journal ADA Journey

[larrymull]

So I took the plunge and went out and bought a 60L ADA Cube Garden aquarium off a shop in Melbourne who was doing a sale on ADA aquariums and equipment. I thought it was about time I started advancing my skills as a shrimp keeper. After keeping RCS, YCS etc for the past 6 months and having a successful breeding colony, I ventured in to the CRS/CBS a couple of weeks ago in an already established 30cm cube tank - they all seem to be doing just fine. So over the course of the next 4-6 weeks whilst my new tank is cycling I am going to learn all I can about CRS/CBS to make sure I limit the amount of stuff ups. Once everything is established and I feel the tank is ready to rock and roll, I will look at adding a TB or 2 to existing selected stock.

My ideal kind of set up for the new tank is to be an excellent visual tank along with a breeding ground for many shrimplets. I am unsure of what plants I am going to use if any, besides some mosses and perhaps some anubias on some driftwood. My main concern at the moment is what filter I will be using. As I have limited space and I don't want to clog the counter up too much (I cannot put for example a canister filter hidden underneath the tank), I am conscious of the tank and area around the tank having minimal items hanging around.

Tank Setup

Tank: ADA Cube Garden Superior - W60×D30×H36 (60 litres)

Substrate: ADA Power Sand, ADA Amazonian Normal and ADA Amazonia Fine

Heater: TBD

Filter: TBD - Can just a sponge filter work

Lights: TBD most likely UP Aqua 60cm LED

 

My plan is to follow exactly what the ADA substrate tells me to do in terms of cycling the tank and water changes.

 

Before I get started I will need to find a filter that meets my needs. I know I can always add plants later but I am sure it is best to get them in there and settled ASAP. Any design ideas and/or filter suggestions would be great.

 

I will keep you updated as I go along......

 

Edited July 10, 2015 by larrymull

[larrymull]

I was thinking to keep things nice and tidy I could always do something like this - using an AquaClear HOB filter too.

[fishmosy]

Best of luck with your set-up and getting the cycling done. I've never used ADA soil but some posts on SKF indicate that it can take a long time (months!) for ammonia to stop leaching from some ADA soils. 

With regards to the filter set-up above: I would have two concerns. 1. Is the filter (motor) strong enough to draw water through the filters at a high enough rate? Those filters will clog over time. best to try it out beforehand and if the flow is los when the filters are clean, then it isn't going to cut it when they start to clog. Remember when it comes to shrimp, the more filtration the better.

secondly the overflow from the filter goes directly into one of the sponge filters. Hence this will create a loop and reduce the amount of water that actually flows around the tank. This would not be a hassle to fix, just needs some extra plumbing pieces. 

 I'd run the both HOB and the sponge filter, but seperately. 

[buck]

have to agree with fishmosy.

that sponge filter is really good as a stand alone and id run a bigger hob completly seperate.

Edited June 12, 2015 by buck

[larrymull]

@buck @fishmosy thanks, I am happy to run them separately and that is a good idea anyway to add extra filtration. 

[larrymull]

So I started the tank on Saturday and added the substrate with a little undulation, after 24 hours I have done a 100% water change and have put some vine in the tank along with some xmas moss attached. Supposedly I am suppose to do another 100% water change tomorrow and then every 2nd 100% water change for a week. Then for the next 2 weeks after that 50% water changes every 3rd day. I haven't started measuring parameters just yet but I will tonight and post them as I go.

 

Edited July 10, 2015 by larrymull

[Matuva]

Why so many water changes? You should let time to bacterias to do their job.

When I "build" a tank, I do the 1st water change only after 3-4 weeks, after the tank has completed his NO2/NO3 cycle. To speed things I use Sera BioNitrivec and add some bacterias from the filter of a well cycled tank

Edited June 14, 2015 by Matuva

[larrymull]

Why so many water changes? You should let time to bacterias to do their job.

When I "build" a tank, I do the 1st water change only after 3-4 weeks, after the tank has completed his NO2/NO3 cycle. To speed things I use Sera BioNitrivec and add some bacterias from the filter of a well cycled tank

​Hi Matuva, the amount of water changes early on are because of the amount of ammonia that ADA can leech. The guy who instructed me to do it this way, uses ADA all the time and also has a shop where he sells ADA and does aquascapes. That said he still says it will be a good 6-8 weeks before the tank is ready for inhabitants and believes that at 3 month mark the tank is settled, in his experiences using ADA soil. I am in no hurry to get this tank up and cycled, I just want to do it properly.

[Matuva]

Oh OK, I didn't notice you are using ADA substrat. This one is still odd to me 

[Matuva]

What's the advantage of ADA soil vs inert quartz?

[larrymull]

Oh OK, I didn't notice you are using ADA substrat. This one is still odd to me 

​Me too I am just hoping it works out for me and I am still not getting ammonia readings after months down the track.

[Zorba]

What's the advantage of ADA soil vs inert quartz?

​I am new here too but I will try to answer your question

ADA offers different types of soil, Ammazonia and Malaya contain organic matter and are great for planted tanks as they have nutrients for the plants which is why ADA generally leaches ammonia for a period. It also helps with buffering PH

Inert gravels generally don't buffer and offer no nutritional benefits to plants

Hope this is right?

