# ADA Amazonia STILL clouding water



## EdWiser (Jul 14, 2015)

You have not planted it yet? You should have planted the tank right after putting the soil in the tank. Then add the water. No wonder your soil is clouding the water.


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

That’s not the most helpful advice, especially since I did plant it, it clouded up and those plants did not get enough light. So if someone could offer some advice on how to remedy the situation rather than scolding, I would love to know what to do.


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## cl3537 (Jan 28, 2019)

sweeneycam said:


> I have had my tank running with ADA Amazonia for over 5 months. In the beginning, I was changing water every few days when it would leach and turn almost coffee brown. Now, I am still afraid to put plants and fish in because every few weeks I am having to drain the tank and start all over again because of how bad it gets. Please, I really need to get my fish out of the hospital tank I have running in my less than warm basement.


First test your water if its been flooded for 5 months and you did water changes regularly you should have no ammonia or very low 0.25ppm(test with API freshwater test kit) as long as its <1ppm it should not be a problem for plants.

If you have adequate filtration it should take care of cloudiness in a few hours what kind of filtration are you using?

If/when your filtration is adequate and you have tested ammonia and nitrite and they are both 0. Then you can drain your water to just over 1 inch above the substrate and plant with tweezers.

Alternatively make sure your filter is off, keep your water and BB in your filter alive, and drain the water from the tank, with just wet substrate plant your plans and then refill tank slowly right after.


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

The water isn’t cloudy, it’s brown, from the leeching of the soil. I’ve tried replanting a few plants over the past few months. It just seems like the water gets too cloudy, the LED lights can’t penetrate the water, and the plants die. I don’t want to keep throwing plants and money into a tank that will just kill them.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

ADA soil shouldn't do that unless it was rinsed or is disturbed during water changes, etc. It will of course leech ammonia but and sometimes it's somewhat cloudly initially, but it shouldn't be coffee brown. Are the grains intact, or are they broken apart?


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

As @cl3537 asked, what size tank, what filter, and what's in the filter?


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## EdWiser (Jul 14, 2015)

Can you up load a picture of the tank?


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

EdWiser said:


> Can you up load a picture of the tank?


Yes I can. Although I just did a bigger water change than I expected... I accidentally drained all of the water down to the soil... so it is unnaturally clear. I´ll post one in a moment.

Bump:


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

https://pix.sfly.com/9VEmf2

Bump: by the way, the tank is a 45, with a 150 gallon rated APA Filstar XP3 filter. Filter has basic straining media in it, rinsed every few weeks, carbon, and biostar media.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

You got a bad batch, might as well change to something else now and save yourself the trouble.

Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Scroll down the page here

https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/...y-freestyle-now-35%-less-water-volume-69.html

Also happened recently to a couple guys in htpt facebook group. I believe quality control has gone to hell. 

ADA is supposedly running out of raw materials for Amazonia...might have something to do with it

[Important] The shortage of Aqua Soil-Amazonia | ADA - NEWS RELEASE


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

i would try a 100+ micron pad or two in your current filter or an additional filter. or micron sock. i think it should be able to filter whatever is suspended but not sure how you can keep the soil from continually leaching 

https://www.amazon.com/Encompass-All-Premium-Micron-Polishing/dp/B06XCHLT3J


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

@burr740, read your post on AS - ugly.

I bought 3 x 9L bags from ADA in TX bout 3 years ago, used one bag a year later in a new 50g. Nothing special or different from any of my other AS tanks. That 50g has been my most problematic tank ever: cyano for 6 months, diatoms of every kind for 1+ year, plants constantly melting. All measurable parameters within reasonable ranges, broke the tank completely down twice, washed AS, finally capped AS with sand 4 months ago. That tank is just now starting to behave and look normal. That's 2+ years of wtf?

PowerSand - used it once in my very first AS tank, 120-P some 8 years ago. Never again. You will love it once it starts popping to the surface.

Just a month ago @Discusluv tried AS for the first time. Pretty much the same result as yours - mud and dust everywhere.

ADA - still way pricey with a ton of competition now. A shame, really.


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## milesm (Apr 4, 2006)

several years back (10+) there were bags of fake amazonia II. unfortunately, i was victimized by a 3l bag. most granules disintegrated in a day or two, leaving pink/red/white/rust colored particles all over the surface. beware, perhaps it's pirated ship. go all dirted tanks now and never looked back.


