Dark water after adding chelated iron

[Kaspars]

Hi friends.

I am new in AP but learning a lot. Had some yellow leaves and added chelated iron to reach 2-3ppm/L.

Water gets very dark red. And no changes for almost week. Leaves are getting back to be green. All looks ok but i can't do other tests for NH4, nitrites, nitrates. Still in fishless cycling.

Any suggestions? Can i expect to get clear water and when? Or have to change it complitely? Then my bacteria will be gone!

 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

In the future you can foliar feed the chelated iron (unless you have a huge system with a gazzilion plants and find it to be a pain in the ass) so as not to mess with your water color...I know this doesn't help you out any at the moment, sorry.

If your at 2-3 mg/L I'm guessing it might take about almost a month for your plants to use a good portion of that up, and you are probably topping up with more water that will help dilute that. Also, some of it may form complexes with other things in your water like calcium or phosphates and precipitate out in that time (unlikely though since it's chelated)...

The only other way I would know how to help clear up the color of the water (besides changing it) would in all likley-hood be bad for your biofilter (though probably good for your plants), so it doesn't seem appropriate to even mention it...

Maybe try a small 20-25% water change to help dilute it a bit. Then try testing and see if you can't make out the colors at least somewhat. (At the very least ammonia). Most cycling systems follow a somewhat predictable pattern. You have probably been paying close attention to what is going on and might be able to 'wing it' for a bit of time until it clears up enough to be able to test?

[Kaspars]

Thanks Vlad for suggestions. I will try to change water step by step. As experiment i did testing for nitrites and nitrates a minutes ago. So, i can see that nitrites are quite high, abot 1ppm and nitrates ~80ppm. During the test for nitrates, test water changed complitely from very dark bordo to full orange. I hope change of water will help without killing my bacteria.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Well, if you can make out the colors (especially nitrites and ammonia) you might not need to change out any water. From the results you posted it seems like your bio-filter cycling along nicely. IMO I would highly doubt that a 20% water change will 'kill' your bacterial colony, though again, if you can get away with it, and make out the colors, I probably wouldn't even bother. 

Yes, certain chemicals/reagents seem to interact with the chelated Fe changing it's color or making the color disappear almost completely.

[Kaspars]

So, did also test for ammonia. Result is 0.6ppm and seems that dark color of water does not affect testing. Will let the system run for a while and wait. Maybe water will get clear itself and i will be able to put some fish finally. I don't care so much about it as i have  my own small trout farm and lake full of cyprinids.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Great. Glad that you can read your test results after all. So what fish are you planning on putting in the system? The cyprinids or something else? Carp (if those are the cyprinids your talking about) would seem like a great fish for aquaponics. What is your small trout set up like? 

[Kaspars]

I can experiment with that. Planning to put trout till water will reach ~24 degrees. After that can change to carp or even better to white carp which are smaller. Smallest carp i can get in my lake is 0.5kg! Too FAT already for my 800 liters FT. Trouts are the best because they eat a lot and grow fast. As i wrote before, fish is not an issue at least till i get some ammonia. Before system started i put some trouts and feed them. After few days ammonium was high and i even did some rescuing of trouts..  

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Sounds like a plan. Yes, fish-less cycling seems much less stressful...for both you and the fish :) 

Carp seem to have a pretty good appetite too! And grow fast. I don't have much experience on the fish side of things, and would hate to end up killing a bunch of trout because of water quality or my lack of knowledge, so I plan on sticking to just carp (for the beginning at least). Seems like a much easier fish for someone like me.

Good luck. Hope your cycling is done soon. Nice looking set up BTW...

[Kaspars]

Thanks Vlad. Will send you mail regarding fish side of AP. I do a lot of aquaculture as a hobby not commercial.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Hey thanks Kaspers. And if you should ever need any help on the plant side I'd be glad to help if I can. (Plants I know about).