# Ada Amazonia new, and water changes while cycling



## DUKENDABEARS (Dec 28, 2012)

Anyone?


----------



## Miles03 (Feb 24, 2012)

Two months is a good amount of time to cycle amazonia I just cycled a 40b in a month with one water change no traces of ammonia but heavily planted and over filtered. My advice especially with shrimp do weekly water changes 30% for the first month. Then next month bump it up a little 40 or so then one big one a week or so before getting the shrimp. I'm no expert but that's what I would do.


----------



## xmas_one (Feb 5, 2010)

I didn't do any water changes on my last as tank. Just planted heavily and cycle was done in about 6 weeks.


----------



## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

the greenmachine has several videos on how they setup new ada tanks on u tube. worth watching IMHO... also do some searches here. plenty of journals documenting this.


----------



## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

if you can make time and filter through some of the distracting inputs on this thread, ADA's own frank's thread is a GREAT read. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=168992

if it's a new AS, it helps to water change frequently. and i mean everyday for week 1, every other day week 2, every few days week 3, every week on week 4. i'm on week 5 for my new tank that i resetup using 5 month old AS and i still do water changes every few days. i can't speak to scientific reasoning but reading frank's thread made me realize that it's more about taking care of your tank and understanding what's needed from it. 
like for instance, i saw some algae yesterday in my tank - i trimmed and suctioned the algaed parts and did a big water change, dosed again and left the light off for the night. i don't know if that's the perfect way of doing it but i'm trying to understand what's required of MY set up. it's a good mentality to pursue when you begin YOUR tank cause your variables will be different from others. 

good luck!


----------



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

I only change water when ammonia hits the 4-5PPM range. If it remains below 4, I don't do changes during the initial "cycle" process.

My latest batches of Amazonia have only spiked up to 4PPM once or twice, so water changes haven't been as frequent.


----------



## mossman77 (Aug 5, 2019)

My ammonia is only reaching 1ppm to 1.5ppm. However, it was my understanding that the frequent water changes with Amazonia are to dilute the abundance of nutrients that release into the water column for the first few weeks. I'm not concerned with cycling the tank. I'll be adding cycled media from another tank once the time comes to add fish and shrimp. That being said, should I even be concerned with the exact ammonia level and instead monitor the TDS? I'll continue to add Prime at each water change and every 48 hours to detoxify ammonia and nitrite to preserve the BB.

According to the ADA website, the purpose of the frequent water changes is to dilute the excessive amount of humid acid contained in the soil. Keeping ammonia under control is secondary and is part of setting up a new tank (we all know this). Thus, since I have no idea how to measure the level of humid acid, I'll just stick to the recommended WC schedule for four weeks, add my mature cycled media, and call it good.


----------

