# How much iron (Ppm) should there be in a ten gallon tank?



## willyf87 (4 Jun 2010)

As above really, I am adding 1ml of easy carbo and 1ml of pro fito a day to my tank for 5 days a week and it says 5ml of the iron mix a week should raise my tank to 1ppm iron, how much should I add per day or every other day?


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## ceg4048 (4 Jun 2010)

*Re: How much iron (Ppm) should there be in a ten gallon tank*

Hi,
   Although Iron (Fe) is a critical component, it's a micronutrient so that means you don't need much of it. If you've got tap water you probably already have enough (unless you live in a softwater area). 

The general suggestion for a highly lit CO2 injected tank is 0.5ppm Fe per week. However, no one can tell you how many ppm you need. You have to discover it for yourself.

The amounts of any nutrient that you need to add is going to be a function of how much light, how much flow, how much CO2 and how much plant mass you have in the tank. It will also depend on how fast you want plants to grow.  

People are always asking about optimal ppm levels or whatever, but this is all an illusion. 0.5 ppm might be fine in your tank but may be insufficient in your neighbors tank due to these other factors. The hobbyists problem with chasing ppm will also be compounded by the fact that they are probably using time wasting test kits to measure nutrient levels, when they ought to be spending more time simply looking at their plants. Your plants will always tell you what they need. No test kit can do that really. Are the leaves pale? Are they yellow? If the answer is "No" then you have enough Fe regardless of what the test kit says or regardless of what profito says. The opposite is also true. If Profito says: Add X, and if your test kit confirms X - but if your plants are suffering Fe starvation, then guess what? You need to add more than X...  

Cheers,


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