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## EdWiser (Jul 14, 2015)

I buy ADA from the US distributor have never had an issue. Like most things in life go to the source and follow the directions on use. You place the substrate then the soil then plant well. Then fill tank with water. Then do the water changes as the directions say. Once you start mixing things up and do this and a little of that problems WILL occur.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Let's not confuse a bad batch with the product itself. The product works and works very well which i proven by the thousands of aquascapes using the product. Tom Barr is a big fan/user as well.

Not saying this definitely happened to OP but, most don't follow the directions and end up disturbing the AS. Once you do this you will have a cloudy tank and/or brown if you really crushed the granules.


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## cl3537 (Jan 28, 2019)

If the bag got crushed a bit (which is easy to do) this is the result, it doesn't even have to be a bad batch.
But life is too short to be dealing with such problems I would replace it and start over.,


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

alright, so after spending $85 on this stuff that was highly recommended by many people on this website, I need a solution. I can try the 100micron sock, is there any particulate collectors? Something that will bond these elements and drag them down? Again, its so unfortunate that most of the posts on this thread are still just a bunch of people telling me I´ve done something wrong or, rather, different than what they did. Thank you for those of you who helped with solutions. 

So my next question is, how will plants clear the water? It seems that the brown is from some of the ada breaking down. I know this was not a ¨bad bad¨ because it was bought directly from the ADA Vendors here in the US.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

People are asking what you did, because that doesn't usually happen with AS. I mean thousands of people use it, many being very advanced hobbyists and the water never turns brown. I don't think you confirmed what you did. So other than it being a bad batch, did you rinse it, disturb it when filling or crush the granules. 

If you didn't do any of those things then i would replace it as a bad batch. It could still be a bad batch from a legitimate source.


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

I did not rinse it, I laid it in flat and gently, I added water at a rate so slow it took more than 3 hours to fill (place the nozzle in a cup, filled the cup, which gently cascaded down onto a large plate) so I know I added it right. 


Some people have used purigen to clear out the brown cloudiness (https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/.../34977-brown-cloudy-water-ada-aquasoil-5.html) Some people have capped it with gravel or powersand (don´t know if that works out, I hate sand)

are there any other options than just getting rid of it? 

Also if there is not, I need some advice on what to get. I don´t want to turn this thread into another battleground for types of soil, so if you could PM your suggestions to me, that would be fantastic. I have read through dozens of forums 80 pages long on what soil to get and this was the option. I am emailing the company right now to explain, hopefully they can do something. But I have been dealing with this since AUGUST. I have come back to the PlantedTank forums several times since then to try and get information, sometimes getting fed up because of the war that is raged between soil users and sometimes because I just cannot seem to remember my dang password.


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## cl3537 (Jan 28, 2019)

sweeneycam said:


> I did not rinse it, I laid it in flat and gently, I added water at a rate so slow it took more than 3 hours to fill (place the nozzle in a cup, filled the cup, which gently cascaded down onto a large plate) so I know I added it right.
> 
> 
> Some people have used purigen to clear out the brown cloudiness (https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/.../34977-brown-cloudy-water-ada-aquasoil-5.html) Some people have capped it with gravel or powersand (don´t know if that works out, I hate sand)
> ...


What you might try is vacuum out everything in your tank and filter it through a course sieve(not fine). Hopefully the smaller particles causing cloudiness will pass through(if you rinse it thoroughly enough) you throw that away, and you will be left with the larger grained 'normal' ADA aquasoil in the sieve. I would be inclined to try that first.

Alternatively you would try capping it with Amazonia Powder on top but there is no guarantee that it wouldn't continue to leech, noone really knows how badly crushed it is except you.

If you present your case and maybe link to your post in this thread you might get lucky and they send you another bag.


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

Interesting idea, I´ll see if anyone else has tried that as well.

I have emailed the company as well, asking for either a refund or something, but its been 7 months and I don´t think they are in the business of that.

From what I have read in this thread I am worried I will be fighting a losing (monetarily) battle. So maybe its time to reconsider.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

If this has been going on since August I would get rid of it and start over. It's just not worth the hassle.


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## sweeneycam (Dec 30, 2015)

Alright. So does anyone have any links to other forums that they found to be useful when selecting new substrate?


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