# Cycling with ADA Aquasoil Help



## Vinylmation (Dec 1, 2017)

Hello i'm currently in the process of setting up my first planted aquarium. I have the newer Fluval Spec V. 

When I usually cycle aquariums I use "The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling" from aquariumadvice.com 

I know Aquasoil is high in ammonia. I checked my ammonia and i'm currently at 2ppm. The way i'm used to cycling my tanks I would maintain 4ppm. 


So my question is, Should I add ammonia to the aquarium to get it to 4ppm?

Currently the tank is cycling with plants. Dwarf Sag, Anacharis, and Staurogyne Repens.

I've read on other post when cycling with aquasoil you're suppose to do daily water changes. This doesn't sound right to me.

Thanks for the help.


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## JusticeBeaver (Oct 28, 2017)

Sometimes aquasoil leeches a ton of ammonia and sometimes it doesn't. For me it leeched well over 5 ppm even with 50% water changes for 3 days so I had to wait a while. If it's at 2 ppm I wouldn't add any ammonia and just let it cycle completely unless you're planning on heavily stocking it.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

2pmm is plenty.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Be sure to add some KH or you'll never cycle 

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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

natemcnutty said:


> Be sure to add some KH or you'll never cycle
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What in the world?
That's an odd statement.


Anyway regarding aquasoil, it has more ammonia than you'll need, frequent water changes can help speed things up.
Ammonia over 3 or some say over 5 kills nitrifying bacteria so make sure you do enough water changes to keep it below that.
I aim for about 1.5 usually.

Another benefit of the water changes is the bacteria prefer a higher pH and aquasoil will drive it very low at first.
If you have a heater set it to low 80s for another speed boost.

Put as many plants as you can in the tank right away, they'll grow like crazy.

I only test ammonia weekly, as I know my 3-4x a week water changes will keep the ammonia levels down, but about 8-10 days in I start testing for nitrite.
If I'm seeing nitrite levels it's almost over, just keep testing every so often until you see that 0 nitrite reading and your done.
(If nitrite is zero your ammonia will definitely be zero as well.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Vinylmation said:


> ...I've read on other post when cycling with aquasoil you're suppose to do daily water changes. This doesn't sound right to me.
> 
> Thanks for the help.


That's exactly what your suppose to do, for the 1st week anyway. This is according to ADA themselves. Then you move down to every other day and eventually once a week. Of you there's not alot you HAVE to do, but this is ADA's way of being preventive. Doing large water changes will remove alot of the ammonia that will probably end up causing algae slightly down the road.


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## Hexagonalbolts (Aug 21, 2016)

I have also been looking this up and there are huge amounts of conflicting information. I do not entirely understand all the science behind it, but I have seen a lot of people recommending to NOT do water changes with aquasoil because, supposedly, this just extends the process by removing the chemicals/bacteria that are stimulating the process. Evidently, everyone here has said to do as many water changes as possible, so could someone explain why this view is incorrect for me?


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Hexagonalbolts said:


> I have also been looking this up and there are huge amounts of conflicting information. I do not entirely understand all the science behind it, but I have seen a lot of people recommending to NOT do water changes with aquasoil because, supposedly, this just extends the process by removing the chemicals/bacteria that are stimulating the process. Evidently, everyone here has said to do as many water changes as possible, so could someone explain why this view is incorrect for me?


Why aren't you going by what the makers of Aquasoil say?


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Hexagonalbolts said:


> I have also been looking this up and there are huge amounts of conflicting information. I do not entirely understand all the science behind it, but I have seen a lot of people recommending to NOT do water changes with aquasoil because, supposedly, this just extends the process by removing the chemicals/bacteria that are stimulating the process. Evidently, everyone here has said to do as many water changes as possible, so could someone explain why this view is incorrect for me?


If we and the manufacturer recommend to do water changes what's the conflict?

Maybe you missed my post, it's like 3 posts up from here, I explained the reasons why you do the water changes.

pH, concentration of ammonia, and as mentioned by another, algae reduction.

Low pH crashes the bacteria, as does too much ammonia.
Aquasoil will leach a good bit more ammonia per day than you're fish ever will so by allowing the levels to climb unchecked you're asking too much of the nitrifying bacteria. 
You'll be seeing ammonia for a very very long time, and then nitrite for a very long time, assuming the levels don't go above the deadly range.


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

houseofcards said:


> Why aren't you going by what the makers of Aquasoil say?


Well, the internet is the source of all truth.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Jeff5614 said:


> Well, the internet is the source of all truth.


