Aquasoil clouding water

BlackRapids · 03-05-2009, 06:33 PM

Hey I'm new to the hobby and I recently just replaced my old gravel for some aquasoil amazonia that I bought online. I added the soil and a large piece of petrified wood yesterday and this morning it was totally clouded up, when it was mostly clear yesterday.

It's been about 8 hours since I first noticed the extremely clouding, and no change. I could just do mad water changes, but i'm afriad of losing some of the nutrients and stuff from the soil.

The tank is a 5.5 gallon planted nano tank, with a ghost shrimp, 6 neon tetras, and an oto. Only about 3 plants right now. Using a red sea nano filter, C02 tablets, ferts, and a small 25w heater.

So all this considered, what should I do? Wait it out? Change the water? Thanks in advance

~Ben

**cah925** · 03-05-2009, 07:24 PM

This is just a dust cloud, no nutrients will be lost. It happens sometimes. I had the problem with loaches constantly digging around in the soil, but your problem may come from the filter stirring things up. I would be carful changing too much water too often. Try putting some fine filter media in your filter and let the filter do the work.

**epicfish** · 03-05-2009, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackRapids

Hey I'm new to the hobby and I recently just replaced my old gravel for some aquasoil amazonia that I bought online. I added the soil and a large piece of petrified wood yesterday and this morning it was totally clouded up, when it was mostly clear yesterday.

It's been about 8 hours since I first noticed the extremely clouding, and no change. I could just do mad water changes, but i'm afriad of losing some of the nutrients and stuff from the soil.

The tank is a 5.5 gallon planted nano tank, with a ghost shrimp, 6 neon tetras, and an oto. Only about 3 plants right now. Using a red sea nano filter, C02 tablets, ferts, and a small 25w heater.

So all this considered, what should I do? Wait it out? Change the water? Thanks in advance

~Ben

Did you cycle the soil or did you just add it yesterday?

ADA AS I or ADA AS II? Either will leech ammonia and nitrates into the water. ADA AS I leeches a bit more...or that's what I've read.

You should go through a proper cycle of the soil before you add any livestock.

Avi · 03-05-2009, 08:18 PM

I tried that substrate and it clouded the water with such intensity that even after a month of heavy filtration I wasn't able to make a dent in it. The tank water was colored a reddish-brown that was so dense that I couldn't see into it and I finally gave up and replaced it with Eco-Complete. I hadn't added any fish and just ran two canister filters. I have to believe that there was something wrong with the batch that I got but it was uncorrectable and I had to give up on it. Most likely, though, you're will settle in over a short period of time and you'll have clear water again.

ex225 · 03-06-2009, 02:11 AM

BlackRapids,

I'm not sure what kind of cloudiness it is exactly that you are experiencing but here's a thread I posted about my problems with Aquasoil:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ge...-aquasoil.html

There's a lot of helpful information in there and great replies from members of this forum. If the cloudiness you're having is not the type that I had, I'm sure it should clear up within a few days - maybe try doing some 20% water changes daily. I wouldn't worry too much about losing nutrients. If the aquasoil is leaching ammonia is probably better to lose a few nutrients and get rid of the ammonia than leave it all in.

If the cloudiness you have IS like what I had, then here's a few things I've learned:
1) keep up with water changes. I did about 30-50% water cahnges daily for about a week and this helped a lot
2) turned down my filter because I found that the extra flow was causing the dust to stay suspended in the water and settle on my plants
3) i used some small airline tubing to vacuum up some of the dust that settled on the plants, rocks, and substrate. Without trying to kick up too much dust, I used a little straw to kick up some of the settled dust and had the tubing right next to it to suck up as much of the dust as I could.
4) besides water changing, what helped the most was changing out my filter floss often. The red sea nano filter doesn't really perform that great when it comes to cleaning out the massive cloudiness that I experienced. I saw that the white floss filter it came with got dark brown very quickly and when I squeezed it out, a lot of dirt came out. I went out and bought a large pack of filter floss and just stuffed a little in there at a time and it helped to clear things right up.
5) most of all, it will just require a little patience. I know for me it felt so hopeless and discouraging to see my first planted tank go through such hard times and I had thoughts of giving up on the hobby but it cleared up sooner than I thought (it was like a 2 week ordeal at most), and I was back to scaping, trimming, cleaning things up, and of course enjoying watching my little cories haha.

Well I hope all this helps, and your tank gets over this small hurdle quickly.

ex225 · 03-06-2009, 02:15 AM

Oh I forgot to mention another thing. I just noticed that you said your tank is newly set up.

When I first set up my tank, I had the same brown-grayish cloudiness that I think you're talking about. I used a spare Aquaclear 20 filter off of my brother's goldfish tank to begin cycling my nano and I think the extra flow and filter power provided by this filter helped to clear up the cloudiness within a couple days. If you have access to anything other than the red sea I'd try to use that as well.

