[alexopolus]

Yesterday I added amazonian soil to already stablished tank!
This morning I noticed my nitrite raised a bit, and tonight I have
green water and my amonia level is also high! What I have done?

 

[CL]

Haven't you read about the ammonia spike that aquasoil causes? I recommend some decent sized water changes.

 

[alexopolus]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Thanks for the info!
Learning the hard way!

 

[CL]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Thanks for the info!
Learning the hard way!

Don't we all learn that way?

 

[alexopolus]

I think so!
Just made a 60% water change!
Believe me, I got use to the water change! Have done so many in the last 3 weeks ( trying to lower my phosphate! that also seems to be a never ending chalenge! ).
Amonia level now is barely .25 (used a lot of PRIME for the nitrite and amonia detox).
Besides the amonia mess and allmost killing the fish (no dead!) my plants look GREAT! My tiger lotus and anubias alomst doubled on size!

 

[Philosophos]

The easiest way to handle the entire thing really is 50% water changes every couple of days. I'm not sure what ADA was thinking when they loaded the soil with NH4; it only makes for bigger algae issues rather than just skipping the cycle entirely with high plant density and N from NO3.

-Philosophos

 

[illumnae]

I did the same, topped up a small amount of amazonia powder into my 13gal tank so that I would have slightly more slope. The amount I put in was rather small, less than 100ml worth.

I had a massive green water attack that would not go away even after 2-3 60% water changes per week for a month. I stopped all dosing (and plants STILL grew like mad) in this time period and still the green water wouldn't go away.

Finally after 6 weeks and a weekend worth of UV treatment later, I finally have clear water again.

This is really a horrible experience with ADA and I'll never use this substrate again. I've never had such problems when topping up soil of another brand that provides equivalent plant growth as ADA.

 

[alexopolus]

did another 25% this morning! before the water change my ammonia level was almost 0!
but my nitrite is still high and nitrate is lower than nitrite?
Learning the hard way!!! (feels like ADA knock me down with the sack)