Shrimpfoot Posted June 30, 2018 Report Share Posted June 30, 2018 I am cycling a new 10 gallon aquarium with ada Amazonia light, using a Hamburg Matten filter with plants already planted including Buce, scarlet temple plant, subwassertang, and 2 other species. I started off using the fishless cycle, but since week 4 now is week6 my ammonia has been stuck at 0.25 ppm. I have been doing frequent water changes using half ro half tap water. I have cholla wood in there along with katapa leaves alder cones and montmorelinite rocks and tourmaline balls. Is this normal for ada soil to take this long and I just need to be patient or do I need to try something else. I added a few endlers last week to see if that would help but no. Any advice welcome, thanks in advance! Chris ph 6.3 kh 0 gh 5-6 tds 147 nitrite 0 ammonia 0.25 nitrate 0-5 temp 72 rwong2k 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy6107 Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 ada slowly releases ammonia, so this could go on for a while. Also doing water changes with tap water will exhaust the ada much faster than you want. madcrafted 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pastu Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 Yes Ada releases amonía for 2 or 3 months, and as chappy said, using tap water will short en the life of your Ada soil. Want it out. Ada is superb. Mine still going strong after 3years Shrimpfoot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwin_the_elder Posted July 24, 2018 Report Share Posted July 24, 2018 On 6/30/2018 at 9:36 AM, Shrimpfoot said: I am cycling a new 10 gallon aquarium with ada Amazonia light, using a Hamburg Matten filter with plants already planted including Buce, scarlet temple plant, subwassertang, and 2 other species. I started off using the fishless cycle, but since week 4 now is week6 my ammonia has been stuck at 0.25 ppm. I have been doing frequent water changes using half ro half tap water. I have cholla wood in there along with katapa leaves alder cones and montmorelinite rocks and tourmaline balls. Is this normal for ada soil to take this long and I just need to be patient or do I need to try something else. I added a few endlers last week to see if that would help but no. Any advice welcome, thanks in advance! Chris ph 6.3 kh 0 gh 5-6 tds 147 nitrite 0 ammonia 0.25 nitrate 0-5 temp 72 Hey Shrimpfoot, Any updates on your tank thus far? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpfoot Posted July 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2018 The tank is doing great took almost 8 weeks for the cycle currently has a few crs and cbs along with black King Kong and some blue bolts all doing well. rwong2k and edwin_the_elder 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice Posted July 27, 2018 Report Share Posted July 27, 2018 Ada recommends to cycle with tap water, well, water with a Kh of atleast 2 to make the cycle go faster. When the soil exhaust the Kh to 0 the cycle will stall dramatically. After the cycle is complete you can change all the water with remineralised RO water. Cycling for a month/month and a half with tap water wont exhaust the aquasoil Shrimpfoot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpfoot Posted August 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2018 Thank you for the reply that is probably what happened. Who reads all the directions anyways. LOL. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcrafted Posted August 6, 2018 Report Share Posted August 6, 2018 On 7/27/2018 at 12:53 AM, Maurice said: Ada recommends to cycle with tap water, well, water with a Kh of atleast 2 to make the cycle go faster. When the soil exhaust the Kh to 0 the cycle will stall dramatically. After the cycle is complete you can change all the water with remineralised RO water. Cycling for a month/month and a half with tap water wont exhaust the aquasoil If the cycle stalls before it finishes cycling due to lack of carbonates in water, what keeps the biological filter from crashing once this tap water is replaced with soft water? Would it not be better to cycle and colonize bacteria that can thrive in softer water to begin with? I never quite understood this. I have personally seen the effects of a substrate (not ADA) exhausting from the use of carbonates during the cycling phase. Shrimp didn't die right away but babies never made it past 3 weeks. This was with taiwan bees, btw. Needless to say, I always cycle with r/o water from day 1 after this issue I had. With the use of Seachem Stability (excellent bacterial strains for soft water), I can have my tanks cycled in 5 weeks, which is just a wee bit longer than it would take in a neo tank with tap water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice Posted August 7, 2018 Report Share Posted August 7, 2018 Hi Madcrafted, I am sure that the bacteria in filters just stalls or take much longer to colonise more in softer water with lower Ph, but wont die off. I personally think why ada recommends using tap water for cycling is to build up as much bacteria in the shortest space of time, thus suggesting using tap water. Dont get me wrong, you can use ro water to cycle, it will simply just take a lot longer. Cycling ada with tap water for a month/2 months really wont exhaust the buffer capacity from aquasoil as it is a very strong buffering soil that can last for a good couple of years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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