[zxc]

Need some advise. I has order some New Amazonia substrate for my CRS/CBS. Does the substrate need to wash before it goes in the tank?
how to prepare it?:help:
should I add liquid bacterial to speed up cycling or use existing filter to seed it?
ty

 

[madness]

Need some advise. I has order some New Amazonia substrate for my CRS/CBS. Does the substrate need to wash before it goes in the tank?
how to prepare it?:help:
should I add liquid bacterial to speed up cycling or use existing filter to seed it?
ty

The bag directs that you NOT rinse the soil before putting it in.

Just cover the substrate with something before you slowly add water in order to limit the cloudiness a little bit.

Using a seeded filter is a good idea to help speed up the cycle.

There is a lot of ammonia that will be released (in order to help the tank cycle) so you will want to avoid adding any fish/inverts until the ammonia levels drop.

Adding a lot of plant mass and/or doing water changes can help get rid of the ammonia more quickly.

 

[GDP]

The bag directs that you NOT rinse the soil before putting it in.

Just cover the substrate with something before you slowly add water in order to limit the cloudiness a little bit.

Using a seeded filter is a good idea to help speed up the cycle.

There is a lot of ammonia that will be released (in order to help the tank cycle) so you will want to avoid adding any fish/inverts until the ammonia levels drop.

Adding a lot of plant mass and/or doing water changes can help get rid of the ammonia more quickly.

Well this isnt recomended unless you really know what you are doing, or if you have balls of steel or brass. But aquasoil will lower the PH and render ammonia into ammonium. Which is harmless to inverts/fish. So long as your PH is buffered down to 6.5 or below it seems.

I just did this with my CRS, all but 2 made it, and those two were just shipped so were already under a lot of stress. But note I also already had a lot of seeded material and filters in that tank too.

Dont wash the soil before adding it, just add it. And yeah you can add say terta safe start and it should speed up the cycle a little bit. As a side note, wait 24 hours AFTER adding water to the tank, and dont add any other chemicals or water changes for at least a week after adding the bacteria.

 

[mordalphus]

ammonium is relatively harmless, but when the nitrification begins to happen, the resulting NITRITE is not harmless, so it's not a good idea either way. Wait for the cycle to finish.

 

[somewhatshocked]

+1 mordalphus.

Do NOT add critters to your tank until the cycle is complete with Aqua Soil. It's usually a cruel disaster waiting to happen. I've had AS with ammonia/nitrite spikes so high it scared me in the first week.

 

[GDP]

ammonium is relatively harmless, but when the nitrification begins to happen, the resulting NITRITE is not harmless, so it's not a good idea either way. Wait for the cycle to finish.

I thought about mentioning that as well. But for me, like I was saying I had a lot of seeded material so already had the bacteria to handle the resulting nitrite. And I should have said for all intents and purposes ammonium is harmless. Anything is super high concentrations will be harmful.

 

[madness]

For those who have the time and the available seeded filter media and plant mass available is there any reason to do the additional water changes to bring the ammonia down? I was planning on just letting the biological filtration and the plants take care of all of the initial ammonia.

Other than speeding up the process is there any reason that I shouldn't let all of the ammonia be handled 'naturally?'

 

[zxc]

i was planning to put some amazon frogbit/ flame moss and pelia. is it a good plant to add in?

 

[madness]

i was planning to put some amazon frogbit/ flame moss and pelia. is it a good plant to add in?

Amazon frogbit is GREAT for sucking up nutrients and also great at blocking out some of the light in the tank (which will in turn give the algae less light to use to grow and spread).

Shrimp seem love the long roots of the Amazon Frogbit. Moss and pellia are also good for shrimp tanks.

The adults will pick debris out of the moss and/or pellia and the babies will hide there and feed off of the micro-whatever that colonizes the clumps of moss and/or pellia.