Iron question
- Thread starter bigspizz
- Start date
I wouldn't worry about it. Reddish sandstone along with all kinds of other rocks have iron in them. Most fresh waters in NA have up to 5 ppm iron in them. Iron is very common in most natural substrates, and I have never heard of it being detrimental to a home aquarium.
Wolf3101;1241972; said:
At the risk of my fish? I am waiting to re rock my tank on the input I get. I do not test my tanks for total dissolved solids at the moment unfortunately. Are they needed overall in your opinion? Or just for adding rocks?
No, I wouldn't worry. Lava rocks are full of iron. Reddish rocks are usually red because of oxidized iron. There is even a type or iron found in limestone (limonite). Iron is a very common element in nature, and I wouldn't worry about it at all. You're not overdosing a liquid fertilizer concentration or anything in the tank. If you're that worried about it, don't do it, your tank will be fine either way. The TDS meter wouldn't tell you much, because iron contributes very little to the overall TDS of your water.
I can't imagine caring for our tanks without a TDS meter. What I was talking about doing was a small test tank (5 gallon bucket) without fish and with a known level of TDS in the water. You can then track the amount of desolved solids in the water over a given period of time.
As far as the TDS meter not bieng able to pick up Iron... it's basicly a conductivity meter across two points so even tiny trace amounts of heavy metals effect the reading enough to be seen...
That said.... I seriously doubt the rocks going to effect your water enough to harm your fish although it can certianly affect your PH and that might indirectly affect them.
As far as the TDS meter not bieng able to pick up Iron... it's basicly a conductivity meter across two points so even tiny trace amounts of heavy metals effect the reading enough to be seen...
That said.... I seriously doubt the rocks going to effect your water enough to harm your fish although it can certianly affect your PH and that might indirectly affect them.