ADA Amazonia Ammonia/ph Question (not the typical question I hope)

[Gage'sAquariums]

Firstly I would like to say that I've read through the forum a bit and have seen some of the info I'm looking for but here I'm asking for personal experiences rather than a simple answer. I have a 50g aquarium newly set up with ADA Amazonia [ http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...696&highlight= ] and from what I've already gathered it lowers ph and releases relatively large amounts of ammonia for several weeks.

One question I have is; has anyone else had levels of very high nitrate and medium levels of nitrite within the first week in addition to the ammonia like I have? I'm talking upwards of 80ppm. The results show 6.2 ph, 8.0ppm Ammonia, 0.25ppm Nitrite, and 80ppm Nitrate.

Second, how low have you observed your ph dropping during the cycle and after the cycle did it increase again at all, if so how how high did it go before it topped out? I know that end results will vary depending on your location's water's hardness, I'd like to be able to estimate where I may end up once the tank is fully established so I can add the desired fish when the time comes.

Last, similar to the above, how long did you have ammonia readings after a water test?

Thanks ahead of time and thanks again for reading through all that, I did my best to condense the questions.

[GeToChKn]

Did you add a cycled filter to the tank? That 8ppm of ammonia has to go somewhere, and nitrates are the end result. Doing a few big water changes will help get them down, but as for the leeching of ammonia, it can take 3-8 weeks sometimes.

Ph with Amazonia should be around 6-6.5 in the end.

[Gage'sAquariums]

The filter running on the tank is not previously established. I'm planning on doing small-medium water changes so the ph doesn't rise too fast and increase the toxicity of the ammonia. Or will the substrate buffer the ph fast enough that the ammonia shouldn't be an issue?

Thanks for the response.

[exv152]

In one tank I had amazonia in, I noticed the pH went down to somewhere between 5 and 5.5. Even after the cycle was done the pH remained steady. In a separate setup, I added amazonia, driftwood and seiryu stones and it's buffered at about 6.2 probably because of the stones, this is also steady before and after cycling. And in both ammonia was around for about 3-4 weeks. Our tapwater comes out at 7.2 and settles at 6.8. Adding plants right from the getgo will help reduce the ammonia some.

[HD Blazingwolf]

ph on mine is 6.5-6.6 tap water is around 7.8
ammonia lasts about 3-4 weeks
8.0 ppm ammonia is toxic even at 6.0 ph
also u don't ave to find fish that need that low of ph. most fish can easily accept the ph difference. its consistnecy that matters the most.
all my fish went from 7.8 ph to ammazonia at 6.5 then down to 5.2 when co2 comes on

so the same fish i've been having have adjusted down 2.6 degrees of pH and are just as healthy...

[Gage'sAquariums]

Thanks to all for the info thus far and to HD Blazingwolf, that's some interesting info about your fish adjusting to such a low ph but yes I'm a firm believer that consistency is key.

[HD Blazingwolf]

TO BE MORE specific. KH/GH/ TDS are more influential changes than ph
KH is a primary water parameter whereas ph is a secondary. pH is directly influenced by KH and so are fish.

much the same as you can adjust to different oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and function properly