ADA2 soil on top of old sand

[sage08]

I've been growing my plants on inert sand based substrate for years now. Now i decided to use ADA2 soil. Can i just pour them on top of the sand?

[dna9179]

i got the same question too, but i remember some1 said it will casue ammonia spike and kill the fishes. but it still can be done with some trick. Hope some1 who done it can share with us

[jiiang]

I'm not sure about that, but I saw a person using the old ADA sand to set his new tank, and had no problem with that, but before doing that, he had to put all the previous ADA sand out to dry in the sun 2 or 3 days, ... he just plused the new power sand and Aquabase on the bottom . And I saw all his plans growing very well after a few weeks..

[dwarflala]

I filled ADA soil over lapis as I had some spare soil from a relative. Having an established heavy planted tank helps. With the ammonia spike, all I did was add prime and let the plants settle it. water change was 20% till the tank stablizes again.

Hope that helps?

[sage08]

Sound like a great idea. Thks guys.

[williamng]

It is ok to top up ADA soil on top of old ADA soil. I do not know whether it is worthwhile to top up ADA soil on top of lapis sand or some other since lapis sand is very cheap.

In future, if you want to reuse your ADA soil, probably it will get mixed up with the lapis sand already..