Dirk's Drops - Guaranteed analysis?

Good day, Professor. I’m enquiring about your plant fertilizer. I’ve been using Seachem Labs fertilizers for many years, with good results. They provide a guaranteed analysis in percentage of what’s in their products. I was at a friends place in Cape Town this week who swears by your fertilizer. I noticed that there is no guaranteed analysis on the bottles and was hoping you could provide us with this information. I breed Apple snails for our little pet shop and am particularly concerned about copper levels.

 

Hi Ryan,

I have a huge lecture load at the moment and this will continue for the next two weeks as a result of which I will perhaps not be able to respond immediately to posts.

You ask about a guaranteed analysis. A guaranteed analysis means that the full and precise contents of a product be specified. A guaranteed analysis would then give say 30 g of sodium bicarbonate per 100 ml, but it would have to specify ALL the constituents. If you buy Analar grade sodium chloride from a chemical supplier it would inform you that 99.9% of the product is sodium chloride and that there are say 0.1% contaminants of say potassium chloride. Such a guaranteed analysis does not appear on any of the plant ferts that are sold commercially anywhere in the world. If you enquire to them they will not give this to you either. I know this because I have asked overseas fertilizer suppliers and they refuse because they say this is their trade secret. What they do give and the Seachem products show this as well, are the percentages of the constituents. However these only tell you a fraction of the information that is required in the formulation of a fertilizer. It gives no information on counter ions and about the absolute amount of the constituents and it gives you no analysis of contaminants, they also do not tell you which grade of chemicals was used in their formulations. For this reason it can be very misleading. The information for the use of the new labels is just about complete and I will supply this percentage analysis there, just as other products do.

What I will do is that I will give a description of the new DSD drops and explain how they can be used in a next post on this thread.

What I can state categorically is that my ferts are specifically formulated to be compatible with all fishes, snails and inverts. The amount of copper in my ferts is a tiny trace amount balanced with other traces which is also present in other plant ferts. I keep apple snails and many other snails in the aquaria in which I use my fertilizers and they show absolutely no negative consequences as a result of my fertilizers. As a matter of fact they actually benefit from the calcium in the fertilizers in that they grow nice healthy shells which is often quite difficult here in the Western Cape. On the fishes side, I formulated by ferts specifically so that I could use them with my discus, which would react negatively to even the tiniest amounts of toxins, and my ferts are perfectly safe with discus which are just about the most sensitive fish that are kept in aquaria. One of the aspects that I have concentrated on is that I have actually purposely NOT added any preservatives to my ferts as these are often more harmful than good for inhabitants of an aquarium.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Ryan,

Here is some more information on my DSD fertlizers.

In 1991, I developed the first version of DSD aquatic plant fertilizers or “Dirk’s Secret Drops†aquatic plant fertilizers for growing aquatic plants in the soft water conditions found in the Western Cape, South Africa. Imported fertilizers just simply did not work and I then applied my biochemical background to develop a successful aquatic fertilizer. Initially these fertilizers were supplied to my friends until, through my participation on the web forums, Aquatic Plants South African (www.apsa.co.za) and Tropical Aquariums SA (www.tropicalaquarium.co.za) other enthusiasts started using them as well. Finally, in 2009, I have, with the assistance of other enthusiasts in South Africa, added fertilizer mixtures for use with the original formulation which follow the principal of the recently developed “estimative index†or “EI†method of plant fertilization. A final addition was the development of a carbonate hardness increasing solution to allow CO2 fertilization with these fertilizers.

An outstanding feature is that these fertilizers can be used by the beginner, the advanced aquarist who wants to grow more demanding plants but does not wish to use carbon dioxide fertilization and the highly specialized aquarist that wants to grow demanding plants and use CO2 fertilization. All of these combinations of this advanced fertilizer range give good to excellent aquatic plant growth in a variety of aquatic setups and different water conditions using easily understood dosages.

