Bob Vivian

Hi Folks,
What are the adverse effects of overdosing w/ Flourish and Flourish Iron? Does the Flourish oxyginate or precipitate at over-saturation?

I've been dosing my high tech 135 gal. w/ 20mls/day of Flourish and getting a water cloudiness that lasts all day. Also, I'm getting a staining on surfaces such as the overflow box, the sump tank, and, I suspect, on plant leaves and the hardscape materials. In fact, it's clogging my water tubing much like cholesterol clogs arteries.

The stain is rust colored and resembles diatoms, but it's not.

I know that iron will precipitate some in hard water, which I have, but this is different.

I suspect the Flourish but I can't be sure. I have no idea whether I'm overdosing or not. I arrived at this dosage by trial and error but have since adjusted my other ferts. So who knows if the 20 mls is still appropriate?

My tank is doing well dispite the cloudiness.

Thoughts?

Seachem

Are you dosing Flourish and Flourish Iron on the same day? Have you tested for iron? I suspect you are seeing the precipitation of iron. If this is the case it would be prudent to back down your dosing or at least dose the Flourish and the Flourish Iron on separate days. Iron can reach toxic levels for fish. The cloudiness is indicative of precipitation which would mean you have exceeded a level of iron that is soluble given the hardness of your water. This is not always at a point of toxicity. However, it would be advisable to certainly test for iron to avoid loss of life of any fish in the system.

Bob Vivian

Thanks, Seachem, for your response. I have been dosing iron and flourish on the same day, every day. The precipitate is a distinct rust color, not the white cloudiness one might expect from the iron.

It wouldn't surprise me that I'm overdosing iron. I have no confidence in iron tests, however, so I rely on the eyeball method.

Using trial and error, if I back off the iron until I see early signs of chlorosis will I have an accurate read of my iron levels or will plant vitallity drop off before that point?

As noted earlier, I'm heavily dosing Flourish in addition to the iron. I know that Flourish has some iron. Is it possible that I don't need to add supplemental iron? Does my dosage level of Flourish sound reasonable to you?

My tank is heavily planted, high tech, CO2, MH lighting, etc. My tap water is from my well and has little in it except liquid rock.

Later

Seachem

Perhaps you might try dropping back to alternating dosing by days - Flourish one day then Flourish Iron the next. See if this resolves the issue. If not then you can begin to drop back toward the prescribed dosing per the labels.