I am thinking of removing my ADA soil without having to remove my fishes. Is it possible to siphon the soil with a large hose so that I can minimise the impact. I am getting frustrated with the amount of debris on my plants and no amount of cleaning with a siphon pipe seems to reduce it. My soil is already 1 1/2 years old, which is also close to its expiry date.
Your fish will suffer still. Moreover you will add me substrate right? Would be difficult for the fishes when you add the new substrate.Originally Posted by Jungle-mania
But strange that you have debris on your plants. What did you do to the substrate in the first place? Also, maybe your filteration is not powerful enough.
I am not sure about the filtration, it is a pretty powerful unit at 650l/hr for a 2 footer and I have already cropped my plants down to half the tank height or less. So I am pretty sure circulation is pretty good. Plus I never ever touch the substrate.
Oh... Can I ask the state of your ADA soil when you first bought it?
Is the packet damp or dry inside? You should see water droplets in the packaging. If it is dry, is might have caused the early crumbling of the soil which is causing the constant debris floating around.
I understand from one ADA user regarding this point about expired/dried out ADA soil.
But then again, I might be wrong. Just postulating.
Last edited by valice; 9th May 2007 at 12:37.
I have heard of people using ADA soild for more than 2 to 3 years, however I have also seen people taking out their ADA soil after 1.5 years and wash it, Dry it and then reuse. The trick is not to let the ADA soil completely dry up when you clean them when introducing them back to the tank.
I will ponder on what you all have said, sounds alot of work to me. I might just change to aquagravel with fert tabs for convenience.
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Not that I've used ADA before but I've seen it disintergrate to a complete muck of a mess in a mature tank (give or take, probably 1 1/2 - 2 years old)
I'm wondering how do you wash something that already disintergrated?
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I have used my ADA soil for over 2 years and do not find the need to replace it. It's probaly because I still fertilise it with liquid fertilisers regularly.
But I have removed and tranferred red sea soil before (without fishes) in it. After transferring it to a bucket, I gently wash it through running water - like panning gold, transferring it to another bucket, then running water through it again. The key is to use as little hand contact as possible, subjecting the soil to as little pressure/abrassion as possible, so it does not break up.
I think I will just change the soil to aquagravel when my leave comes about and hope for the best.
Don't mind me asking... what's aquagravel? What's the color? And where do you buy it?
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
I've just started using ADA, therefore hasn't reached the stage of having it breakind down as yet. But what concluded my decision on using ADA was the advise given by NA and other lfs. Mr Chan told me that if I don't 'play' around with the substrate too much, there are feedbacks that ADA can last till as long as 5yrs. Secondly, just before it break down to the muddy patch. It would become like small pellets and we should be able to easily suck it up using a gravel cleaner.
I do hope that he hasn't pulled a fast one one me....
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