I have a planted aquarium that I've been working on for a while and I'm still trying to get my plants to grow nicely. From doing a bit or research, I believe that my aquarium plants may need additional iron. How can I get a small amount of iron to my aquarium plants? (without adversely affecting my clown plecostomus and ghost shrimp) Also, I don't have the money to purchase expensive fertilizers so a cheap or free way would be best.
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1Hi, did the answer work for you or did you solve the problem in other ways? I have Egeria densa plants which are supposedly requiring large amounts of iron so I had the same problem (but it was some time after you had posted this question). However, I found the liquid fertilizer easily in my local pet store: 30 mL of liquid for the price of 9 PLN (my local currency; it is around 2.40 USD); dosage is 1 mL of liquid per 10 L (2.6 gallons) of aquarium volume so it is highly efficient and cheap; I am just wondering how much more expensive could the fertilizers be where you live.– lilaCommented May 3, 2021 at 0:18
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What is more, the problem with existing answer is that iron oxides and hydroxides (constituents of rust) are almost insoluble in water so only a minuscule amount is available to plants (solubility of these compounds is also highly dependent on pH, with a relationship that an increase of one unit in pH causes inorganic iron's solubility to drop 1000 times down [1st-source] and [2nd-source]. In liquid aquarium fertilizers, you could look for "chelate iron" (organic form) which is...– lilaCommented May 3, 2021 at 0:35
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... highly soluble in water and highly bioavailable for plants. I would also be concerned about potential contamination danger while using iron nails, etc. because they could contain toxic heavy metal impurities besides iron, such as lead, nickel and cadmium.– lilaCommented May 3, 2021 at 0:49
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1@lila I ended up using a liquid fertilizer. It seemed to be making a difference in the plants, but I'm not sure how well it worked long-term because I had to get rid of that tank due to moving to a new house.– Jacob BCommented May 3, 2021 at 5:56
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1 Answer
Pushing nails or similar size bits into the gravel , make sure the are not galvanized. They will turn red/brown with rust fairly fast but being buried they will be out of sight. Another very fast possibility is putting a small bit of steel wool ( NOT with soap) into the filter system. You give me an idea; long ago I grew cryptocorne so well I sold it to a pet shop. That was in an angle iron tank and rust often fell into the tank. Since then crypt growth has only been fair in many different tanks; maybe they need iron.
