Perpetual Preservation System

For those that love an intimate technical understanding of the daily nutrient uptake rates of their aquariums; one of the most sophisticated dosing strategies is the Perpetual Preservation System.    Popularized by Edward on the APC forums, Edward has taken a lot of the emersed growth science of hydroponics and applied those theories to the submersed growth of aquatic plants.

The power behind the PPS system is the fundamental concept that not all aquariums are identical.  Not all aquariums are technologically the same; i.e. they do not all utilize the same configuration of hardware and equipment.  Not all water chemistry is the same; some individuals have hard water, some individuals have soft water.  Furthermore, some aquariums are densely planted, some aquariums are sparsely planted.  Some aquariums have a heavy biological fish load, some have a light biological fish load.  All of these factors make a one-size fits all approach challenging at best, or at least not an optimal balance.  Thus the Perpetual Preservation System seeks to adjust a variety of nutrient levels independently to achieve a targeted optimal level.

 The PPS system recommends the creation of five nutrient dosing solutions that are each individually dosed to adjust the ratios of various nutrients as close as possible to the PPS optimal targets.  These five solutions are:

SS        Standard Solution
PF        Phosphate Free Solution
NF       Nitrate Free Solution
MG      Magnesium Solution
TE       Trace Element Solution

An excellent dosing calculator is provided in the form of a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet.  And quite a library exists of documents and spreadsheets to assist in your daily water tests and the daily calculations on how much of various solutions should be dosed.

You can read more about the Perpetual Preservation System at http://www.AquaticPlantNews.com/pps.htm