First Time Doing Soil Change..Long Post!! Part 1!

[azman_haron]

Hi

For the past few months, my PRL have not been multiplying as much. And even the shrimplets did nor survive more than a week. This is despite the fact that parameters were stable, although the PH has risen to 6.9. After eliminating other possible causes, I guessed that the high PH was a major contributing factor to the problem. And this in turn was probably because the soil, being more than a year old, had lost its buffering capability, causing the PH to rise from the initial 6.2 to 6.9

This is the first time that I am doing a soil change for my precious PRL…. and it was a nerve wracking experience for me. I was not sure if after doing it the PRL will survive. I read up as much as I could, sought advice via AQ forums and then jumped into it with my fingers crossed.

My plan was mainly as follows:

1 Cycle the soil in a pail for 2 weeks
2 Prepare a sponge filter by letting it run in the existing PRL tank. This sponge filter will be used when I temporarily housed my PRL later
3 Remove my PRL to a holding tank using the existing water
4 Remove the existing soil from the PRL tank
5 Place the new ADA Afrikana soil in the PRL tank
6 Add water and allow further cycling
7 Drip acclimatize the shrimps with the new water
8 Pray hard!!

The first thing I did was to decide what soil that was needed for my PRL to thrive. With minor variation, water with PH 6 seems highly recommended. With that in mind, I decided to go with ADA Afrikana soil as it buffers to PH 6, even though I do not like its colour. Looks too much like mud, compared to ADA Amazonia!!

Anyway, I bought it, brought it home, and started the cycling process. I placed the soil in a pail, filled it with water and ran an air tube in it. I had to do this because I do not have another tank with the same water parameters where I can temporarily house my PRL.

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I allowed to cycle for 11 days before I took the first reading of its parameters. I used API test strips, and it showed PH 6, NH2 = 0 and NH3 = 0. So I was ready for my next phase

At the same time, the sponge filter was allowed to run in the existing tank so that all the bacteria can have a chance to grow in it by the time I used it in the temporary holding tank

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After Day 11, I collected my PRL and placed them in my temporary tank, which is a nano 23X17X15 cm tank using the water from the tank. This temporary tank was then placed in another tank that is chilled to the same temperature, making sure that the top of this tank is well above the water line. The sponge filter was put in place and allowed to run.

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After this was done, the old tank was emptied, the soil removed and cleaned. The new ADA Afrikana was emptied from the pail to the tank, and new RO water added. The whole process took 45 minutes, which I hoped was quick enough so that the bacteria in the filter remained alive and healthy.

I then allowed the water to cycle again.

In the meantime, I was anxiously looking very often into the temporary tanks for my PRL. After 24 hours they were all still alive!!

(Continued..!)

[azman_haron]

(this is continuation from the earlier post)


At Day 14, I measure the water parameters again, this time using the API Master Test Kit. The result showed PH 6, and no traces of ammonia or NH3. I also raised the TDS to 100.

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So now it was time to reintroduce the shrimps into the tank.

I moved the nano tank with the PRL back into the main tank, and clipped it to the side, again keeping the top well above the water line. And then I began the acclimatization process. I dripped the new water into the nano tank at a rate of about 2 drops per second!!

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About 2 hours later, as the water lever in the nano tank almost reached the top, I emptied half of it, and resumed the acclimatization dripping process. I repeated this another two times!!

After this, I continued the drip acclimatization, but allowed the water to overflow into the main tank. The whole process took 24 hours!! All the shrimps were still alive and I was very relieved.

Feeling very nervous, I decided that it was time to allow the PRL into the main tank, and with that they were tipped over and given the freedom to roam around in the new, cycled tank.

For the next two days, I was anxiously checking the tank. There were no casualties. But on the third day, I saw one had died, and that got me worried. But over the next few days, there were no more casualties.

And the next day, I spotted two shrimplets!! It must have been berried while in the temporary tank and was born after the change!!! It will be a good test to see if I did the whole process correctly!! And that the shrimplets can survive past the first week

All in all it was a scary experience for me. But I hope all turns out well. And if there is anything you all can learn from this, all the better!

[Urban Aquaria]

That's a very well prepared and well planned process you did... great job on the successful soil change!