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Please feel free to post your experience with PPS

19K views 27 replies 25 participants last post by  Bullguy87 
#1 ·
This is the right place to start.

Thank you
Edward
 
#4 ·
i would like to try this but im not understanfing the chart to well..the letters in the dosing chart are smeared to where some are un readable..a few abberivations im not understanding either..what do these abbr. stand for

ss
pf
nf
i assume the mg= magnesium
TE= trace elements

also i am seein what i think is a dr..thats one of the parts i cant read to good on the chart..am i assuming correctly the dr= drop

Thanks
Rick
 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
Update on PPS-Classic

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.



 
#7 ·
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?
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
Re: CSM+B and Shrimp

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.
 
#10 ·
Re: EI with less frequent water changes?

Edward, I just want to give you an update. Everything seems to be loving the dosing schedule. My Bacopa Pantanal (i think) have grown to the top of my 55 gal (24"!!!) and have many side shoots comming out the bottom. My marsilia has begun to spread noticiably. The Vals are so big that i'm debating about selling them now lol! Cabomba is recovering from looking iffy, i'm tempted to go buy another few bunches.

Stargrass is grwoing (the little that lived) Hornwort is out of control. Hemianthus micranthemoides went from 3 stems, to about 15 and sent 2 6" runners out. And the most noticable one is the Hydrocotyle leucocephala It's grown from sending about 1 leaf every 3 days, to probably 1 a day, and it's reached the top of my tank, total length of it is probably around 30-35" with stems comming from the side. The best part is the leaves on the surface are about 2-3" in diameter!

I'll have a pic if i either clean the algea or it goes away. I'm hit with GSA and Some hair algea.
 
#11 ·
Re: Newbie Guide to PPS-Pro

I didn't test my water like I promised. Anyway, the GDA went away and everything is fine in this tank. The plants are doing well. Both of the females in my threesome of Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi had babies. So...things must be going right in this tank.

:thumbsup: :whoo: to PPS-Pro!
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
Re: Bout to try PPS-Pro - update

Well, It's officially been a week. Here is the update:

1) I haven't had to clean the inside glass all week, so no GDA, GSA. I'm liking this.
2) I am seeing my fauna come out more. This has started ever since I turned down my CO2. I've seen RCS I thought died out, Also I have finally seen both my Farowellas at the same time a couple times now. I've thought 1 was dead for the last 6 months.
3) I am noticing some very slow growth, but where in the past some higher light plants dwindled, I am seeing new, but slower growth (nothing wrong with that).

So far so good.
 
#14 ·
Re: PPS-Pro progress report...

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...
 
#16 ·
Re: PPS-Pro progress report...

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....
 
#19 ·
Re: 0 Nitrates?

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
 
#21 ·
Re: thinking about the switch EI to PPS-Pro

I've switched recently and couldn't be happier with the results. If the levels in your tanks are high, you might want to pull several large water changes to bring them down before you start the new method. I've got several tanks. The ones where the levels were low responded well immediately. The ones where the levels were high didn't improve until I went back, changed the water, and dropped the levels. Just a recent convert's opinion--not an expert, or anywhere close, by any means.
 
#22 ·
I am dosing PPS-Pro on both my tanks now, the 10 gallon and my 29 gallon. The plants are growing like wildfire and my Kribs have recently spawned, however, I keep seeing BGA now in both tanks. I try to pick it off the subtrate when I see it and I've been doing frequent water changes (in the early evening and dosing extra KNO3) and it seems to help for a few days but then it comes back again. I also have GSA and GDA, the green dust algea was there before but not as much green spot algea. I'm told that this will pass, I'm just concerned about the Cyano.

I will be moving a week from Saturday, my plan is to remove as much water as I possibly can, maybe all of it and just cover the tank with plastic to keep in the moisture. I will transport my fish in plastic bags and put them in a bucket. Hopefully once I'm established, the GDA & GSA will eventually disapear. I will keep doing water changes, adding extra KNO3 and disturbing the BGA and hopefully that too will disapear.

All and all, I am pleased with the plant growth and the easiness of PPS-Pro.
 
#23 ·
I switched to PPS Pro on my 29G about 5 weeks ago. It's not very heavily planted, a big patch of valisneria, a bunch of java moss, and 2-3 various crypt species.

