I just flooded my tank after a one month dry start. The tank has a fairly thick HC carpet, 20-30 stems of s. repens and a small amount of blyxa japonica. I seeded my filter, an Eheim 2232 with a bit of ceramic biomedia taken from the filter of a cycled 5 gallon tank.

Here's a full tank shot before the flood to give a general idea of the biomass:



I've read that new amazonia leaches amonia into the water column when it is first introduced into an aquarium, and that the amount of amonia being given off by the substrate decreases with time. However, I'm reading 0 amonia 24 hours after the flood. I was expecting a large spike, followed by a continually decreasing discharge.

Since the amazonia didn't leach any amonia after the initial flood, is it reasonable to assume that I won't end up with a large spike down the road? I'd like to add my fish to the tank, but am concerned about am amonia spike from the soil.

I'm not planning on doing a cycle in the traditional sense. It's a 12 gallon tank and the only livestock will be one betta. Given the small bioload, I can manage amonia/nitrites generated by the betta with water changes. A huge spike from the amazonia would make this plan infeasible, of course.


Journal thread with more pictures: https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=554650

likely you won't have an NH4 spike, but I would monitor for the next couple of weeks just to make sure before adding fauna.

nice scape.

i too have had this happen to me. i have set up 4 tanks now with AS. A few with the dry start and a few without.

the duration of the cycle was different for every set up.

BUT for the few that i dry started, there was a drastically shorter overall cycle time. The shortest being a week for the ammonia to stop registering.

My advise it to just be patient. Keep testing for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates a couple times a day.