# Pre-leaching ADA Aquasoil??



## kroner19 (Mar 18, 2012)

Hey all,

Was just reading the substrate pros/cons thread (great thread, lots of info) and this question popped into my head.......

Has anyone leached out the ammonia from AquaSoil in a separate tank before adding it to their main tank. Seems like this might work for someone like myself who is trying to swap out substrates in a fully stocked tank. Would this work? Maybe running it through an ammonia absorbing/reducing filter media for a week or two in addition to doing 80-100% water changes? Anyone have experience with this or any thoughts on this, please chime in. I would love to use ADA AS in my tank but it scares me to think i would lose all my fish.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

You run it in another tank, bucket, something. put a sponge filter in or established filter, do a few wc's, etc.

The thing with soils like this, is they leech the ammonia until it's exhausted from the soil. Doing more WC's doesn't speed that up as the soil is still going to leech. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to 6 weeks some people have reported. Think of it like this, say your hot water tank is leaking (leeching ammonia) and you put a cup underneath to catch the drip and change it 10x a day for a week till it's done or you put a big 55drum under it till it stops leaking and only change once it's done, the fact is the heater is still going to leak the total amount of water in it no matter how much you change the drip device.

Put it in something, put a cycled filter in, change the wc here and there when ammonia gets too high, keep testing until ammonia is 0, then shift if over. I don't like doing massive wc's everyday with soils like this because they are buffering soils and the more wc's you do, the more you will wear out the buffering.


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## kroner19 (Mar 18, 2012)

Good advice.....thanks for the input GeToChKn. Its a shame that such a great product like this is deadly to the inhabitants of a planted tank. I know its better to start off with a fish less tank, establish it, then add your fish. However, most people who get in to planted tanks come from fish only or lightly planted tanks, and once they figure out that there is more to aquariums than just fish, they make the switch. I guess this is the only way for me to do this without giving up my stock of fish......that, or buy a new tank.:big grin:

Does it have to be an established filter? Wont the ammonia leech out no matter what, or is this a by product of the substrate cycling? Hence the need for the beneficial bacteria present in the filter. Or does the established filter just speed the process?

Also, it says that 9L is good for about 15 gal but it doesn't say at why depth. I have a 55 gal and was wondering how much i would need to cover the 48" x 12" footprint with maybe 1-2" in front to 5-6" in back?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

kroner19 said:


> Good advice.....thanks for the input GeToChKn. Its a shame that such a great product like this is deadly to the inhabitants of a planted tank. I know its better to start off with a fish less tank, establish it, then add your fish. However, most people who get in to planted tanks come from fish only or lightly planted tanks, and once they figure out that there is more to aquariums than just fish, they make the switch. I guess this is the only way for me to do this without giving up my stock of fish......that, or buy a new tank.:big grin:
> 
> Does it have to be an established filter? Wont the ammonia leech out no matter what, or is this a by product of the substrate cycling? Hence the need for the beneficial bacteria present in the filter. Or does the established filter just speed the process?
> 
> Also, it says that 9L is good for about 15 gal but it doesn't say at why depth. I have a 55 gal and was wondering how much i would need to cover the 48" x 12" footprint with maybe 1-2" in front to 5-6" in back?



An established filter, even a sponge one will just help the ammonia be used up and converted rather than sit in the tank. The ammonia is added to basically give a good fishless cycle and if you plant it early before adding fish, your plants get a good source of ammonia until you add plants.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

The ammonia will leach out of the substrate as long as the ammonia level in the water is lower than the amount in the substrate. You can do this with 

a) large volume if water to dilute the ammonia
b) Moderate volume, but keep up the water changes
c) Nitrifying bacteria. 

The nitrifying bacteria will grow in the system no matter what you do, but if you jump start the population they will be there to help from the beginning. I would take a small amount of media from your cycled filter (leave most of it to maintain the cycle with your fish) and just use that much to begin the cycle with the new substrate. 

You do not have to run much of a filter, the idea is just to get the water flowing through almost anything that the bacteria will grow on. An air powered sponge filter is good at this. Use whatever you already have: Power head, fountain pump, old filter... and stick a good sized sponge over the intake. Nitrifying bacteria will grow on that.


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