Help with ADA Aquasoil

[luenny]

Hi all,
I am planning to rescape my tank with ADA Aquasoil but I heard a lot of people complaining that the water turn cloudy at the initial stage and I also heard that you need to do a lot of water change during the first few weeks.

Can anybody here who have experience ADA Aquasoil before advise on how to properly setup a tank with ADA Aquasoil and cycle it? How long do I need to cycle before putting in shrimps and fishes? I also heard initially it will have a lot of ammonia, can I put plants into the tank at this stage or should I wait for a while before putting in plants? Also, do I need base fert if I just want to grow japan hair grass? Thanks in advance.

Luenny

[|squee|]

If you fill up water very slowly and patiently and properly, you won't face the cloudy problem. In fact the tank will be clearer than you expect.

I've only done 50% weekly water changes with Aquasoil at any stage.

First add a thin layer of peat moss if you can find them, on the tank base. Next add a little dirty water from another tank/bottled bacteria, just pour it in on top of the peat moss.

Now open up the Aquasoil bag and gently pour it into the tank, layering it out as you go. Slope from front to back high. Put in your driftwood/stones at this stage.

Now using the Aquasoil bag, lay it spread out on a flat portion of the substrate bed and then direct a gentle water flow on the centre of the bag. Be patient. Let the water fill up so that it just covers the substrate. At this point you will have some floating Aquasoil particles; just touch them and they will sink.

Now remove the bag and plant in the plants*. The wet substrate will help in holding the plants down easily. After that, put the bag in again and direct water flow the same way so that you fill up the entire tank.

*Planting needs to be heavy. Plant enough such that it looks like the picture below:

I'm not kidding! It's a newly set up tank, the way ADA does it. This takes care of the ammonia problem because of all the high plant density right from the start.

I cycle for 1 month, or until the water is clear. Usually I add in fishes at the 3rd week, and shrimps a week later. Otos are usually the first fish I add. However ADA says look at plant health and water clarity and judge for yourself.

Imho you do not need base fertiliser... Aquasoil is potent enough.

A note to take of: Those people probably faced cloudy issues because of impatient blasting of water onto the substrate/filling the tank up to the brim before planting(makes things so much messy)/messed up the substrate in some way or another.

[eddyq]

I second what Squee mentioned and since you are going to rescape it help alot if you use back the canister 'old' water, (don't wash it). This help start-up bacteria to combat ammonia beside the heavy plantings. Can also use active carbon (use for 2 weeks).

I have try this with clear water from day one. (1.5ft tank) And no fishes/shrimps for at least 2-3 weeks.

Good luck.

[Ssur]

Hi,

Practise the above as stated by the rest, and yes plant heavily that would speed up the cycling process.

IMO, some pple get very cloudy water not because of disturbed/spashing of the aquasoil. As for my case, i looked at the aquasoil closely, and notice that some of the soil "pellet" are cracked or opened up. Inside is a brownish powder like substance, thats what made my tank very very cloudy. It could be that some of the soil in the bag was already crushed(due to mishandling etc), before it was in the tank.

So the thing is, just be patient.

[Goondoo]

Hi,

Practise the above as stated by the rest, and yes plant heavily that would speed up the cycling process.

IMO, some pple get very cloudy water not because of disturbed/spashing of the aquasoil. As for my case, i looked at the aquasoil closely, and notice that some of the soil "pellet" are cracked or opened up. Inside is a brownish powder like substance, thats what made my tank very very cloudy. It could be that some of the soil in the bag was already crushed(due to mishandling etc), before it was in the tank.

So the thing is, just be patient.

I think another extremely important factor is the way we introduce water into the tank.
The last time i tried ADA, i realised it would be better to wet the gravel first by introducing small amount of water just enough to keep them damp. sprinkle over dry areas. Rest for a 1-2 hours before introducing more water using very slow water flow.
This will prevent the dry ADA and dust particles from floating up.

I still use the "plastic bag-to-hose" method to introduce water into the tank. So far, I would say very very effective.

