Aqua Guard Nutrient Series - Long Terms Review
I recently got some samples of Aqua Guard plants nutrients from our supplier to be tested upon which include nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, trace elements and iron. I switched the AquaVitro nutrients of our 60p display tank with the Aqua Guard and here’s the results.
Changes to the tank
After running the tank with Aqua Guard nutrients for a month and trimming twice in this period of time, I find that the condition of the plants remain the same as before the change. This is a good thing as it was already in an optimum condition.
Advantage of Aqua Guard
That being said, I did find a difference in terms of using the products. I find that Aqua Guard is easier to use in this particular tank compared to Aqua Vitro although I’ve been using a dosing pump with AquaVitro all this time. There’s several reasons for this. First is that because of the highly concentrated nature of AquaVitro nutrients, I have to dilute the products with reverse osmosis water in order to use the auto dosing pump that can’t dose less than 1ml. Second is the consistency of dose. Unlike AquaVitro that have different dosages for each nutrient, each of the nutrients of Aqua Guard series have the same dosage. This means that for this 60p tank all I have to do with the Aqua Guard is to put in 1 tablet for each type of nutrient once every week after water changes.
I don’t need to remember when to dose and how much to dose each of them. All of this means that it is easier for me to use Aqua Guard then AquaVitro for this 60p display tank.
Things to consider
That is in theory. But was I able to keep the nutrients in the concentration that I needed? Well yes for most of it except for phosphorus. But this is to be expected as this tank consumes a high amount of phosphorus. I was dosing Aquavitro Activate daily in order to keep up with its consumption. That being said, it is something that is easily dealt with. I just have to dose another tablet of Aqua Guard phosphorus in between water changes to maintain it at the level that I want.
Unlike the Aqua Vitro system, the Aqua Guard aquascape nutrients don't consist of carbonate and general hardness. Or there is one but the supplier didn’t supply me with one. Either way, I’m dosing Aquavitro Mineralize after water changes to maintain the GH. I can’t do the same for carbonate as Aquavitro carbonate is mixed up with potassium which I’m already dosing with Aqua Guard. But one can easily add carbonate with other brand products such as Seachem Alkaline Buffer.
All of this is according to the use with my 60p aquarium and it can be a different story if being used in a different aquarium size. One thing to be considered when using it on a larger aquarium is the price. Although the price of RM25 for each bottle that contains 50 tablets doesn’t sound very expensive, when used in larger aquariums the long term cost can be very high. For example in a 90p aquarium, you’ll need 4 tablets for each nutrient weekly. This meant that each bottle would last for about 3 months. And that is if your tank doesn’t consume extra NPK. When used in a smaller aquarium, the ease of use that I mentioned might not apply completely with such as well. For aquariums that are smaller than 45L, the dose is a tablet bi weekly. This would mean that you’ll remember to skip a week on each dose. I don’t know about you but sometimes I can’t remember if I have put soap on my body half way thru showering. You can avoid this by splitting the tablets in half. By splitting it in half it allows you to dose weekly and on top of that avoid nutrients spike. But this means slightly more work. That being said, dosing nano with concentrated products such as Aquavitro and Seachem can be a challenge by itself.
That is my thought on the Aqua Guard nutrients. It works just as well although can be more expensive in long runs especially for larger tanks but has its own merits for being very user friendly and easy to dose. I will continue to use this on the 60p tank while sticking to my trusted Aquavitro for the rest of my aquariums.
