Are there fish foods (rather than adding chelated iron) that can add needed iron?

[Ricky Flickenger]

My houseplant system continues to do very well, but I have noticed the leaves of the ficus look like they may be starting to suffer from an iron deficiency (green veins, yellow leaves - but still growing) There are no pests on the plant, so I'm leaning toward a nutrient problem.  Fish are happy & growing, shrimp seem very content, snails & earthworms seem to be thriving - it's really just the ficus that is showing symptoms.  

I've read about chelated iron supplements, and someone suggested planting rye grass as its roots do something to provide iron...but my little system doesn't have anymore room, LOL.  I was hoping someone might have a suggestion for different types of food I can feed the tank that might help? The tank has goldfish, fancy guppies, dojo loach, red ramshorn, red cherry shrimp and pond snails.  

I should add there is a reading of 0 for nitrate/nitrites, no ammonia and I have a pH that hovers right around 6.9 all the time.  Water temp is a constant 76 F.

Thanks everyone!

[Ricky Flickenger]

No restaurant - I'm a personal chef and work in people's homes cooking/teaching - I also teach group lessons in apt buildings around the city...and can invite guests whenever I want :) When you're in town, let me know, if it's during a lesson, you should join me - or just stop my my little apt for a quick bite and to see my systems in action - hopefully the 55 gallon is running by then. The 10 gallon is interesting and pretty, but not the most spectacular thing in terms of size, LOL.

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Ha! Are you kidding? I love your goldfish and slime stories! And I hope to see them both someday when I next visit my daughter at UDub. Do you have a restaurant in Seattle?

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Sounds like fun. No plans to get out there any time soon, but maybe this spring for the cherry blossoms.

[TCLynx]

I love it, hay look the bio-slime is waving at you.
Where did the smillies go? :(

[Ricky Flickenger]

Haha, I'm actually about to post a video about this - you'll get to see the bio slime waving, LOL

TCLynx said:

I love it, hay look the bio-slime is waving at you.
Where did the smillies go?

[Greener]

To add to the Seasol and Maxicrop list:  check out Seaplex from Organicare, it's OMRI listed for organic production: http://www.organicareusa.com/products-lawn-supplements

 

Anyone have experience with this stuff?

 

[TCLynx]

no, I've not tried it.  It doesn't list the NPK levels either so I don't know how heavy on the nitrogen it is.  You want to be careful of anything with too much nitrogen or phosphorus in it as that can overload your filtration if you already have fish and adequate ammonia production.  People have run into problems when adding kelp meal as that has quite a lot of nitrogen in it as compared to the seaweed extract which has only a small amount of nitrogen and is mostly used for the potassium and trace elements.