total water volume of about 250 gallons. This iron(II) citrate has turned brown and cloudy since I first made up the bottle years ago, suggesting that it is oxidizing to iron(III) and some is precipitating from solution

 

[Reefology1]

anyone else have an issue with this product?

Hi, I'm unable to located Fergon tablets so I came across something I hope will work as well and wondering if I can get confirmation before I start dosing.

Heres what I found:

Each tablet has 27mg iron so if I dissolve 1 tablet in 100ml of RO/DI. The solution concentration is 270 mg/L or 270 ug/mL. Adding 1 mL to 270 L (71 gallons) of tank water will boost aquarium iron levels by 270 ug per 270 L or 1 ug/L.

Anyone see any issues?

Thanks

 

[Nate’sTanks]

Yes that with citric acid. Even iron citrate if you can find that.

Can you elaborate on the citric acid addition to mix this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Can you elaborate on the citric acid addition to mix this?

Fergon tablets are much easier, but here’s an old iron citrate recipe from one of my articles:

Iron in Reef Tanks: How Much and What Form?​

Deciding how much iron to add is fairly easy because, in my experience, it doesn’t seem to matter too much. Presumably, once you add enough to eliminate iron as a limiting nutrient, extra iron does not apparently cause harm (at least that I’ve detected in my tanks or heard of from others). I selected a dose of about 0.1 to 0.3 mL of a solution containing 5 g of iron (as 25 g of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate) in 250 mL of water containing 50.7 g of sodium citrate dihydrate. This liquid is dosed 2-3 times per week to my system with a total water volume of about 250 gallons. This iron(II) citrate has turned brown and cloudy since I first made up the bottle years ago, suggesting that it is oxidizing to iron(III) and some is precipitating from solution, but I still use it. Over the past 4 years, I’ve dosed nearly all of the 5 grams of actual iron to my tank.

Now that may sound like a huge amount, and it is. It’s enough to bring 800 million gallons of completely depleted seawater up to the 0.000006 ppm level that I mentioned earlier for natural sea surface water. Still, I’ve not noticed any problem, do not know the steady state concentration, do not know how high of a solution concentration is actually optimal for my tank, do not know how much is biologically available by the mechanisms mentioned below, do not know how fast it is removed by skimming and other mechanisms, and do not know what would happen if I cut it back by a factor of 1,000.