Perpetual Preservation System - Pro

[ejaramillo01]

I'm ready to switch from liquid ferts to dry ferts. Actually I'm using Seachem products (Comprehensive, Potassium, Phosphate, and Iron) following the bottle directions, maybe adding twice to three times a week.
My phosphates normally are around 0.25 to 0.50 ppm, Nitrates around 15 to 20 ppm, and I have not measure iron yet. I do a weekly 30 to 40 % partial water change.

I purchased the dry ferts and I would like to try the PPS-Pro formula and procedure. My questions are two:

1. The directions mention no weekly partial water changes, which I find hard to believe, I would like to keep my PWC as I'm doing right now ( on top I enjoyed my PWC ). What effect this could have in the success of the PPS-Pro system? Even if I do PWC every week, Do I just keep adding my daily doses of the two bottles at the recommended concentration?

2. I know that, depending of many factors, there is not an exact recommended levels of Iron, Phosphates, and Nitrates. But what could be a good target or a reference on these parameters?

My tank is a 100 G tank fully planted with Brazilian swords, different types of Aanubias, Dwarf swords, Alternanthera rosaefolia, Spiral Val's, Bacopa caroliniana, Wisteria, Baby tears HC, Brazilian Pennywort, and some Jave Ferns.

The tank has an automated pressurize CO2 system, trying to maintain 30 ppm of CO2, 4 bulbs T5 HO lights, with 6700K, supposedly specific for the plant spectrum.

Thanks for your answers and or opinions.

 

[Rivercats]

Do your water changes like normal. I like to keep my nitrates between 10-20ppms. Phosphates .5 to 1ppm, and iron .01 to .03. You add the ferts daily but something I do is monitor my nitrates and phosphates and if something is too high or too low I adjust accordingly. Also be sure to add the ferts before your lights go on and add the macro mix in at one end of the tank and the micro mix in at the other end of the tank.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Do your water changes like normal. I like to keep my nitrates between 10-20ppms. Phosphates .5 to 1ppm, and iron .01 to .03. You add the ferts daily but something I do is monitor my nitrates and phosphates and if something is too high or too low I adjust accordingly. Also be sure to add the ferts before your lights go on and add the macro mix in at one end of the tank and the micro mix in at the other end of the tank.

Thanks, I did my solution bottles last night, they dissolved really good. I will start tomorrow after my PWC.
Thanks again, I will keep you posted with the progress.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Ok, just an update. I did a 40% PWC today. Then I added the 10 ml. (My tank is 100G) of each one of the solutions, the Macro and the Micro nutrients. I will post a picture tonight, to compare the grow of the plants.

I will keep an eye on the algae too. I have a little BBA in the Anubias and in the dwarf swords. Besides that, everything looks normal, I will read the water parameters tonight also, and maybe I will have some questions.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Picture

Here is the pic of the tank:

 

[Rivercats]

Lookin good

 

[ejaramillo01]

Water readings

I added the solutions (Macro & Micro Nutrients) today around 2:00PM Pacific Time.
The readings 6 hours later are:
Nitrates 15 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Ammonia 0 ppm
Phosphates 0.50 ppm
pH 7.2
KH was kind of high 179 ppm
GH was also high 215 ppm
Iron- I don't have a test kit yet

Looks like my tap water increased hardness.... Do I need to be concern? Do I need to try to reduce the KH and GH?

Thanks

 

[aqua_chem]

I don't see any species in your tank that would be even remotely concerned with water hardness. I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Thanks Aqua!

 

[ejaramillo01]

Finally I got the Seachem iron test kit. I tried to test the iron levels in my tank one hour after I added the Iron solution. But it is really hard to read the low levels of iron. I could not read the change in color of the little white cup.
Have you experienced the same?

 

[Rivercats]

Did you let the test sample sit for 45 mins? That is the test I do... it reads how much cleated iron is in the water. Plus possibly you don't have readable levels of iron in your water. I've had mine test like that before.

 

[ejaramillo01]

I will try again, and I will wait the 45 minutes to see

 

[Jodisgermanshepherd]

Why do you put the nutrients in before the lights turn on?

 

[Rivercats]

I will try again, and I will wait the 45 minutes to see

If you have the same Seachem Iron test kit, the instructions tell you when testing for ionic iron in solution you wait 3 minutes and read (mine never tests anything over 0) but if you let the solution sit 45 minutes or until the solution stops darkening that tells you what chleated iron reading you have. I try to keep my cleated iron between .1 and .3.

 

[Rivercats]

Why do you put the nutrients in before the lights turn on?

To have the nutrients in the water ready to use when the lights come on.

 

[aqua_chem]

Some of the ferts/chemicals we add have a limited lifespan in-tank. By adding them before the lights come on, you insure that their lifespan coincides with the the period of most active uptake by plants, ie, their photocycle.

 

[mfdrookie516]

It really doesn't matter when you dose the ferts, as long as you keep it on a schedule (IMO at least. The only issue I'm aware of is the P and CSM+B precipitating... which only happens in concentrated amounts from what I gather). An autodoser is great, especially for PPS Pro, and one can be built for about $35. The ferts are going to remain in the water until the plants use them, so as long as you're dosing enough, it won't matter at all. When I was using PPS Pro on autodosers, they ran at night right before the lights went off.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Thanks for making this tread rich in information. I prepared the solutions according to the formulas provided in the website.
I'm adding 1ml / Gallon of each solution (macro and micro) daily. I hope that this is enough, I'm reading like 0.5 ppm Phosphates, and very low chelated iron, maybe 0.2 ppm.
After one week, Plants, fish and shrimp are looking good with the actual amounts used. I will keep you posted.

Also, definitely dry ferts are muuuuch cheaper versus the commercial liquid ones. I think that with 50 dollars I already have more than a year supply! Lol !

Maybe my next step will be the auto dosification, we will see, but sound viable and not cost prohibited.

Thanks

 

[ejaramillo01]

2 weeks after the switch to the liquid ferts, all looks good, the plants keep growing and look healthy, fish are ok, no signs of stress, but one thing bothers me.
My Nitrates and Phosphates are reading in the high side, even after the PWC (40%), I added the solutions and the readings were

Nitrates are 40 ppm
Phosphates are 1.00 ppm

My tank used to run like 20 ppm of Nitrates before. I'm adding 1 ml/ G of the macro solution everyday. Do I need to cut to 0.5 ml/G?

Any feedback will be appreciated.

 

[Rivercats]

I don't remember but were you using any kind of ferts before? You may have to adjust your dosing and up your WC to 50% weekly. Don't know how often you clean your filters but that might help drop your numbers also. You mayl have to tailor your dosing off and on to the needs of your tank.