cycling ada soil, have you heard of doing this?

[monty703]

I asked someone recently about fast cycling ADA soil, and was told that the way the breeders in Asia

do it is this.

 

Place the amount of soil to use for your tank in a large bucket, place it in the bathtub and run cold

water through it and just let it run, occasionally stirring it up, but leave it like this for a week.

 

I know in some places (where you pay for your water usage) this would be a problem (expensive)

but as I am in a condo apartment I don't pay for my water usage, so its something I can do.

 

Any thoughts on doing it this way?   Would the running water eliminate the ammonia faster?

 

 

[DETAquarium]

I have not heard of this method, as I discourage anyone who attempts to rush the cycling process. I would think you would have to leave it at a trickle otherwise you have a chance of breaking down the ADA faster. I am not sure how this method would effect the biological aspect of your substrate when moving from bucket to aquarium if at all.

[Steve R.]

ADA is not recommending to wash their soil. Frequent water changes in the beginning are important to lower the leaking ammonia.

I always put a little bit of soil from a well-cycled tank to jump-start the bacteria.

Even if you don't have to pay for water, it would be an big waste of this important resource. There is a lot of effort put into purifying our drinking water. We should all be responsible with our shared resources and act responsible. In the end all of us would pay the price.

Sorry to be preaching.

[RyeGuy411]

I would think putting it in a bucket and soaking with very hard water and changing daily for a week would accomplish the same thing without breaking down the soil and wasting as much water.

[Ron]

Frequent water changes will remove the ammonium and speed up that part of the cycle but you still need to develop the bacteria and biofilm.

 

I used to do nearly complete water changes for 4 or 5 consecutive days and this would leech out the majority of the ammonium.  If you really wanna speed up the leeching of ammonium, use a canister and UGF. 

 

Problem I found with that method is it was too effective, I would need to add ammonia to keep my cycle going. 

 

Now I'm not in a rush and let it cycle on it's own.  If it takes 8 weeks, so be it.

 

 

I would think putting it in a bucket and soaking with very hard water and changing daily for a week would accomplish the same thing without breaking down the soil and wasting as much water.

 

Why would you want to use really hard water?  IMO, all that would accomplish is exhaust the buffering capacity. 

[Ch3fb0yrdee]

I’ve personally witness the method of cycling mentioned by OP. But instead of putting the substrate in a bucket, the substrate is placed inside the tank, leveled off and new water is constantly running in and old water running out of the tank. When I asked, I was informed this would help cycling.

Personally, I find this method really incredibly wasteful, especially considering where I am living. My state is currently in a drought, and this much water just to cycle a tank is unthinkable. My parents also live in a condo and water usage isn’t an issue so I have all my water filtered there, but I still can’t get around to doing the wasteful flush.

What I usually do is fill the tank, let it sit for a few hours, drain, and refill. My flush is mainly to remove the dirty cloudy water that is typical of ADA AS. After I get the clear water, I let the tank sit and cycle normally. I will occasionally do waterchanges but I rarely do 100% (until the tank is fully cycled). This helps save water but is mainly because I’m also really lazy.

At my quickest, I’ve been able to cycle a brand new tank (ADA Amazonia) in 2 weeks. I still believe I could have done it in 1 to 1 ½ weeks if I had a filter installed the first day. Of course, shrimp keeping isn’t about how fast you can do something but this is to let folks know it can be done.

If time isn’t an issue, I would say save resources (bacteria seeding products) and just cycle the old fashion way. For ADA AS, it takes about 4weeks if you keep your parameters ideal for bacteria colonization. Cycle in the dark so you avoid annoying algae that can be a problem down the line, but again that’s a personal preference. Some folks do a 24/7 light period to grow algae to speed up the cycling process and start the tank with “food” for shrimps.

[EricM]

100% agree with others. dont waste the water.  just be patient and let things happen naturally. 

[RyeGuy411]

 

Why would you want to use really hard water?  IMO, all that would accomplish is exhaust the buffering capacity. 

 

Hard water draws the excess ammonia out of the substrate faster and also helps to create a more stable pH in the ideal range. Active substrates like ADA buffer very strongly at first in some cases way too low, this would also help the colonization of bacteria once it is added to tank. Beneficial bacteria colonization happens at a very slow rate below 6.5 pH. 

[Greenteam]

Very wasteful and completely unnecessary.

 

Rushing is the best way to set yourself up for failure   

[Ron]

Hard water draws the excess ammonia out of the substrate faster and also helps to create a more stable pH in the ideal range. Active substrates like ADA buffer very strongly at first in some cases way too low, this would also help the colonization of bacteria once it is added to tank. Beneficial bacteria colonization happens at a very slow rate below 6.5 pH. 

 

Not sure I agree with bacteria colonizing at a significantly slower rate at a low pH.

 

I have an UGF hooked to a canister on my latest set up and I followed SD's method.  I added gamma as directed and within 30 minutes my substrate would buffer it back below 6.0.  Even though my tank spent very little time above pH 6.0, it still cycled within the expected window. 

[RyeGuy411]

" the rate at which the effectiveness of nitrification dropped in acidic pH values: to less than 50% optimal efficiency at pH 7.0, to just under 30% at pH 6.5, and to just over 10% of maximal efficiency at pH 6.0. At these low pH values, nitrifying bacteria don't die, they just stop metabolizing and reproducing."

 

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/nitrogen-cycle

 

http://dwb.unl.edu/teacher/nsf/c09/c09links/bordeaux.uwaterloo.ca/biol446/chapter8.htm

 

"It is also noteworthy that the primary nitrifying bacteria are affected by pH.
Nitrification involving AOB & NOB bacteria is different at pH levels of above 7.0 versus below 6.0."

 

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html

[OMG Aquatics]

" the rate at which the effectiveness of nitrification dropped in acidic pH values: to less than 50% optimal efficiency at pH 7.0, to just under 30% at pH 6.5, and to just over 10% of maximal efficiency at pH 6.0. At these low pH values, nitrifying bacteria don't die, they just stop metabolizing and reproducing."

 

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/nitrogen-cycle

 

http://dwb.unl.edu/teacher/nsf/c09/c09links/bordeaux.uwaterloo.ca/biol446/chapter8.htm

 

"It is also noteworthy that the primary nitrifying bacteria are affected by pH.

Nitrification involving AOB & NOB bacteria is different at pH levels of above 7.0 versus below 6.0."

 

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html

 

From experience, BioDigest helped my colonize bacteria at 5 pH and only took around 1-2 weeks.

[monty703]

Thanks all for your input. I didn't mean to sound wasteful about the water, as I had no intentions of doing it this way anyway, just wondered if anyone had.  I am always skeptical about people telling me how I should do something, and like to hear more info on things before going ahead.  I have used ADA in a previous tank and it did indeed take 4+ weeks to get the ammonia down to where it should be.

 

It would also appear that I have Akadama soil not Amazonia.  I purchased this soil from an Asian Flower shop

where they use it for bonsai plants and had seen it used in aquariums as well.  This will be the soil I will use for my next tank.

 

Anyone used this before.  I would like some input as this will be a new one for me.

 

I like the idea of using some existing soil too to help jumpstart the bacteria/biofilm. 

[Wygglz]

For all of you concerned about wasting water, PLEASE come to my place and waste away! These darn people are irrigating so much (yes, even while it is raining) that they raised the groundwater level right into my fishroom! I feel like we've been doing the wetvac thing forever!

[JamesHe]

Basically this method is trying to wash out the ammonia which causes high level nitrate problem.

 

but it also reduce the buffering capability significantly.

 

Just switch over to Controsoil, then you don't need to wash the soil.