Rypa Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) Greetings: I had a lab do a complete test on our well water. It came back GH 53 ppm, PH 8.0, tds 317 ppm, and dozens of other minerals that were not detectable or low. Iron was 0.4 mg/l (ppm) which triggered a "high" result. I want to add fertilizer to my planted tanks but do not want to add any more iron. The test did not specify KH, but home test results in KH of 250 ppm. Are there low or no iron fertilizers available? Thank you in advance, Wendy Edited December 23, 2022 by Rypa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crow Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) I don't know about any premixed fertilizers, but you could go the dry fertilizer route which would allow you to make your own fertilizer mix and omit the iron. I use GLA. NilocG also has a line of dry ferts, but I haven't tried that one. Edited December 23, 2022 by Crow a word 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rypa Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Thank you Crow, I'll check them out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfisher Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 You would need to know how much of the iron is soluble. Most high iron water the iron is not available to the plants. Without seeing those results you can know but I think you are going to be ok with most commercial fertilizers for aquariums. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rypa Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 Thank you Rockfisher. I'll email the lab with that question. I want to ask them if they can determine if high KH is due to carbonates or something else as well. Seems funny to me to have 2-3 degrees GH and 13 t0 14 degrees KH . I had thought calcium would contribute to general hardness but I guess not. The well is deep. It has 1400 feet of iron casing. It was a Weyerhaeuser test well. We just put 400 feet of pipe inside the casing and a submersible pump for our water. Perhaps all that pipe is contributing to iron content? Fish seem to thrive, even "soft water" species. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfisher Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 I have sort the opposite but my testing is not as in-depth. I have a idea about the iron solubility due to running golf courses and the chemistry involved. In my well I have high iron, low kh, high GH, and Ca through through the roof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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