[Gonzaletti]

Hello everyone from Costa Rica!

I've been dosing with Seachem lately, and wanted to try PPS Pro. Since I'm living in Costa Rica there is no access to all the products you would find in the US/Europe/Asia. I've found everything for the macro solution (pretty similar composition than branded products) but I'm struggling to find something for the micros solution.

The closest product I've found is a mix that's is thought for fruits and vegetables, but it is not the same composition.

This is the actual composition of the product. In brackets are the GLA EDTA Micromix % / GLA EDTA+DTPA Micromix % (if there is a difference with EDTA):

Iron (Fe) chelated EDTA 4% (7%)
Zinc (Zn) chelated EDTA 2.010% (0.4%)
Nitrogen (N) 0.01% (0%)
Cupper (Cu) chelated EDTA 0.1% (=)
Manganese (Mn) chelated EDTA 1.5% (2%)
Boron (B) 1.235% (3.8% / 1.3%)
Magnesium (MgO) 4.120% (0%)
Molybdenum (Mo) 0.100% (0.06%)
Cobalt (Co) 0.002% (0%)
Nickel (Ni) 0.002% (0%)
Vitamin B1 0.100% (0%)
Inert Ingredients 86.821%

My questions are:

• Does the differences (like less Iron or more manganese and zinc than GLA) be a problem?
• Do you think that making a weekly 40%-50% water change will help so those differences don't provoke big imbalances?
• Does the components that are not present on the GLA (like Nickel, Cobalt, Vitamin B1) safe/needed for the plants?
• Do I need to adjust the Macro formula because of the aggregated magnesium/nitrogen on the Micro salts?
• How would you make the recipe for this salts and how much would you dose (in case that it actually works)?

Some additional info of my aquarium:

• Size: 40 Gallons heavy planted (Lobelia cardinalis mini, montecarlo, Staurogyne repens, Helferi Mini, Parvula, some rotalas, fissidens fontanus, and 2 kind of Costa Rican local plants I don't know the name and 2 local mosses I haven't seen before)
• Injected CO2 30ppm
• Lights: Finnex CRV at full capacity 8h/day
• Filtration: OASE 600 thermo packed with Seachem Matrix
• Soil: Carib sea Samurai Soil
• RODI water + Seachem Equilibrium

Thanks in advance!

 

[Savetheplants]

Have you tried the local chemical or lab suppliers? I get macro chemicals from a local place. Try to get a Malinckrodt chemical catalog. The chemical suppliers like it when you call them with the catalog numbers. If you can get all seven micros you should be able to make something. I admire your determination. What a hard project.

 

[Gonzaletti]

Have you tried the local chemical or lab suppliers? I get macro chemicals from a local place. Try to get a Malinckrodt chemical catalog. The chemical suppliers like it when you call them with the catalog numbers. If you can get all seven micros you should be able to make something.

Thank you @Savetheplants for your reply and the cheering! I never thought on this as a solution, as here is a really small country and I don't think I'll find any supplier focused on retail (I'm sure there are, but for businesses = big amounts) but I will make the research just in case!

I wish @Edward from PPS Pro could read this, maybe he can give me some guide on this. I have a hint of hope that maybe this product I found could make the work (maybe with some adjustments on the macro recipe because of this extra magnesium you can find on it). That would make the process a lot easier (at least until everything get back to normal and I can go again to the US and come back with the luggage filled with salts 😅).