5 green corys
2 otos
1 angel
8 rasboras

Eheim 2217 with pressurized co2 run directly into it, inline reactor coming soon


I have a touch of BBA that is now slowly subsiding, my vals have slowed down their growth while my crypts have really shot up faster. The new growth on the crypts are a vibrant green. I love it.

However, I'm now getting GSA on my glass which I never had a problem with till this point. I don't think it's a photoperiod issue. Perhaps I have too little plant load for the 1ml/1G dose?

I really like the ease of the ferts too, I went and bought 2 nalgene 1000mL bottles and a few plastic pipettes. I can't wait to order 2 peristaltic pumps to automate this.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Truly Amazing!!

Okay, perhaps this is a little early. I started PPS-Pro(2 weeks ago) in my 40 gallon tank that I was in the process of gradually converting to a fully planted tank. The substrate is Schultz Aquatic soil mixed with the previous gravel that I had in the tank(I did not fully removed the old gravel as I did not want to screw up the bacterial colonies and restart a mini-cycle). This is topped off with a thin layer of fluorite. The lightling is 90 Watts and pretty cra*py. C02 is provided by 2 DIY bottles hooked to a ceramic glass diffuser and from the looks of it I have yet to see the diffuser release any bubbles eventhough there are no leaks and I can see the yeast/sugar/water mixture fermenting. The plants in the tank are aponogetons, Java fern, Java moss, hygrophilia compact, ambulia, cryptocornes(Cryptocoryne Wendtii and Cryptocoryne willisii). I had this set up in place for almost 2-3 months prior to PPS-Pro dosing and was only dosing with Seachem Comprehensive. With the exception of the aponogetons which were growing like crazy(I don't know what types as I sprouted these Wal-Mart bulbs in my 10 gallon and transferred the plants into the 40 gallon), the plants were not dieing but they were not growing either. 2 weeks after dosing with PPS-Pro, the Cryptocorne willisii gave off a daughter plant so it formed a runner, the hygrophilia compact took off and formed huge leaves and many side stems and roots, the java fern started forming plantlets on leaf tips. I was just about to remove the ambulia because it was doing so poorly. Much to my surprise new stems began forming and it started showing new growth. About the only thing that I noticed that was negative was the growth of brush algae, but I believe that this may have more to do with the DIY CO2 injection than PPS-Pro. Also the brush algae is not a huge problem because the otos and SAE seem to enjoy feasting on it. Diatom algae also formed but was quickly wiped out by the otos and it has since not returned.

I believe that the improved plant growth is more than coincidence and PPS-Pro had a lot do with this. I also believe that once I upgrade the lighting, convert to pressurized c02 injection, and increase plant mass, things will even look better. I know that one can always argue that the plants that I have are low maintenance, low light, and hardy plants to begin with and should do well even in less that ideal set-ups. This is true, but keep in mind that in my case, there was no growth for 2-3 months and signs of new growth only surfaced about 2 weeks after starting PPS-PRO.

Another vote of confidence for PPS-Pro. Thanks Edward. :)
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
Re: PPS for the planted tank with Discus fishes

Hi,

Now all the plants do extremely WELL!!! All of them grow not too fast but look very nice! There is an ideal shape of leaves and bright color. Algae passed as a watch in the night! I've forgot about glass scraper. Now I can think just about how to make good aquascape. I believe PPS-PRO isn't just fertilizer. It's good approach to keep error free planted tank. I like it. Edward thanks to you for your assistance and guideline. :)

Yours faithfully,
Evergreen
 
#26 ·
I’ve become a big believer in PPS-Pro! Three and a half weeks ago I converted my 55 gallon and my 20 gallon over to PPS-Pro from dosing with Seachem. I had a bad case of staghorn algae in the 55 gallon which I had been fighting for a long time, to no avail. My CO2 was up at 2.5 bps because I was battling the staghorn, plus when I went much lower than that, I began to see BBA.

My CO2 for both tanks is now at 1 bps; I didn’t think that level was possible for my 55 gallon tank because of the algae issues. Needless to say, the staghorn is now gone in my larger tank. I see very little to no algae in either tank. The plants look great too. I’m sure my fish are happier. This opens up whole new possibilities. I can finally concentrate on aquascaping rather than fighting algae. I only wish I had discovered this earlier. A big THANK YOU to Edward!!!
 
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