# PPS pro dosing Pros and Cons



## hbosman (Oct 5, 2006)

I've been using PPS Pro for several months now. The daily dosing helps for people like me who can't remember if they dosed yesterday. The plants are doing well. I did boost the kh2poh (phosphorus) in the recipe though. I was getting slight green spot algae and that indicates a need for more phosphorus. I still do 33 % water changes, sometimes 50 % still. I didnt go to this method to eliminate water changes.


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

Daily dosing is fine but you need to reduce the dosing quantity compared to 2 or 3-day/week dosing regimes.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

It will be very lean for many aquariums, but fine for some as well. So dose more till you see no added improvement in growth. It's also too lean in terms of PO4, so modify that. Likewise, EI can be done and reduced down, they both add the SAME things, ferts.......... one starts low, the other starts high and then is moved to suit.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

hbosman said:


> I've been using PPS Pro for several months now. The daily dosing helps for people like me who can't remember if they dosed yesterday. The plants are doing well. I did boost the kh2poh (phosphorus) in the recipe though. I was getting slight green spot algae and that indicates a need for more phosphorus. I still do 33 % water changes, sometimes 50 % still. I didnt go to this method to eliminate water changes.


Thank you for the information.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

malaybiswas said:


> Daily dosing is fine but you need to reduce the dosing quantity compared to 2 or 3-day/week dosing regimes.


Thank you


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

plantbrain said:


> It will be very lean for many aquariums, but fine for some as well. So dose more till you see no added improvement in growth. It's also too lean in terms of PO4, so modify that. Likewise, EI can be done and reduced down, they both add the SAME things, ferts.......... one starts low, the other starts high and then is moved to suit.


Thank you very much for the comparisons. How much more PO4 would you suggest adding for starters? I was quite surprised at the low amount of PO4 to be added in relation to the other minerals.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

2in10 said:


> Thank you very much for the comparisons. How much more PO4 would you suggest adding for starters? I was quite surprised at the low amount of PO4 to be added in relation to the other minerals.


I dose 5ppm 3x a week, of course as stated, this is non limiting.....but also does not harm, but I seem to be able to grow more species and have larger crowns and better plants than many.

The target is about 0.1ppm for PPS, which is the same as PMDD 8 years before it. 

Some do not like GSA which is associated with lower PO4. Some folks add PO4 and get BBA, this is because the CO2 was limiting. If they limited PO4 stronger than the CO2....then they do not get BBA. 

Still, the issue was the PO4 and CO2 are not independent, so when non limiting PO4 is added, it highlights their methods and shows they have inadequate CO2. Some do not wish to resolve that horticultural issue, instead, they want to "believe" it's the PO4 fault.

The falsification of this "belief" is the fact I and many others dose PO4 in the 2-5ppm range often........without BBA and have good CO2.

I would add enough PO4 to target at least .4ppm per dose. Maybe more.
My own tanks:









I've sold a few thousand dollar's worth of Starougyne , bred 6 species......raised many shrimp etc in this tank, no algae in 5+ years now.
Pretty simple approach. 

I would suggest you read this also for daily dosing:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/pmdd-tim.html

Do not mix Fe and PO4 together in solution.

I tend to tell folks to focus more on usign LESS light and careful metered control of CO2, then..........they can easily work with nutrients without dependent factors.

Then nutrients are pretty easy. 

A good article there on light/CO2:
http://www.tropica.com/advising/technical-articles/biology-of-aquatic-plants/co2-and-light.aspx

Read those two really carefully and well, make sure you understand the figures.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Thank you very much Tom, great reads indeed.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

After reading and re-reading the the pages Tom linked to and reading the ideas behind PPS-Pro and the EI method I decide to go with the EI method but at half dose for starters. I may make liquid mixes and dose that way or even go to daily dosing if it is warranted.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I suggest liquid dosing. It's way more versatile. I have it in little pump bottles like those fancy high end ferts. If I need more macro I add an extra pump etc. The only problem is that when you're tweaking ferts you have to make a whole new solution. I have 5 one gallon jugs of "0 phos, hi K", "lo nitrate, hi phos hi K", " 0 nitrate, hi phos, med K" and so forth.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

I figured I would mix the ferts in with the top off water in the morning to start until I find out what works.


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