Oh yes, of course. :smile2:

In a new setup whether your using AS or not the water changes are a no-brainer. There is no-biofilter, there is no major uptake. The water changes simply remove any organics that a mature bio-filter would probably remove. In an AS tank with a ton of ammonia that can't be processed by a non-existent bio-filter the benefit of heavy water changes is obvious to me.


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## Vinylmation (Dec 1, 2017)

*???*

Update

So i'm having an issue with my water parameters. My tap water is as follow
pH 8.4 (Drops to 6.0 because of ADA AquaSoil)
Ammonia 0.50 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm

Is the Ammonia at 0.50 ppm going to be an issue for me?

My Ammonia is always at 2.0 ppm, i believe this is a combination of my tap water and AquaSoil. I've done water changes but the Ammonia stays the same. 

I'm converting Ammonia to Nitrite then to Nitrate my only issue is my Ammonia is at a constant 2.0 ppm.

Am i going to have to start doing water changes with store bought Spring Water? 
Is my tank Cycled?

Also I Cycled the Tank with Aquarium plants and most of them melted and are gone. Wasted $50 on plants. I read about it and this is normal. The only plant that survived (some) were Dwarf Sag. 

Will these plants eventually come back to life even though they look dead?


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## Cadima (Nov 24, 2017)

It sounds to me like you're just not done cycling. It looks to me like you aren't planted heavy enough either. You can toss cheap stem plants in there and remove them later to help establish a balance. I wouldn't think your tap water would be an issue, at least not for the plants I used ada soil and changed water based when my kh got low regardless of how long between changes. This was every other day at first, for weeks. I didn't experience melting and planted heavy right out of the gate. The grass seems like it can turn around the other pics look like gonners to me.


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## Boostr (Dec 8, 2016)

Did you add any bacteria, as in TSS+ or Seachem Stability when you initially set up your tank? I know when I do a fishless cycle I'll add TTS+ and janitorial grade ammonia to get it up to 1.0 and then let it work it's magic. Then once it can bring the Ammonia to 0 I'll bring it to 1.0 again to make sure it lowers it back to 0 in 24 hrs, but that's only if you are using TSS+ or some other type of bacteria product. Seems like with the ADA soil you don't have to add the ammonia cause it seems leach enough. Like @Cadima said your not done cycling.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Chlorophile said:


> What in the world?
> That's an odd statement.


Not really:



> During nitrification, 7.14 mg of alkalinity as CaCO3[censored]is destroyed for every milligram of ammonium ions oxidized. Lack of carbonate alkalinity will stop nitrification. In addition, nitrification is pH-sensitive and rates of nitrification will decline significantly at pH values below 6.8. Therefore, it is important to maintain an adequate alkalinity in the aeration tank to provide pH stability and also to provide inorganic carbon for nitrifiers.[censored]


Source: http://www.hwea.org/how-alkalinity-affects-nitrification/

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## Vinylmation (Dec 1, 2017)

Cadima said:


> It sounds to me like you're just not done cycling. It looks to me like you aren't planted heavy enough either. You can toss cheap stem plants in there and remove them later to help establish a balance. I wouldn't think your tap water would be an issue, at least not for the plants I used ada soil and changed water based when my kh got low regardless of how long between changes. This was every other day at first, for weeks. I didn't experience melting and planted heavy right out of the gate. The grass seems like it can turn around the other pics look like gonners to me.



So I purchased the API GH & KH kit.

My Tap water is KH 3 & GH 4

My Tank water is KH 1 Straight yellow no blue.
Tank water is GH 3.

So is my Tank KH 1 too low?
Is the magic number KH 3?

I'm assuming I need to do a water change. 

Got more plants, they seem to be doing ok a little black spotting on the leaves. I'm sure they're just adjusting to my water.

I also purchased Excel not sure if I should start dosing or not. Currently running the stock LED lights for 8 hours a day. The updated 20% brighter Spec V lights


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Vinylmation said:


> So I purchased the API GH & KH kit.
> 
> My Tap water is KH 3 & GH 4
> 
> ...


With a buffering substrate, which Amazonia is, you don't want to add anything that increases KH once you have established a cycle.

The soil removes KH from the water and reduces the pH down to the mid 6's (which is preferable for most micro fertilizers as the iron source they use is better in acidic water). You want to let it keep doing that as long as possible, so you want to avoid adding any unnecessary KH.

I would get some CaSO4 (gypsum salt) and MgSO4 (epsom salt), and add enough of both for your plants. I'd start with 1/8 tsp of CaSO4 and 1/32 tsp of MgSO4 per gallon. That should put you around 5.5 dGH with plenty of Ca and Mg for plants but with no added KH.

You could also purchase something like Seachem Equilibrium if you'd rather not mix your own salts 

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