# Amazonia Soil and Red Cherries.



## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

Hi,

I'm about to set up an ADA based aquarium, and I was just wondering if my red cherries are going to be 'ok'  My ph was in the right range but my kh ang gh are extremely low. Right now my setup has fluorite as part of the substrate and the kh and gh stays low but doesn't create ph jumps/fluctuation.

Tha point is that Amazonia Soil lowers the gh/kh and that with CO2 might cause lower Ph :/ How low? Hard to tell, what are your observations?

My setup will have rocks inside, so that might raise the kh/gh a little bit.

I'm asking because I know that cherries are very sensitive  

Thank you,
Matt


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Cherries will be fine in ADA aquasoil. As long as they are transitioned and acclimated to the water parameters there shouldn't be any issues. I would wait about 3 weeks with a new setup of the substrate since the substrate releases a great deal of "stuff" into the water column in the beginning.

Cherries for me survived from these changing conditions:

pH 7.6 changed to 6.4
KH 7 changed to 3-4
GH stayed around the same.

-John N.


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## YzMxer99 (Jul 17, 2006)

Im going with the ADA on a replant of my nano and plan on putting some cherries in there. From what I gathered, aquasoil spikes ammonia for a couple weeks, so wait until that stabilizes to stock it w/ shrimp. I learned that aqua soil "bottoms out" so if you have a really low KH it won't have as much of an effect. I.e. it will only take it so low. Hope that helps. How big of a tank are you planning? With my nano, I'm switching from DIY Co2 to excel just to stabilize the Ph more.


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## random_alias (Nov 7, 2005)

John N. said:


> Cherries will be fine in ADA aquasoil. I would wait about 3 weeks with a new setup of the substrate since the substrate releases a great deal of "stuff" into the water column in the beginning.
> 
> -John N.


Do not underestimate the value of this advice. I use aquasoil exclusively in all my tanks. I love the stuff. However, I have measured large Ammonia spikes directly after setting up some tanks. These tanks had no animals in them and no decaying plants. They used reconstituted RO water so there was no ammonia in the source water. The aquasoil had to be culprit. I love aquasoil but this is a nuance of the stuff during initial setup that you should definitely make yourself aware of, especially with shrimp. Give it time to leach and do a few water changes before adding animals if you can. The stuff will work great if you take that simple added step during setup.


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## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

Thank you guys!

Well, the tank is 75 Gallons and the problem will be the fish, b/c all I have left is a 10 G aquarium. My fish are neons (~24) Rasboras (~12) siamese algae eater ~(4 or 5, I will sell those to the LFS and get smaller one's once the 3 weeks passes) and cherries (~?? maybe 40- 50?)

I should wait 3 weeks before introducing fish, with the amazonia. I'll be checking the ammonia levels to see how it looks. I'll call my LFS and aks if they can drade neons in. I'm thinking about all rasbora scape 

Thanks,
Matt


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Sounds like you have a plan. Frequent water changes will help expedite the leeching process. 

-John N.


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## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

I just called my LFS and they will take the Cardinals and siamese algae eaters.
I will transfer the red cherries to 10G, ald same with the rasboras.

After 2 weeks I will use my store credit to buy more "Rasbora Espei" and *small* siamese algae eater (big one's are lazy  )

Matt


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