# adding ada aqua soil with fish.



## b 30g (Dec 24, 2010)

i want to add ada aqua soil to my tank but i do not have any were to put my fish and im worried that amonia spikes will kill them. any one have any ideas? 
2 neon tetras
6 molly's
6 glow light tetras 
6 rummsey nose tetras
4 oto's 
4 shrimp
1 pleco
maybe put them in a cooler with a heater and air stone while it cycles


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## rich815 (May 21, 2008)

Cycle the AS in a smaller container or other tank first until the ammonia leaches out. Or do large water changes almost every day for a couple weeks. I did the latter in my 60P when I added a new 1/2 to the existing AS and did not lose anything though I was getting some ugly ammonia readings for a few days there.....


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## b 30g (Dec 24, 2010)

so you think it would be ok to keep the fish in the tank and to like 70 to 80 % water changes every day? no harm done


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

I would say for sure do not do it all at once. How big is the tank and how much AS are you wanting to add? If you break it up into smaller portions like 1/8 at a time and have some patients then you could do it like that. Otherwise you could try the cooler/other larger vessel method in order to avoid the spike happening in your tank with fish like rich mentioned. I did it that way before but it was a PITA.


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## b 30g (Dec 24, 2010)

i herd that you doing that will make a mess because as gets soft once it is wet and moving it around turns it to mud and is all around a mess. do you know if this is true? im not in a hurry but i am replacing clown puke gravel and a under gravel filter with it so i would like to all at one to keep the clown puke from getting in to it.


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## Kunsthure (Aug 2, 2010)

b 30g said:


> so you think it would be ok to keep the fish in the tank and to like 70 to 80 % water changes every day? no harm done


Be sure to use Prime or Amquel+ to detox the ammonia and nitrite. However, what I've been reading here is that people have found ammonia spikes as high as 6ppm. That is *way* too high for critters and I'm not sure Prime could handle that.

I'm glad I found this thread because I'm considering switching out the sand for Amazonia in my 13g to make keeping my new CRS easier. If I let it leech in a separate container, will running an established HOB, using ammonia chips and having duckweed speed things up or will it take 4-8 weeks regardless?

-Lisa


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Might do it all at once, and plan on daily giant water changes, I would also add zeolite to the filter, and change it out pretty much daily, too. 

Better through to buy a small tank (10 gallons) kit and set up the fish in it for a month. Then you can take down the 10 gallon, and keep it as a quarantine tank.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Test your pH, it will make a big difference. The ADA dropped my pH to 6, so pretty much no matter how high the ammonia reading is, it's all harmless ammonium. 

http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/Ammonia.htm

You tank WILL look muddy for a day or two though.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Betta Maniac said:


> Test your pH, it will make a big difference. The ADA dropped my pH to 6, so pretty much no matter how high the ammonia reading is, it's all harmless ammonium.
> 
> http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/Ammonia.htm
> 
> You tank WILL look muddy for a day or two though.


Don't take this as personal buy that's a very dangerous statement to make. "sure go ahead and put the fresh AS in your tank that houses $100's of dollars of animals. Youre ph will be too low to make the ammonia harmful". What if the persons PH was 7.6 or above to begin with? Mine was 7.8 and when I put my very first batch of ADA AS Ammazonia II in a tank not knowing about the ammonia spike I killed all the animals in the tank. 

B30 don't take this advise and put the soil in the tank with out taking some of the steps mentioned earlier to lessen the ammonias impact/presence on/in the tank.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Good point about the change in pH. Some of this is because the ADA products remove the KH from the water. This can cause problems, if the TDS drops too fast for the fish to handle. 

MUCH safer to deal with this material separately, and cycle it without the fish. 

While the fish are in a separate tank you can be doing small frequent water changes that slowly alter the water for the fish in a controlled manner so that they will be adapted to the new water when it is safe to move them over.


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## Zareth (Dec 13, 2010)

b 30g said:


> i herd that you doing that will make a mess because as gets soft once it is wet and moving it around turns it to mud and is all around a mess. do you know if this is true? im not in a hurry but i am replacing clown puke gravel and a under gravel filter with it so i would like to all at one to keep the clown puke from getting in to it.


Well you could definitely remove all the clown puke at once.
Just leave the tank barebottom and slowly add the AS. 

The concern is if you are removing the UGF and the gravel and adding aquasoil your biological filtration is going to be almost gone at that point so you won't have a good way to deal with the ammonia being introduced.


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## b 30g (Dec 24, 2010)

Zareth said:


> Well you could definitely remove all the clown puke at once.
> Just leave the tank barebottom and slowly add the AS.
> 
> The concern is if you are removing the UGF and the gravel and adding aquasoil your biological filtration is going to be almost gone at that point so you won't have a good way to deal with the ammonia being introduced.


i put the fish in a bucket cleaned out the old gravel and under gravel filter added one bag of as put my few plants in and dumped the fish back in 3 days later no losses. 70% water changes and double doses of prime have kept the ammonia to 0 so far. although my fish are acting stressed out i think it is because of the being netted out being in that bucket huge habitat change and daily water change but they will be through it soon


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

It takes a couple of weeks for the ammonia to start leaching out. Good luck.


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## b 30g (Dec 24, 2010)

thanks, im hoping for the best if after 2 months im going to get another bag and add a handful every day until it is as thick as i want. i have a question though why are my shrimp eating it?


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