Planting - Starting Out Right

[Lolly123]

Hi everyone.

I've purchased a new tank due in about 10 weeks, its 300L. Dimensions are 1200 x 401 x 690mm with 2 39w T5 bulbs, going to add some reflectors too. Oh and I wont be using co2.

Questions:

ADA Aquasoil - read it lowers ph, will that remain stable?
Heard it gives off ammonia at the start, so dont want any fish in there while thats happening. But getting confused about leaving a planted tank fishless for weeks until the internal filter has dealt with the ammonia. I do have a seeded external but cant transfer that as my existing tank would be without one and as stated before I dont want to expose fish to ammonia spike. Help? lol


Eco Complete - Heard this is easier to deal with in regards to mess, but some say doesnt give as good results as ADA? Do either substrates need to be used in conjunction with another layer on top?

I'm looking at plants such as java fern, anubias and java moss but also want to be able to grow a few more demanding plants hence the plant substrate idea.

Apologies if im not clear in my post, I know what I mean but sometimes hard to explain. Advice needed from the experts

Thank you

 

[aaronnorth]

ADA AS will lower the pH to around 6.6-7 if I remember correctly, until it will stabilise to around pH7.

Your best option would be to fishless cycle: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/299827-why-we-should-not-fishless-cycle-planted-tanks/

Have a read of that, any questions just ask.


EC- Maybe it isn't as good as ADA, I can't confirm, but either way you won't be dissapointed with the results as lots of people have had great success with it.

It is worth noting that EC will raise the hardness of the water too by 1 or 2 degrees.

Both are 'stand alone' substrates so they don't need capping. You can use a cheaper alternative to use beneath to bulk out the substrate and reduce costs if you like.
A word of advice though, stay away from ADA Malaya. I use it in my tank and it breaks up too easy and I couldn't get my water clear for weeks when I first added it. Amazonia is much better.

Thanks, Aaron

EDIT: Oh and also what do you have in mind for fertilisers for the water column?

 

[Lolly123]

Thanks alot for the reply.

I think I'd like to go down the route of ADA, one of the reasons is because i'd really like to get my PH down from 7.8

Okay so assuming I use ADA AS I was also going to buy TPN+ and dose daily as I heard thats better than weekly? I assume its the best all in one for the plants but read that it can cause false ammonia and nitrite readings? Apart from the TPN+ and ADA do you suggest I use anything else or will that cover the list of nutrients needed to keep my plants happy?

Anyhow, once my tank is here, ill add the ADA, run the internal with a donation of seeded filter media from my existing and then fishless cycle, once that is complete my plants can be added along with my fish and external filter..I assume fishless cycle will be kinda unavoidable due to the initial ammonia spike from the substrate, so to stay safe i guess i should complete a full cycle?

However, if I were to use eco complete, does that change the water chemistry initially, would i still have to run a fishless cycle? Or could i add the substrate and plants and then transfer over my external filter and livestock after the tank has settled and up to correct temp etc?

I know you must have answered questions like this a thousand times, but i just want to make sure i get it all right from the start.

Thanks for your help.

 

[aaronnorth]

1ml per 20l of TPN+ daily will be fine.
TPN+ uses ammonium nitrate as a source of nitrogen, this is harmless to fish. It will give you a false reading, but seeing as there won't be any plants in while the ADA is leaching NH3, you won't need to worry about any false readings. Once the NH3 has stopped leaching, add your plants and start with the TPN+. By this time you shouldn't really need to test, as your filter will be cycled.
Just make sure you don't leave the bacteria without a source of ammonia though as your ammonia will drop quicker with using mature media.

To summarise:
-Add ADA + Filter (With or without mature media. obvisouly mature media speeds things up)
-Usually takes 4-6 weeks to stop ammonia leaching when starting with new media - Test daily
-Once it has stopped/ decreased to about 0.1ppm, add plants + dose ferts
-Add livestock.

-You should also be carrying out 50% water changes every 2 days,
-then every day once you add the fish for about another week
-then you can start to go to 2x per week for one more week
-then back to your weekly water change.

Thanks, Aaron

The same process applies for EC, (except you wait 4-6weeks for the water chemistry to stable rather than for it to stop leaching NH3). I think EC may only take a couple of weeks to stabilise though but I'm not sure.

 

[Lolly123]

Thank you for all your help and advice. Believe it or not due to some unexpected occurences the tank is still not setup, but will be this week. I'll follow your guidelines.

Thankyou, Lolly.

 

[JoshuaA]

This will be useful for me,

I currently have a bog standard play sand set up with no CO2 but with 36w of light on about 110l of water. I dose Flourish and Excel. I am intending to go CO2 on my tank in the upcoming weeks preferably before christmas comes around so I don't have a tree in my way!! Though I read about this ADA Amazonia releasing ammonia for a while.

My filter media was recently (2 months ago) transferred from a 40litre tank (all of it) into a Fluval 205 and then I packed the fluval 205 (about half of the filter) with more store bought ceramics, the tank never saw anything once I had my 205 up and running. Nothing has shown up on any of the test kits, all my plants are fine (apart from amazon frogbit they suddenly melted in the space of a week) everything else is doing great.

My question is... how do I go about adding ADA Amazonia to my tank without causing a large Ammonia spike, do I leave it in a bucket and flush the water out daily? Or is the ammonia leech not so noticable that a semi "mature" filter could cope with it? I say semi mature because the media before hand had been going for 6 months before being transferred. (About 20% of the media is 8 months old and 80% is 2 months old).

 

[aaronnorth]

You can soak it in a buket of water for a few weeks and change the water daily if you like, or you can add it to the tank and carry out 50% water changes every day for a few weeks. This is the same as doing a fishless cycle, adding mature media into the equation just means the cycle will complete quicker.

Thanks, Aaron