Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

I notice that some of my plants have iron deficiency. Yellow leaf with dark green vein.
I also cannot find any Fe DTPA Chelated Iron seller right here in Indonesia.

I've been thinking about replacing it with these alternatives:
1. Dissolve FE EDTA powder and spray it to the leaves.
2. Using aquascape fertilizer. The fertilizer component that I read from the packaging is macro nutrient N,P,K, & Mg and micro nutrient Fe-DTPA, Mn-EDTA, Zn-EDTA, Cu-EDTA, B, & Mo. It's around USD 2.5 for 250 gram and the recommended dosage is 2ml per 50 ltr of aquarium once per day.

Which one do you think is the better solution for iron deficiency plant problem?

1. Dissolve FE EDTA powder and spray it to the leaves.
This is the first thing you should do

Don't use the aquascape fertilizer, that is for aquarium enthuisiasts. We don't usually use any product for aquariums.

Just use seasol or some sort of liquid fish fertilizer. Also spent coffee grounds would provide iron if you add it to GBs.

What is your pH and what do you use as fish food?

My pH level is between 6 to 6.5. I usually add potassium hydroxide or dip some crushed eggshells to correct the pH level to 7. Do I need to stop doing that during Fe EDTA spray to the leaves treatment?

I'm having some gold fishes and the fish feed that I use is of the shelf fish feed for gold fish. I did however reduce the fish feed portion to half last week due to high ammonia level. But the portion is back to normal today since the level of ammonia is getting back to 0.5 ppm.

I'd like to try the spent ground coffee alternative but do you think that it will cause the water a bit murky since some of it must be carried away into the fish tank?

If just spraying on the leaves, no need to stop. I use Fe-EDDHA in the FT. I put the first dose about 2 weeks ago and the water turned to red. I can't do API test with the solutions but luckily I have a digital pH meter that said 5.9 last night. The pH dropped from 7.4 to 5.9. Or dissolved iron in the water playing with the electricity conductivity which in turn creates false readings on the digital pH meter.


Cool, you are now an expert to adjust ammonia-feed ratio.


It didn't do any water coloration for me. Spent coffee grounds doesn't have much coffee left in them after going through 16 bar of water in an espresso machine anyway. Just add to your GBs as a fertilizer along with the red composting worms.

Guys,

I think I have made a mistake. My plants looked very sick several hours after I put the spent ground coffee into the GB. The leaves looks burnt to me.

I also have sprayed the leaves with solution of 1/16 teaspoon of Fe EDTA and 200 ml of water the day before.

I have attached the photo in this photo. Please give me your opinion so that I can learn from my mistake coz I really don't know whether the Fe EDTA or the spent ground coffee that cause this.

A little hard to tell from the pictures, but looks more like viral or bacterial problem to me...

wah boss... did u spray them in the afternoon?
or early morning or before magrib?
if u sprayed them in the afternoon. might be burnt.

is that kangkung?

Yup, that's kangkung.
And yes, I did the spray in the afternoon.
Anyway, the next batch is amazing. The growth rate is almost twice from the plants that I plant in my garden soil and showing no symptoms of iron deficiency.

Yup, that's kangkung.
And yes, I did the spray in the afternoon.
Anyway, the next batch is amazing. The growth rate is almost twice from the plants that I plant in my garden soil and showing no symptoms of iron deficiency.

wah boss. very nice..
may I know where do you buy the fe edta from?
bisa sharing ga bro?
maybe the supplier name and contacts and price too.
thanks!

I am glad you've recovered from the previous burnt ones.
Do you have a latest picture?