Dataseeker

There are any number of threads here by those with years more experience than I have. So, what I offer certainly can not be considered gospel. That said, here is a brief overview of my experience with PPS-Classic.

It works for me. I have been literally harvesting plants from this tank about once a week. The first few weeks there were wide swings in the dosing quantities. I followed the recommended amounts called out on the Excel sheet for dosing after entering the measured test results. Once things settled and natural cycles came into line, the parameters stayed on the money.

I followed the prescribed methods in the PPS-Classic documentation to the letter. The most enlightening experience was checking the test kit’s color charts against standardized solutions that I mixed. PPM for nitrates were off by a factor of two. For phosphates they were one half or needed to be divided by two. The standard solutions were mixed very carefully with a calibrated scale. I was really surprised by the results.

If what you want is a system of adding know quantities of fertilizers to the water column of your tank and observing the depletion rate for the macro elements and compounds, in a measured way PPS will provide that. As far as begin a foolproof method for creating unprecedented plant growth, I don’t think that is a fair expectation. So many parameters are constantly varying outside of what PPS provides, that only good management of all these things will lead to success. PPS provides a systematic process for fertilizer addition that follows known good practice. For me it has been a foundation or starting point to build my understanding of planted aquarium needs. I think I am off to a good start.

MrSanders

Alright, I have to be honest Edward In the past I have been one who thought there was no way a tank could be run very with such small amounts of nutrients, basically ready to bash it before I tried it long enough to find out weither it really works or not. Well after a VERY long time of having little to no success with getting anything to grow well for me, and HUGE swings in water parameters I saw a post where you talked about this PPS-Pro and no need to do water changes. Having been very wary of what my tap water was adding into my tank, the idea of not having to add it weekly was a plus for me.

Needless to say i started into it, its about 3 or 4 weeks in and my plants are showing much improvement and I am very pleased. It does seem I need just a tad more PO4 than what the mix adds but not much, and other than that I havn't had the need to adjust anything. I like it!

My question is I have two small tanks, a 1.5g and a 5g I dont use CO2 on either just excell for carbon. Is there a way to run these tanks the same way with little to no waterchanges? Obviously up take is going to be less I would imange, dose the dosing need to be cut back at all?

Jookie

As far as water changes, I don't recommend EI. At least with my water parameters, the fluctuations were killing my shrimp. I would recommend PPS/PPS Pro to avoid constant fluctuations. Ever since I went PPS, I haven't lost a single shrimp. Just my own experience.

Bert H

Update...

3 weeks later (5 weeks total time), and tank is doing fine. This tank always had gsa on the glass during my weekly water change routines, now it seems to be slowly abating! I must say I like the idea of not HAVING to do a weekly water change. I am doing changes now every 2-3 weeks, or if I do a major prune/uprooting, as I did yesterday. I had been concerned that my B. japonica would not do as well, since it tends to like a little higher N, in my experience. But it's done great.

I am also going to be changing over one of my 50's to the PPS-Pro. Yesterday I did a major uprooting/re-planting of a large stand of C. wendtii, figured it was a good time to do the changeover, so I wouldn't have a massive meltdown. More to come...

Muirner

Good to hear PPS is working for you. I currently run this system on my 55 and my growth rates are through the roof. So big i have more Hydrocotle again to sell. AND it has my GSA has started to clear up on it's own.

dhavoc

been a month for my 120g and i also love the results, plant growth is great, and all my bba, etc is gone, except for gsa, i cant seem to get rid of it, but since i change water weekly anyway, i just scrape it off. dont know what to do with all the extra plants now....

Toppy72

I too am using PPS-Pro, and I'm having great results . My BBA has completely disapeared, and my plants definately look a lot more healthy.

GSA is my only concern at the moment. I am now following Edwards advice and limiting water changes, so I will see in the next few weeks if that helps.

Left C

As a side note, this PPS-Pro system works really great!

sharkerbaby

lol, your right, I'm just not used to having an easily maintained planted tank. I guess I'm making things up to worry about and try to fix.

the system's working well for me, Edward. Thank you

trong

I've been using it and am very impressed with the growth of the plants. They grow so well i'm going to have to limit the # of species i keep do to the extra large sizes the plants are getting.