Jdub777 · 03-07-2009, 03:41 PM

I had cloudiness using it too, but after a few days it cleared up some, then after my firts water change the tank is crystal clear. My filtration is somewhat oversized, maybe that was my deal. Might want ot use another filter for some quick polishing up of thewater.

03-05-2009, 06:33 PM	#1
BlackRapids Newbie (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0/0%) Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 3	Aquasoil clouding water Hey I'm new to the hobby and I recently just replaced my old gravel for some aquasoil amazonia that I bought online. I added the soil and a large piece of petrified wood yesterday and this morning it was totally clouded up, when it was mostly clear yesterday. It's been about 8 hours since I first noticed the extremely clouding, and no change. I could just do mad water changes, but i'm afriad of losing some of the nutrients and stuff from the soil. The tank is a 5.5 gallon planted nano tank, with a ghost shrimp, 6 neon tetras, and an oto. Only about 3 plants right now. Using a red sea nano filter, C02 tablets, ferts, and a small 25w heater. So all this considered, what should I do? Wait it out? Change the water? Thanks in advance ~Ben

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03-05-2009, 07:24 PM	#2
cah925 Fear the Swamp! (View User Tanks) PTrader: (163/100%) Join Date: May 2007 Location: Riverview, FL Posts: 2,378	This is just a dust cloud, no nutrients will be lost. It happens sometimes. I had the problem with loaches constantly digging around in the soil, but your problem may come from the filter stirring things up. I would be carful changing too much water too often. Try putting some fine filter media in your filter and let the filter do the work.

03-05-2009, 08:18 PM	#4
Avi Planted Tank Obsessed (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0/0%) Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Westchester County, NY Posts: 405	I tried that substrate and it clouded the water with such intensity that even after a month of heavy filtration I wasn't able to make a dent in it. The tank water was colored a reddish-brown that was so dense that I couldn't see into it and I finally gave up and replaced it with Eco-Complete. I hadn't added any fish and just ran two canister filters. I have to believe that there was something wrong with the batch that I got but it was uncorrectable and I had to give up on it. Most likely, though, you're will settle in over a short period of time and you'll have clear water again.

03-06-2009, 02:11 AM	#5
ex225 Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0/0%) Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Virgina Posts: 57	BlackRapids, I'm not sure what kind of cloudiness it is exactly that you are experiencing but here's a thread I posted about my problems with Aquasoil: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ge...-aquasoil.html There's a lot of helpful information in there and great replies from members of this forum. If the cloudiness you're having is not the type that I had, I'm sure it should clear up within a few days - maybe try doing some 20% water changes daily. I wouldn't worry too much about losing nutrients. If the aquasoil is leaching ammonia is probably better to lose a few nutrients and get rid of the ammonia than leave it all in. If the cloudiness you have IS like what I had, then here's a few things I've learned: 1) keep up with water changes. I did about 30-50% water cahnges daily for about a week and this helped a lot 2) turned down my filter because I found that the extra flow was causing the dust to stay suspended in the water and settle on my plants 3) i used some small airline tubing to vacuum up some of the dust that settled on the plants, rocks, and substrate. Without trying to kick up too much dust, I used a little straw to kick up some of the settled dust and had the tubing right next to it to suck up as much of the dust as I could. 4) besides water changing, what helped the most was changing out my filter floss often. The red sea nano filter doesn't really perform that great when it comes to cleaning out the massive cloudiness that I experienced. I saw that the white floss filter it came with got dark brown very quickly and when I squeezed it out, a lot of dirt came out. I went out and bought a large pack of filter floss and just stuffed a little in there at a time and it helped to clear things right up. 5) most of all, it will just require a little patience. I know for me it felt so hopeless and discouraging to see my first planted tank go through such hard times and I had thoughts of giving up on the hobby but it cleared up sooner than I thought (it was like a 2 week ordeal at most), and I was back to scaping, trimming, cleaning things up, and of course enjoying watching my little cories haha. Well I hope all this helps, and your tank gets over this small hurdle quickly.

03-06-2009, 02:15 AM	#6
ex225 Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0/0%) Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Virgina Posts: 57	Oh I forgot to mention another thing. I just noticed that you said your tank is newly set up. When I first set up my tank, I had the same brown-grayish cloudiness that I think you're talking about. I used a spare Aquaclear 20 filter off of my brother's goldfish tank to begin cycling my nano and I think the extra flow and filter power provided by this filter helped to clear up the cloudiness within a couple days. If you have access to anything other than the red sea I'd try to use that as well.

03-07-2009, 03:41 PM	#7
Jdub777 Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0/0%) Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Boston,Ma Posts: 149	I had cloudiness using it too, but after a few days it cleared up some, then after my firts water change the tank is crystal clear. My filtration is somewhat oversized, maybe that was my deal. Might want ot use another filter for some quick polishing up of thewater.