[miogpsrocks]

Hello.

Greetings from the planted aquarium forum. I have been asked to come here and ask a question which has all the aquarium plant experts stumped dealing with the best way to get bioavailable iron to aquarium plants which is one of the most demanding trace elements for aquarium plants.

2 suggestions have come up.


1.  To purchase a " lucky Iron fish" and place it in the aquarium or possible like a gallon of water mixed with some kind of an acid solution such as PH down sold for aquarium.

http://www.luckyironfish.com/
"The Lucky Iron Fish is made from natural ferrous iron, which is easily absorbed by the body and is safe."

2. Purchase an inexpensive cast iron pot, and cut it up into small pieces and place them into the aquarium or possible the gallon of water, acid solution(PH down) and create a type of iron fertilizer.

Many of the question are if the iron will be bioavailable for the plants in the water for the leaves of the plants or if the iron will be in a chemical state which is not bioavailable.

That is the basic of the question.

Some of the answers which I have been giving from a copy and paste(however I don't understand it) it the following:

Now, this relationship between oxygen and iron isn’t a full time thing. In reality iron is flitting between ferrous and ferric states, but the dominant state in high pH and oxidized environments is ferric- and this means that your plants cannot take it up.
These details important because they dictate how we examine the solutions.
Many practitioners throw rusty iron items into their systems falsely assuming that this will supplement system iron.

In a sense it does add to the reservoir of system iron, but not in a constructive or meaningful way. All this does is introduce more ferric iron to the system- a form of iron that was most likely already in plentiful supply.

Other practitioners intentionally develop dedicated anaerobic zones, where ferric iron will be reduced by the oxygen free, anaerobic environment to produce ferrous (corrected) iron. This is a more compelling approach, especially in low pH systems, but still does not entirely address the problem of getting the reduced iron ion (Fe++) through the oxygenated aerobic zone surrounding the plant roots (especially in high pH systems where hydroxyl ions are plentiful!)... ect...



end quote.

So bottom line is there  a way to get bioavailable iron to Aquarium plants using either the iron fish, or cast iron cookware ?

[Arkcon]

What you're looking for is a ph-stable iron chelate for your plants to absorb, without having to worry about the oxidation state of the iron in solution.  Since what you're looking for is the culkturing of aquarium plants, the topic is hydroponics.  So try this link here:http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2010/08/iron-sources-in-hydroponics-which-one-is-the-best.html