# ADA with fluorite cap ...



## FriendsNotFood (Sep 21, 2010)

I think it's a good idea, just keep in mind that ADA Aquasoil leaches ammonia for a few weeks so either cycle it in a bucket/another tank before adding it to your office tank, or just do extra water changes after you add it and test your water to make sure you don't kill any of your critters.

http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/articles/cycling-aquasoil-amazonia.php


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## nilocg (Jul 12, 2010)

That will work fine but eventually the flourite will end up on the bottom, assuming that you are using flourite sand. Also as poster above stated, be careful with the ammonia spike.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

Hey Alyssa, IMO it's pointless to cap aqua soil - unless you know that you or your inhabitants will constantly disturb the substrate. In which case, you better have a very thick cap over aqua soil, or not have any, at all.

I have two low-light cubes that have the new amazonia, but no CO2 or fert dosing. Both grows plants well, just not as fast/weedy as they would in a high light tank.

Those plants I sent you - they like aqua soil :hihi:


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

It's not fluorite sand, but rather the more chunky stuff. So thinking that it will sit on top for the most part.

It's just a small little tank, shrimp only (they will need to be rehomed in another space until the ADA stops leeching of course, but I think in the end, it would be worth the trouble.

But I think it's also light, which means I will DESPISE planting in it (remember, I come from old school ways where I've been planting plants in pea gravel for some 30 years ... going from decades of planting in gravel to substrates like Stratum and ADA is rough going. I think if you only really have planted in those substrates that it might be easier to get the right touch, but I have decades of conditioning to reprogram of planting in much much heavier substrates [ie small rocks! lol!] and I just hate planting in that stuff right now!) and I was hoping to get my beloved heft of using small gravel/rocks back into my planting zone while not sacrificing the awesomeness that ADA is supposedly going to bring me.

Did that make sense?

And yes! Those beautiful plants are destined for the 25 tall which will have the ADA power sand and amazona soil ... but it will be deep enough I hope to make planting stems a bit easier without needing something heavier to help hold it down until it roots properly. So hopefully they will grow nicely for me! The survivors from the last batch are doing "okay" in my dirt tank, but I think that tank really needs some co2 to finally settle in.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

The flourite gravel does have some nice weight to it so it should help the ADA stay down! And planting in it is pretty easy except for the occasional silt storms that get kicked up!

This is for the yellow shrimp tank you were talking about?


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

I totally get where you're coming from Alyssa! I grew up with sand and undergravel filters, powered by air pumps! Not even dedicated lighting, just ambient room lighting! It was only in 2006 when my buddy introduced me to high-light planted tanks. There is indeed some adjustment when planting with lighter aqua soil, but with nice long tweezers, you're bound to get the hang of it.

The one thing I don't like about aqua soil is I (personally) just can't predict when my tank will be fully cycled. My big tank took two weeks to cycle even after a couple weeks of dry-start and seeding with an HOB filter from an established tank right as soon as I flooded it. My 12" cube took a whole month, also using an (oversized) HOB filter from an established tank. My 18" cube never registered any ammonia or nitrites whatsoever. I carried over the XP2 and HOB filter from the previous tank, but I'm clueless as how this one practically instant-cycled while the others didn't.

Time to update yer blog Alyssa! Yes, I have visited a couple of times now :hihi:.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

ACK! You mean someone is actually looking at that thing? LOL! Yeah I have a bunch of posts I need to finish and publish!

The yellows are on fluval stratum only ... it was the smallest bits of the leftovers from my first bag, barely covered the bottom of the tank ... so no depth. I kept meaning to yank it out and put something else in it, but .. they are breeding like mad and so I just left it alone. 

The office nano is just a little tank that I wanted to try to do my first carpet in and has a few shrimp in it because I wound up getting 30 fire red cherries instead of 3 by accident, here is it's journal thread: 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/157399-3-gallon-office-nano.html


Though the stem plants rotted off the bottoms. So I've replanted those and was going to stick root tabs under them, but now I am thinking maybe it would be better to just put a little ada under the fluorite to help the plants out a little more.


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## xJaypex (Jul 4, 2009)

For as expensive as Aquasoil is, i would never mix it up with anything else. I did once and ended up regretting it.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

What happened and what did you mix it with?


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