This fertilizer range includes:
1. DSD GH+ for hardening water in soft water areas.
2. DSD K+ for potassium addition.
3. DSD Plant feeding mix, a trace element mix.
4. DSD NPK,an Estimative Index type nitrogen/phosphate mix.
5. DSD NK-P,an Estimative Index type nitrogen only mix.
6. DSD Fe+, for increasing iron concentrations.
7. KH up or Carbonate Hardness increasing solution.

All of these mixtures do not contain any components that are harmful or hazardous to human health. Preservatives are purposely NOT added to ensure that these fertilizers are not detrimental to fish health or the environment.

Fertilizer Combinations:
A. In Low Tech Aquaria (Low light aquaria aimed at fishkeeping or the beginner option) in which 1, 2 and 3 must be used.
B. In Medium Tech Aquaria (Higher light aquaria in which robust aquatic plants can be grown for the advanced aquarist) in which 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 and 6 must be used.
C. In High Tech Aquaria (High light aquaria using CO2 fertilization in which the focus is on luxuriant plant growth for the highly specialized aquarist) in which all seven solutions must be used.

This will hopefully give you a better idea of how my fertilizers are to be used in practice and which of the options you might want to use in your aquaria.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi, Dirk. Thank you ever so much for taking time off your busy schedule to answer in such detail. I've got 250ml of each of your original DSD and GH+ that he gave me to experiment with. Will see how it goes.

 

Hi Ryan,

In my original mix, I only had two solutions, which I called plant hardening mix and plant feeding mix. The plant feeding mix in my new DSD drops is the same as that in the old mixture. However, I separated the plant hardening mix into GH+ and K+ because in some areas there is some general hardness in the water, so you do not need so much hardening. In Western Cape conditions you would need equal amounts of GH+ and K+ and this is equivalent to my old plant hardening mix.

So, you actually have the equivalent solutions of what would be used in low tech aquaria. This also works very well, but if you start pushing with high lighting then you might find that you might need some of the DSD NPK, DSD NK-P and DSD Fe+ solutions as well.

See how it goes and if you feel that you want to progress to the next level you can purchase the additional ferts. I actually think this is a major advantage of my ferts because it allows you to progress from one level to the next. Also, the dosages of all my ferts, with the exception of the KHup, all work at the same dosage of 10 ml per 100 litres which makes their use uncomplicated.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi prof
Will these ferts work equally efficient in jhb water?
Do you sell them dry or mixed with water?
Regards
Khalid

 

Hi Khalid,

Yes, the ferts will work equally well in Johannesburg water, about that I am sure as we have specifically tested it. It was with this in mind that in the new formulation, I changed the plant hardening mix to two solutions, GH+ (general hardness up) and K+. What this now allows you do is that you measure your general hardness and then use less GH+ so that you only harden up to 4 dGH. This is explained on the labels of the new mixes, but I have also developed an excel calculator into which you feed your water values and your tank volume and then it does the calculations for you.

One of the persons that specifically helped me to developed these mixes, algae wizard, is in Johannesburg and his tanks are shown on this forum http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1678&page=9 . He uses the high tech option, I have been using the medium tech option myself and we have both achieved excellent growth.

My ferts are all sold as solutions so that you do not need to mess with any weighing off reagents. All you do is add the calculated volumes (10 ml per 100 l) as described and that is it.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks for the heads up Zoom!!

Will PM him now!!

 

Damn.. tripple post with one click!! Sorry about this.. don't know what happened.

 

Damn.. tripple post with one click!! Sorry about this.. don't know what happened.

 

Hi WaRnoob... they are available directly from the professor himself. He is in CT, so it would be easy for you to get them. Just send him a pm and see when he is available for you to go and purchase. Whilst you there... grab some of his fish food that hi imports/makes. I use the professor's fish food, and his fertz. The only thing that goes into my tank on a regular basis that I don't get from him is water.