[oregon aqua]

I have some plants in my 55g that I want to get some color into. Whats the best way to adjust PPS-Pro with out messing my tank up? I always worried about just getting the harder plants to grow now i need a way to get the plants to look good with out getting an algae meltdown.

Whats the best way and best macro i can lower to get my Pogostemon stellatus to color? like should i just dose 1ml less of KNo3 or should i dose less often every other day, or should i adjust my next batch of solution, or more water changes and keep the dosing the same?? best way to slowly raise iron with Iron Chelate 13% for my Limnophila sp. 'Mini'. Not a clue i used a calculator thingy and it says 2 grams of 13% iron into 200l of water is 1ppm is this right? and what is my target levels if im using csm+b already?
I really hate adjusting my levels because i always some how do it wrong so i hope someone has some experience they can share with me so i can get some color out of my plants.

Or am i just being a goof ball, should i stop being worried about it and go for the gold:fencing:.

 

[ray-the-pilot]

I’ve been running PPS for about three months now and I’ve been testing my water weekly for NPK and my opinion is that you cannot tell what is going on in your tank without testing.

Basically, when my K was low, I added extra K to bring it up. When the NO3 increased, I changed to the no NO3 formula. I haven’t been testing for Fe but I may in the future.

I’m not growing anything that is difficult but my red plants are really red and I’ve given away a few miles of runner reproducing plants to my local pet store.

I like PPS because I don’t have to add lots of stuff to my tank and I can limit water changes to 20% a week.

Check your water and add more or less of what you want to change until the value gets into the range you are looking for.

 

[Edward]

Well, where do we start...
Have you used PPS-Pro to grow the plants you have right now? If not then the plants will not be able to handle the change easily. Let's say your plants grew up in PS, an Amano-ADA style aquarium in Japan then you take them into an EI Texas tap water, Eco substrate etc., they melt, release NH4, algae bloom comes.

Another issue is, What plant is a real red plant? When nutrients, light and temperature are right, very few plants are actually genuine red. Though there is tons of plants turning red when conditions are abnormal, like extreme light, elemental deficiency, elemental overdose-toxicity, etc.

So what I recommend is running your aquarium on PPS-Pro for several months, experience the fast and healthy growth and when conditions prove to be stable then start dosing less and less up to 1/10th of the prescribed dose. Don't change or modify the contents. Many tried before for a variety of reasons like GSA, NO3 excess, K deficiency or excess, same for PO4 etc. but on the end found no difference. They had other issues. So dosing less can stress the plants to become red, that's nice, but the daily morning balanced dosage of the original ratio still guaranties healthy plants.

Thank you
Edward