safe iron to add to plants as to not harm fish

[Raychel A Watkins]

You are going to get tired of me asking this question but how can I get an Iron supplement that is safe for the fish.  My teachers suggest chelated iron in their manual.  I can not find it here in Hawaii mainly because I don't know what to look for.  I would be grateful if someone knows something about this.  Is there any other reason that the leaves would be very yellow.  Many have good growth but yellow leaves.
Thank you now I know where the discussion forum is.
Raychel

[TCLynx]

What is your system pH? That can have a huge effect on the plants ability to use what iron is there. You might check with some nurseries to see if they can get you some chelated iron.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Raychel, what are you feeding your fish? And what plants are yellowing?

[Earl ward]

I use oyster shells to control ph, cleated Iron should be available at any garden or nurseries. Use sparingly. also how old is the system yellow leaves can also be caused by nitrogen decencies maxi crop makes a seaweed fertilizer with cleated iron. I supplement this when I'm starting a new system before the bacteria builds up

[TCLynx]

oyster shells will buffer pH up, they won't bring pH down.

[Raychel A Watkins]

Earl ward said:

I use oyster shells to control ph, cleated Iron should be available at any garden or nurseries. Use sparingly. also how old is the system yellow leaves can also be caused by nitrogen decencies maxi crop makes a seaweed fertilizer with cleated iron. I supplement this when I'm starting a new system before the bacteria builds up

[Raychel A Watkins]

My pH is around 7 in all my systems. The systens are less than 4 months old. The ammonia is less than 1 ppm. there are Nitrites in the water. What kind of stores supplies the maxicrop. I live on Oahu Hawaii. Others have suggested the Nitrogen problem. I will try to find Maxicrop or something like it.
Mahalo (thanks)

[Earl ward]

I dot know about Hawaii but most hydro stores have it or know where to get it. alos you can try ebay a guy named Hydro Harry carries it

Raychel A Watkins said:

My pH is around 7 in all my systems. The systens are less than 4 months old. The ammonia is less than 1 ppm. there are Nitrites in the water. What kind of stores supplies the maxicrop. I live on Oahu Hawaii. Others have suggested the Nitrogen problem. I will try to find Maxicrop or something like it.
Mahalo (thanks)

[Dan Brown]

In my previous planted aquariums I've used laterite as the substrate. Is anyone in aquaponics incorporating laterite, and would it be a functional means of adding accessible iron to the system? It could be added to the growbed, and give the plants access to the mineral content available, as opposed to it's usual position underneath the gravel. Thoughts?

[TCLynx]

What is Laterite?

I've added green sand to grow beds to provide some potassium and iron before.

[Dan Brown]

The Wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite is a good overview. In planted aquariums, Takashi Amano led the way in using it as a substrate for the plants. It's commonly sold in aquarium stores, in a granular form. It can get water very dirty (red) and must be thoroughly rinsed before use. It's mixed with sand as a base tank layer (in systems not using undergravel filtration), then topped with gravel. It provides a long term solution to getting nutrients to roots in heavily planted tanks. The biggest drawback would be the water discoloration, but it does settle out eventually. I just don't know if it had the potential to provide the right type of available iron to help solve this issue.