# just got ADA soil. advice needed



## trevorhoang (Oct 13, 2010)

So i just got a bag of ada soil off pat. This is my first time using ADA soil. I have read through a few threads about ada soil and i wanna get a better understanding of it.

so from what i understand: ada soil needs to be cycled for more than a month before it is 'safe' for shrimps. after a month, test the ada soil for amonia and if there is none then it is safe to introduce shrimps. Do regular water change to remove the amonia while it is cycling. keep everything at around room temp of 78 degrees.

so my questions are:

can I cycle the ada in a big bucket?

how much water should be changed every time i do a water change and how often?

can ada soil still give an ammonia spike even after a month?

I would like to raise/breed CRS. would ada soil be all i need? is there anything else?

thanks in advance
trevor


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I cycled my ADA in the tank it was going to be used in with the desired filter running. I figured the more surface area of the water on the soil, the better, but I could be entirely wrong here, and you need your filter to be seeded anyways.

I did 70%+ each day in a 10 gallon tank, it removed the ammonia spike in less than 3 weeks.

If you're ammonia reads zero, you won't get a spike from the soil itself, but rather from any additional bioload (with shrimp you probably won't even notice it).

Always monitor your KH\GH, you'll want these to be at 3-5 if I recall correctly. ADA should maintain this while it's still effective soil.

Make sure you monitor your nitrite and nitrates after your ammonia is near to saying zero.

Cheers,
Chris


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## stonedaquarium (Jun 11, 2011)

what kind of ADA soil did you get? if its amazonia it does leach ammonia quite a bit. what you can do is cycle is to jump start the cycle by heavily seeding the tank with nitrifying bacteria ( cycle or stresszyme). i normally double or trippled the dose the 1st week. to get an early jump start... and test it by having one or two fishes for a week... and most of all test it if it reads zero its safe for shrimp.


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## MananaP (Apr 22, 2010)

If you want to do it right & don't want to waste shrimps from dying. I would suggest 3weeks to 1month of cycling. The first few days i would do 59-70% water change.. GL!


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## kam yiu (Apr 27, 2010)

what kind filter you prefer to use , underground filter or canister filter , I got a bag ada soil from pat last week and using two canister with old media opened a ada cuber garden just changed water one time and cycle two day and put crs and cbs in ,they are all fine ,but ph is keeping low and now is 4.8 and didn't check gh.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

kam yiu said:


> what kind filter you prefer to use , underground filter or canister filter , I got a bag ada soil from pat last week and using two canister with old media opened a ada cuber garden just changed water one time and cycle two day and put crs and cbs in ,they are all fine ,but ph is keeping low and now is 4.8 and didn't check gh.


My apologies for hijacking the thread....

Canister is best with CRS. Did you happen to get ADA Africana? It will buffer PH in the low range. Are you sure your PH Test Kit is correct?

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## kam yiu (Apr 27, 2010)

I use ph monitor


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