[fishbreath]

I have a 6.6 gal tank that's been up and running for 6 weeks and is heavily planted. I have a Coral-Life T5 24" flourescent bulb and DIY CO2. I recently purchased a 1 lb package of Greg Watson's PMDD. There were no instructions with the shipment, and I found his dosing calculator on his website very confusing. Can anybody give me some advise for using this stuff? K.I.S.S. please (planted tank noob):help:

 

[Alexplosive]

Hi Fishbreath,

Not to be rude whatsoever but what made you buy PMDD when you didnt know anything about it? I dont consider myself an expert by all means but I would have suggested that you buy the ferts separately that way you can control the exact amount that goes into your tank. From what I read, dosing PMDD is a real pain so I never even bothered with it. Good luck :icon_wink

 

[fishbreath]

My intention is to provide some supplimental nutrition for the plants without making it a big maintainence issue. I previuosly had a large reef tank and eventually tore it down because the maintainence became too much. Testing for this, testing for that. Adding this, adding that. I had an entire cabinet full of testing kits and additives. I want this tank to be less maintainence intensive (alot less). So wouldn't adding some PMDD in some amount at some interval be better than nothing at all without diving in to the full blown testing for all the possible water parameters route? I realize that dialing in each nutrient would be ideal for the plants but that's not my goal. I just want to improve a bit on my current regime of adding nothing but CO2. I've read Rex's guide, and all the "articles" listed on this site but I can't find any info for this PMDD anywhere. Wouldn't there be a way to add this product to my tank that would be more beneficial to my plants than adding nothing without adding so much as to over-do it? That's my objective.

 

[epicfish]

This is what I did...although it's a little late for you.

I got my EI dosing schedule down. It took about a month to figure out how much of this, how much of that, etc...to add. But after I figured out the ratio, I mixed up enough to dose an entire month but just throwing in a spoonful of the mix. Made my own mix, tailored to exactly my tank. It's easier than dosing from 3 or 4 separate bags of ferilizer, but it's better than the pre-mixed PPMD mix.

Here's some info on PMDD:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/pmdd-tim.html

 

[GregWatson]

I have a 6.6 gal tank that's been up and running for 6 weeks and is heavily planted. I have a Coral-Life T5 24" flourescent bulb and DIY CO2. I recently purchased a 1 lb package of Greg Watson's PMDD. There were no instructions with the shipment,

Usually people who buy the PMDD Pre-Mix are have made the decision to follow the PMDD dosing strategy which lays out the expectations in the PMDD strategy instructions ...

and I found his dosing calculator on his website very confusing.

Since there isn't one <grin> ... I would imagine that anyone would find something that doesn't exist confusing <Grin> ... but that is ok, let's just get you to the instructions on how to dose PMDD ...

Can anybody give me some advise for using this stuff? K.I.S.S. please (planted tank noob):help:

Most people who want to follow the PMDD Dosing Strategy read about it here: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/pmdd-tim.html - under the section "How To Dose PMDD" <grin> ...

I agree with Alexplosive that most people today are better off dosing their ferts separately - and since most people choose a dosing strategy that also suggests that, most people today follow one of the many popular high tech dosing strategies ... but for those that do the research first and choose to follow a PMDD Dosing Strategy that approach is ok for them ... even if it is not what others like Alexplosive, Epicfish, and I would personally choose to recommend in modern high tech tanks...

Thanks,
Greg

 

[fishbreath]

Since there isn't one <grin> ... I would imagine that anyone would find something that doesn't exist confusing <Grin> ..

The website I ordered PMDD from was http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com
and there is a link to 2 different dosing calculators. I didn't just imagine it. My mistake for calling this site Greg's website.
The link to www.thekrib.com info was helpful, however, there is a bit of a discrepency with the K2SO4 in that the label I have says 1 tbl and the dosing guide has 2. As I stated before, I'm not looking for "High tech", I'm merely trying to find a simple improvement to adding nothing at all.

 

[Diehl2229]

Sorry to hijack:icon_wink But I'm in the same boat except I bought all of gregs ferts seperately from advise of you guys:icon_smil But I am going by the dosing link here http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/water-parameters/43962-dosing-gregs-ferts.html?highlight=carbon But should I be just adding this stuff or should I be testing for the levels of these ingrediants? Or should I just look at my plants and let them tell me when to dose? I have a 36gal corner heavily planted running C02 right here if you want to see ithttp://cgi.ebay.com/Turbo-CO2-Bio-System-for-Planted-Aquarium-Red-Sea_W0QQitemZ7776458777QQcategoryZ117435QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Oh I'm running two 36watt PC's from AH-supply

 

[Alexplosive]

The website I ordered PMDD from was http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com
and there is a link to 2 different dosing calculators. I didn't just imagine it. My mistake for calling this site Greg's website.
The link to www.thekrib.com info was helpful, however, there is a bit of a discrepency with the K2SO4 in that the label I have says 1 tbl and the dosing guide has 2. As I stated before, I'm not looking for "High tech", I'm merely trying to find a simple improvement to adding nothing at all.

Aquariumfertilizer.com is Greg's website. You werent wrong

 

[Alexplosive]

If you guys truely want to be in the hobby of growing healthy aquatic plants, you're going to have to follow some basic steps. Its really not that hard.

You really should get a basic test kit that tests for at least Nitrates, Ammonia, PH, and GH. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals has a set for $30 at petco and you can probably order one for cheaper than that online. This kit will last you at least 1 year. You're going to have to test your water every once in a while. Once you have your planted tank established, you dont have to test that often. I test maybe once or twice a month if that. I mainly test PH just to see where I'm at with CO2 and Nitrates.

Other than that.. I dont even follow the whole "EI" method that most people rave about. I only dose what's needed. My tap water already has about 2 or 3 PPM of nitrates so I dose to an equivalent of 10 PPM total (if im testing low) and a little bit of Potassium. The Phosphates is generally covered by fish food. About twice or 3 times a week I dose the trace nutrients which I dont test for. You can get the CSM+B from Greg's site for that.

All in all, I dose CSM+b & potassium about 2 or 3 times a week. Thats about it. I do water changes once every 2 or 3 weeks MAX (and clean the filter). Its not alot of maintenance once you have it established. Greg Watson is "THE MAN". Get all your ferts from him and you'll be just fine.

 

[fishbreath]

Aquariumfertilizer.com is Greg's website. You werent wrong

So ......Mr Watson is kind of a .... well,
Good to know.
Thanks

 

[epicfish]

So ......Mr Watson is kind of a .... well,
Good to know.
Thanks

1) He is kind of a what, huh? There is no dosing calculator for the PMDD pre-mix. It's your bad that you're confused. The dosing calculator is for people who have their fertilizers separated out so that they can add specific fertilizers according to what their tank needs. You gave up that option by buying a pre-mix, so no, there is no calculator for PMDD like GW said.

2) API Test kits are $13.49 at PetSmart.com.

 

[fishbreath]

OK, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Yes, it is my bad that I'm confused. That's why I posed here in the first place. But I wasn't confused by a dosing calculator that didn't exist. It was just the wrong calculator. Which is why I was confused, not because there isn't one, as GW implied. As I stated in subsequent posts, I figure adding some PMDD would be an improvement over adding nothing. Isn't that true? And remember, my goal was to keep it simple, not high-tech. I can appreciate the high tech stuff. I did that for years with the reef tank. But this time around I'm trying to avoid all the mixing and testing.