Adding aquasoil to active tank

[NWA-Planted]

I have a running shrimp tank at my office and have been looking at going to aquasoil for the substrate due to it's buffering ability... However it also has the issue of leeching ammonia, can i add it to this tank / swap out the substrate with the shrimp in there or should i remove The shrimp or cycle the soil in a different tank?

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[UDGags]

Safest would be to remove shrimp, add AS, cycle tank and add shrimp back.

If you cycle in another you probably will have small spikes for stirring up the soil.

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[NWA-Planted]

Kinda figured, what about the fluval shrimp strata does it do the same thing?

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[UDGags]

No idea

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[xmas_one]

I swapped out eco-complete for fluval shrimp stratum with no deaths in a tank full of crs. Use a tube to vacuum out the old substrate so that you don't stir up a huge cloud of crap scooping it out. This method is not ideal, but it worked for me.

[NWA-Planted]

Originally Posted by xmas_one

I swapped out eco-complete for fluval shrimp stratum with no deaths in a tank full of crs. Use a tube to vacuum out the old substrate so that you don't stir up a huge cloud of crap scooping it out. This method is not ideal, but it worked for me.

May just go with fluval then.

Oh Yea did a substrate swap on a 125 gallon that way

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[NWA-Planted]

Would it maybe be ok if i added a little at a time ? That way my current bacteria would be able to prevent any bad spikes thats if i went ada

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[xmas_one]

Originally Posted by NWA-Planted

Would it maybe be ok if i added a little at a time ? That way my current bacteria would be able to prevent any bad spikes thats if i went ada

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Yeah it would. I missed that part in my description. I did this in a 50 gallon tank with 4 of the big bags of FSS. If I remember right I did one bag every other day. Don't even try it with aquasoil, you're asking for a disaster, there is a ridiculous amount of ammonia in it.

[dhgyello04]

So far what I am doing is working out well. I am in the process of cycling my new ADA AS in my CBS tank. I have my CBS in a 5 gallon bucket with a clip on fan, small heater, sponge filter, a clip on light, and a ton of mosses. I do my regular wc each week and daily top of with straight RO. I am into week 3 or 4 (I can’t remember) and no problems. This way you can let the ammonia run it’s course.

[NWA-Planted]

So really the only/best way to do aquasoil is basically empty tank start.

Just trying to get my water down a smidge, my crs do fine in my tap just don't breed a lot, and no surviving offspring, however in my 10 gallon they were berried more readily, i think it had to do with the ton of driftwood in that tank,ph was probably lower.

Decisions decisions

For people that have used fss, good luck with it

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[aznrice247]

FSS doesn't leech ammonia or have any nutrients. Its just plain old dirt baked into little balls.

[TetraFan]

So... along the same lines, if you are simply adding in extra substrate to your tank, it shouldn't be a problem? I have a 50gal that has been going for 5 months with the current substrate, and I just want to put a bit more in.