[Justikanz]

Eh... What about adding more soil AFTER the water had been filled?...

[AquaObsession]

You put ADA soil, add your hardscape and add water very very slowly for you to be able to plant. Just gently touch down the "pellets" that float. Let it rest a while, if you have DW with ferns on them, keep moistering them. Then you fill again to the top very very slowly.

You might get a greenish tint in first week or so, what i usually do to overcome that is , DO NOTHING. It will go by itself. I recall someone saying this is because adasoil contains a bit of ammonia, that is why we have this in early stage.

If you are patient, it will clear by itself with no water change. This is from my experience.

Regards
Christophe

[Justikanz]

Sorry, I mean is there any good methods to top up the ADA soil AFTER the tank had been up and running...

[Fei Miao]

I do this with lapis. think it would work with ADA soil also.

To top up ADA soil; pour some new soil in a tua huay container, fill it with water, strain off the dust particles and any cloudy water, top it with water again repeat few times till it reasonably clear. Slowly and carefully pour the soil in tua kuay on the substrate, do it as near to the exisiting substrate as possible. For certain hard to reach areas, do it it with hands.

[Justikanz]

Thanks, Miao!...

I was contemplating on buying a funnel! ... The tub is definite a much better idea...

[|squee|]

I added in new Aquasoil to existing Aquasoil before, however it was a very small amount. I noticed little problems; I simply poured the substrate in the filled tank handful by handful.

[StanChung]

From what I've done and experienced, turn off the pump if you do that. Less current to make Aquasoil particles from flying around.

If you made a mistake and created a plume of dust, place a gravel vacuum suction on one side and water in on another till the water is clear.

IME lighting should be no longer than 6 hours for the first month till the plants root and grow. If you use intense lighting/metal halides-4 hours.
Every two days from start you need to do a water change for the first week.
You can put the cleaning crew in after the first week.

Start dosing Brighty K or potassium equivalent from day 1.
I normally dose N and P and micros 2 -3 weeks later. Micros as well.

The CO2 fullblast all the way 30ppm of course.

[oblivion]

would anyone say i was ridiculous if i told you guys that after my tank was running and everything for a while, i top up soil using a spoon!

i off the pump n filter etc,
then for those planted areas that i wanted to add more soil to i used a spoon if you would believe it
gently scooped some soil and very slowly lower in the water to the spot and dump there
slowly lower is so that the soil won;t wash off my spoon while in the tank and drop all over the place

yes i really did that
spoon by spoon slowly

[StanChung]

Not at all. I used a bowl. Soaked it in water and lowered it gently and poured it where i wanted it without rinsing.

[Ibn]

Dang, you guys are being really careful with this stuff.

I just added 1/2 of a 9L bag into my 90 gallon (already 3.5 x 9L bags in there) altum tank. Took a lot of care with this tank so here's what I did....

1) Cut open the bag from the top, about half way across
2) Held bag above the tank
3) Pour half of the bag into the tank and tapered it down slightly near the front

Left the Eheim 2128 running the whole time and haven't experienced any problem whatsoever.

P.S. not the first time I've done this.

[GaspingGurami]

I just pour in what I need with fish, plants and filter running too. No problem with clouding -- after half an hour, all have settled, water is clear as before.

[luenny]

Hi all,
Thanks for all the replies. Really appreciate it. By the way, does anybody know where I can get peat moss? Can I use those sold in Far East Flora? Is it safe for shrimps and fishes or do I have to go to buy it from some LFS? Thanks again. Really appreciate it.

- Luenny-

[krabbie]

Question: Will Super Clear help to clear up the cloudy water in this case?

[StanChung]

Eric,

I had 6 months of on off cloudy water, hair algae+BBA because of handling it like sand! lol.
Be gentle!

[Ibn]

LOL. I haven't run into cloudy water at all from topping with this stuff. YMMV though according to your experience.

For peat moss, take a look at the garden center. They sell this stuff for ultra cheap there.