[michaelxbarton]

who has used it? i should get mine in tmrw. are there any pros and cons

 

[Centromochlus]

Pros - It's awesome.
Cons - It's too awesome for some people.

Haha but really, i'm using it in my 60P and only the real disadvantage is the huge ammonia spike right after you fill your tank... although this isn't anything new compared to other ADA substrates. The New Amazonia doesn't tend to cloud your water as much when disturbed, which is a huge advantage. Clouding the water was a huge problem with the Amazonia II.

 

[sampster5000]

Its great for a brand new tank. Especially for a brand new planted tank. I used it to cycle my new 20 gallon. It works great because you dont have to use fish to cycle and it happens very quickly. It will not cloud if you put it in the tank and then fill the tank up with water. Use a plate or something flat to direct the water flow to so there is no disturbance of the soil which causing the clouding. My tank was crystal clear from fill up to now (2 1/2 months).

But the true reason I am using it is for the slight pH lowering and the softening.

 

[michaelxbarton]

so you are saying this will cycle my tank? can i put plants in a few days after?

 

[jcgd]

so you are saying this will cycle my tank? can i put plants in a few days after?

You can put in plants straight away if you feel like it. It'll take a month or so to cycle for fish.

 

[michaelxbarton]

You can put in plants straight away if you feel like it. It'll take a month or so to cycle for fish.

oh cool. i get my light and substrate tmrw, and my filter wednesday

 

[rockwood]

What would be your recommendations for a switch from Eco-Complete to this new AS with an already up and running planted tank with several species of fish?

 

[jcgd]

I don't really know what you could do besides cycle the AS on its own in a bucket or something. The ammonia is going to spike if you add it to your tank. If you can move the fish, do that and the established tank/ filter should bring things back to normal pretty quick.

 

[sampster5000]

When I add aquasoil to an existing tank with inhabitants I slowly add it over time instead of the whole bag at once. Should act just like overfeeding.

 

[madness]

Frequent water changes can help knock down the initial ammonia spike so I would imagine that if you soaked it in water outside of the tank and changed water frequently you could dilute out the majority of the initial ammonia that is released.

If you have a fully cycled tank and you have plants in it that should help even more.

I would still be nervous (and careful) when adding it to a tank with inhabitants though.

 

[Lesley]

Hearing allot about this new substrate....... Where can it be purchased?

 

[michaelxbarton]

i got it from here

http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76_12_21&zenid=nbcs0sr8q4qvisn78o2ipmkgg2

 

[plantbrain]

As far as I can tell, it's behaves like the old ADA AS amazonia type 1.

Not too much changed, which is good.

 

[Yuri]

So far I noticed it cleared up in a couple of days, as supposed to a week if i remember correctly with the type 2 AS. But that might be cos I know a little more now and I didnt keep rearranging my aquascape. It might also be cos I used half of the old media from the previous tank and put it in with the new filter. Mmm.... cant really say for sure. Either way, I still like it a lot!

 

[Danimals]

Could you just toss this into an empty tank with a cycled filter from another tank and let it sit for about a week or so?

 

[IWANNAGOFAST]

I used the new mixed type, I like it, nice grain size. I spoke w/ the owner of aqua forest, he told me the mixed type is limited edition and they won't be making anymore once the current batch runs out

 

[Francis Xavier]

@Danimals,

Yes. I'd still measure for ammonia at the end of the week.

 

[GeToChKn]

Ya, it can leech for a while and adding an established filter, wc's, etc aren't going to hasten up the leeching really. Its just going to help convert the ammonia to nitrite then nitrates, but the ammonia is going to leech until its exhausted. You can WC everyday and bring it from 4ppm down to 0.5ppm and the next day its back up to 4ppm as it keep leeching.

 

[IWANNAGOFAST]

I was watching the ADAview videos on youtube, they add amanos and SAE's on the 4th day of planting using new AS.

 

[GeToChKn]

I was watching the ADAview videos on youtube, they add amanos and SAE's on the 4th day of planting using new AS.

The only thing I think that really saves it is that the ammonia gets converted to ammonium at a lower pH because of the free hydrogen atoms in the acidic water, and that in turn turns the ammonia into a non toxic form. Most things I've read is that it takes anywhere from a few weeks to a month or more to finish leeching depending on the depth of the substrate. The other thing is that its a ammonia like substance that still tests positive on our test kits but isn't harmful. Not sure, I'm setting a tank for shrimp using Netlea soil and its been leeching and steady at 4ppm for 2.5 weeks so far but I have some tester shrimp in there that are doing fine, so I dunno. lol. I'm also running a bag of purigen in my filter that neutralizes ammonia as well so that could be doing it. Either way, no shrimp losses in a high ammonia reading but the liquid test kits we use really rest for ammonia/ammonium and can't tell the difference.