Cycling Aquasoil with Prime

1132 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by tlriot, Oct 25, 2016

tlriot

Discussion Starter · Oct 21, 2016

I've been planning a new tank and decided on Aquasoil for the easy cycling opportunity, and was going to do the usual routine of daily WC for the first week, every other day second week, etc. But I was also planning on using Prime in the tank.

My concern is with the ammonia readings using Prime. While cycling should I use a more basic water conditioner so I can get more reliable readings until I get to 0.0ppm? I don't really just say screw testing and trust the month plan, since this is my first time using Aquasoil and it's been a while in this hobby.

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roadmaster

· #2 · Oct 21, 2016

Never hurt's to use PRIME at water change if water going back into the tank is treated with chloramine.
If water going back into the tank is only treated with chlorine from treatment plant then basic water conditioner would be fine.
Aquasoil will produce ammonia as well as untreated chloramine and that plus possibly too much light,would/could give algae a great opportunity hence the suggested water changes with the AS.
I would just treat water change(s) as though I had fishes present along with as many plant's as I could fit in the tank.
Would be stingy with the lighting period as soon as the soil got wet.
maybe would have straight six hour photoperiod for first 6 to 8 week's.

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tlriot

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 22, 2016

roadmaster said:
Never hurt's to use PRIME at water change if water going back into the tank is treated with chloramine.
If water going back into the tank is only treated with chlorine from treatment plant then basic water conditioner would be fine.
Aquasoil will produce ammonia as well as untreated chloramine and that plus possibly too much light,would/could give algae a great opportunity hence the suggested water changes with the AS.
I would just treat water change(s) as though I had fishes present along with as many plant's as I could fit in the tank.
Would be stingy with the lighting period as soon as the soil got wet.
maybe would have straight six hour photoperiod for first 6 to 8 week's.

Thank you. I guess I'm worried about getting a false positive with my test kit and not knowing when it is cycled and safe to add stock.

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Smooch

· #4 · Oct 23, 2016

tlriot said:
Thank you. I guess I'm worried about getting a false positive with my test kit and not knowing when it is cycled and safe to add stock.

This is a valid concern. Since there are no fish involved, I'd use a basic water conditioner and go about cycling as usual.

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bigbadjon

· #5 · Oct 24, 2016

Prime doesn't remove ammonia it just binds it in a nontoxic form for a period of time. So your test should still be accurate.

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tlriot

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 25, 2016

bigbadjon said:
Prime doesn't remove ammonia it just binds it in a nontoxic form for a period of time. So your test should still be accurate.

Most tests still read for the non-toxic form of ammonia so the readings can still give a false positive from what I understand.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

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