# Aquasoil Cycled w/ Plants



## speedballz (Aug 16, 2009)

Hi All,

I'm gonna switched the eco-complete to aquasoil amazonia I in my 26g bowfront heavy planted tank. My main concerned are some of the fishes and shrimps mainly a pair apistogamma agasizi and amano shrimps cause of the ammonia peak associated with aquasoil. I'm gonna put the critters in a spare 10g tank while the 26g tank is cycling. I'll be replanting using the same plants after some major trimming. My question is how long should I let the tank cycled with the plants using the same biological filter from the established tank before it's safe to add the fishes and shrimps.

Someone told me that you could gently rinsed the aquasoil to remove the excess ammonia. After that add in the tank and replant. Use the same biological filter from the established tank and the tank should be cycled in 12hrs.

Any suggestions?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I did this with my 125g tank. I only lost 5 fish (2 committed suicide). I kept them in a crowded rubbermaid container with an HOB for 5 weeks. I changed some water every other day in the rubbermaid container.

In the 125g I used this formula, with one deviation - I put Prime in on the days I didn't change water as well.
In terms of Amazonia, the first month is the most crucial month because in this time frame you are doing alot of things......

Just to give you an example(of course this regiment is not the absolute)
-water change everyday and adding plants and setting up the tank in first week
-water change every other day and perhaps adding some algae eaters second week
-water change twice or once a week and adding more algae eaters and some fish
***notice also you can add fertilizers even during the first week***

Go to my thread page 17 and begin at post 169 to see what and how I did the change.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Test with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests. When the ammonia and nitrite are consistently 0 ppm it is safe for the livestock. If the plants have not removed most of the nitrate you might need to do one more water change. 
The peak of the ammonia might be too much for some plants. If some plants die, presumably from excess ammonia, do not replace them until the cycle is done, or pretty close to it (ammonia not higher than 1 ppm for these delicate plants). 

That soil can produce way too much ammonia for even a fully cycled filter to handle, and you need that cycled filter to take care of the fish, anyway. If you want to add some nitrifying bacteria you could add Tetra Safe Start or Dr. Tim's One and Only. These will not stop the soil from going through its cycle, but will boost the population of bacteria from the start, so maybe the ammonia won't get quite so toxic-high for the plants. Even if you did not add any bacteria to jump start it, by the end of the month this tank will have a pretty good population of nitrifying bacteria. 

Can you start this soil cycling in a different container, so the fish are kept in the tank, and not removed for so long a time? Or would moving (disturbing) the soil after say a month of cycling cause problems? If the fish were re-homed for just a week, perhaps while the soil re-settled and maybe went through a very small cycle it would be easier on the fish. Perhaps the nitrifying bacteria could handle this minicycle (if there was one), and the fish could be placed in the tank as soon as the water cleared.


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## The old man (Apr 12, 2008)

I would *not* wash the aqua soil at all. Doing that defeats the reason you are using it. Just test the water for however long it takes to complete the cycle. I used stability with each waterchange and it helped. My plants seemed to thrive with the ammonia.


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## CRS Fan (Nov 25, 2008)

Here is a thread from Shrimp Now regarding a quick cycle process frome one of their mods who also happens to be a well-respected shrimp breeder http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/showthread.php?t=565. Hopefully this helps.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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