Cheers

[larrymull]

I did my last 100% water change last night and measured the ph and ammonia this morning and got:-

6.2ph

1 ammonia

I was expecting a little higher on the ammonia scales but it might start going up over the next few days before I do a 50% water change. As for the look of the tank I think I need something growing under the golden vine just to fill it in a little, any suggestions?

I will be also putting a xmas moss ball on the right hand side so the shrimp, shrimplets can graze upon. When is a good time to put in IAL and Mulberry leaves and Mineral Balls?

 

[larrymull]

So I decided to go with the Aqua Clear 50 HOB, just my kinda style. Anyway would you guys keep the foam, carbon and biomax or would you swap one out for noodles? I have heard conflicting reports and not sure what i should do.

[jayc]

I'd leave the carbon out and replace it with more biological filter material - like noodles, marine pure, etc.

[Zorba]

I'd leave the carbon out and replace it with more biological filter material - like noodles, marine pure, etc.

​Why would you leave the carbon out ?

[jayc]

Carbon is used to absorb unwanted medication, toxins, minerals, chemicals, etc.

It does so indiscriminately. It will take out good minerals as well as the unwanted stuff. So unless you need to remove things like toxins, or excess meds, then you don't need it, yet. Where as, more biological filtration is always beneficial.

You can replace the carbon when you actually need it.

[Zorba]

Thank you Jay

[larrymull]

So it is now day Day 6 and last night I added a biospon dual head sponge air filter along separately with an AquaClear 50 (on Day 5). I have also added 3 boss aquaria mineral balls, did another 50% water change with Prime (I will be moving over to RO water later in the cycle), I added some anubias just at the bottom of the golden vine trunk too so hopefully that will help to fill that space out a bit. I have also temporarily added some hornwort to hopefully suck up any ammonia too. I have the heater set at 26c. I also currently have a little nano 30cm led light going on and this gives just enough light for moss and the anubias.

I am going to leave this set up going until day Day 9 and then I will do another 50% water change, I will probably do another water change on day 14. At the end of week 2 I will leave the water changes and most probably change out 30-50% of the water weekly but at that stage I will be closely monitoring water parameters at this stage (currently ph 6.2, ammonia 1.0). My main focus has been to leech as much of the ammonia out of the soil as possible. 

Having read some comments from @shrimpdaddy and the fact ADA soils have 2 stages of leeching ammonia, I am going to be cautious.

"As such, don't be deceived by the test reading saying 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite will be safe for shrimp. The best way to gauge this is by observing the critters's population and activity. When you see their population bloom and increased in activity, that means the first stage one completed. After awhile, their population will decrease tremendously. This signify the start of stage 2. During this stage 2, perform regular 20 to 40% water change. Once you see the population and activity of the critters bounce back, then it is the almost time for stage 2 to complete. After that, perform approximately 80% water change (drain the water until 4cm above the highest point of the substrate). Let the water run for 48 hours before adding in the shrimp."

My ultimate goal for this tank is to put my KK, BB and some CRS SSS grade shrimp in there and start breeding.

[larrymull]

@shrimpdaddy also says that if I want to speed up the process of leeching ammonia to use mild alkaline water of ph7.4. 

From my tap the water is 7.2 so hopefully this is helping the leeching of ammonia quicker.

[larrymull]

Day 7: I did a water test this morning and have come up with these results: 

6.6ph

2.0 ammonia

0.25 nitrites

10 nitrates

I was very surprised to see any nitrates in the water at this stage of the cycle, so i retested and came up with the same reading (yes I did shake the bottles properly and hit them against the wall). Any idea why I am seeing nitrates in the cycling of the tank so early? Is this a good thing or not?

On a side note I have been dosing with Stablitilty. 

[kizshrimp]

If you are seeing nitrates then nitrite is being converted. That is a good thing, the sooner the better. 

[larrymull]

On Day 9 I did a 50% water change and then this morning Day 10 I did a water parameter test and came up with the following:-

6.2ph, 2.0ammonia, 0.25 nitrites, 10 nitrates

I accidentally added some Prime in to the tank with the water change....so that might nullify my ammonia readings for a few days. I have kept dosing stability to the tank and even added a little bicarb as suggested by @shrimpdaddy to speed up the cycling process.

I would be pretty happy that after all the cycling is done and the tank is ready I end up with a ph of 6.2. This tank is going to be my TB tank.

[Disciple]

It seemed my cycle slowed any time the ph was around 6. Once I started using the bicarb to bring it back up to 7 the cycle would continue. I wasn't sure if the bicarb had lasting effects on the wp but once my cycle was done I did a 90% water change.

Seems like your cycle is going fine.

[larrymull]

It seemed my cycle slowed any time the ph was around 6. Once I started using the bicarb to bring it back up to 7 the cycle would continue. I wasn't sure if the bicarb had lasting effects on the wp but once my cycle was done I did a 90% water change.

Seems like your cycle is going fine.

Thanks Disciple good to know about the bicarb i'll keep using that and keep the ph up. I intend to do a big water change when the cycle is close to completing with RO water.