# automated PPS fertilization and continual water changes



## schmuttis (Dec 11, 2006)

Hi,

I was reading various threads on auto dosing with the PPS system and saw Edward's suggestion to use the reef doser (http://www.aqua-medic.com/reef_doser.shtml). I would like to automate the fertilization but have a few questions and was curious what everyone thought would work best in our situation.

We have a constant water change going on in our tank since we have juvenile discus. Water is constantly dripping into the third section of the sump for our 120 gallon tank. Extra water is drained from the second stage of the sump. Right now we are manually dosing once a day in the morning. I'm wondering because of the constant water change (about 90% per day) if we should be fertilizing multiple times during the day to keep the fertilizer levels more consistent. I really don't have the time to do this manually but was wondering if this might be beneficial to do once I switch to automatic dosing? I also do a tank cleaning once a week which replaces a larger volume of water at that time. We do our testing before we do the tank cleaning. Although we've been using the PPS system since April, it seems the dosing amounts vary every week. I was under the assumption that once the the system was established the weekly dosing would be fairly consistent. Might this have to do with our water constantly changing?

I also have plants growing in the second stage of my sump. These plants are lit when the main tank lights are off. I just keep easy to grow, excess plants in the sump. I'm not concerned about having a lush garden there. I mention this since I'm not sure if this in any way could affect how I'm fertilizing.

Any suggestions or comments about our fertilizing regimen and how best to automate the task?

Thanks.


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## NoSvOrAx (Nov 11, 2006)

How is the water supplied for the constant drip? Is it straight out of a RO/DI unit? Is it from a container?


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Hi 
If everything looks fine I wouldn't worry too much. The morning dose seems to be working for you so why change it. Keep it simple, setup your dosing pumps to the same routine and be done with it. Water changes and continuous drip does not effect the PPS-Pro fertilizing system requirements. 

Any pictures?

Thank you
Edward


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## schmuttis (Dec 11, 2006)

NoSvOrAx,

The water is from our well which is soft and acidic which our discus like.


Edward,

The reason that I ask about multiple dosing is the 90% water change over the day which I thought would essentially be washing all the ferts down the drain and the fact that the recommended dosing changes quite a bit from week to week. 

The tank had looked fantastic (I was selling plants left and right) until the fall when we went away every weekend, had a 2 week vacation and then a 1 week work trip. We turned off the halides and only left the power compacts on to reduce the plant growth/fertilizer need but we also ran out of CO2 while we were away on our 2 week trip. This really took a toll on the plants. The plants are just starting to perk up again but I can tell that not all is fine yet because we still have some algae. Besides reducing work on our part, this is another reason we wanted to switch to auto-dosing.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

A continuous water change that includes adding 90% new water every day is actually changing about half of the tanks water every day, and most of that is changed when the lights are off and nutrients are not needed as bad by the plants. Remember as the day goes on you are draining of a mix of new and old water. Off the top of my head I think I would dose a bit more than the recommended dose once a day. That should be enough to not run out of any nutrient during the day. Once you hit a routine that leaves the plants looking good, that is the correct routine.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

schmuttis said:


> ... and the fact that the recommended dosing changes quite a bit from week to week.


PPS-Classic may change from week to week, but there is no need for it since you keep changing so much water. Switch to PPS-Pro, no changing and no testing, flat rate per day.


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## Volenti (Oct 12, 2007)

I've got my tanks set up with a continuous drip (filtered tap water) and I just dose at a little over PPS-Pro, seems to be working for me.


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