journal ADA Journey

[larrymull]

Not too much to report at the moment on today day 16 I did a check on the water parameters and came back with a ph of 6.8/7 and an ammonia reading of 1 to 2. I am still dosing with stability every day.

[larrymull]

So day 20 and I have the following to report:-

7.4ph

1or 2 ammonia

I have continued to dose daily with stability and have continued to keep ph high by dosing with a bit of bicarb. I have seen no changes in ammonia coming down. I would have expected to see some lowering of ammonia by this stage. I am also not seeing any little critters in the water.

Does anyone have any take my progression? 

[Anaeflurane]

So day 20 and I have the following to report:-

7.4ph

1or 2 ammonia

I have continued to dose daily with stability and have continued to keep ph high by dosing with a bit of bicarb. I have seen no changes in ammonia coming down. I would have expected to see some lowering of ammonia by this stage. I am also not seeing any little critters in the water.

Does anyone have any take my progression? 

Hang in there, my last ADA Amazonia cycle in my OS 4ft took around 6 weeks. My previous ADA cycles took no more than 2 weeks.

It will happen but it will take time, good luck :)

[larrymull]

Hang in there, my last ADA Amazonia cycle in my OS 4ft took around 6 weeks. My previous ADA cycles took no more than 2 weeks.

It will happen but it will take time, good luck :)

@anaeflurane i hear you, all good. I was just making sure things are still progressing. Nothing worse than after 4 weeks and no signs of things happening and then you realise you stuffed up somewhere along the way!

[jayc]

My first tank using ADA took 2 months. New filter media, new tank, everything new. If you can get a little cup of "dirty" filter media or collect the water and gunk from squeezing an old filter media, you would be off to a huge head start.

You can try turning up the heat a bit - to 28degC. (only until the tank is cycled).

Since the tank is uninhabited, run your fingers through the substrate gently, like a plough, to stir up the substrate. This removes air pockets, and gets oxygen into the substrate. 

 

Patience.

 

As for bacteria additives, I haven't had much luck with Stability.

I find Probidio BioDigest + BioTrace to be good.

ATM Colony is good too.

Maybe you should have seen/read this first before starting a new tank...

This concoction works well. But really stinks, and I mean it really smells. Hey, it's live concentrated bacteria afterall. 

Edited July 2, 2015 by jayc

[larrymull]

@jayc I had read your previous posts suggesting those things and had already done that - thanks. I'll seed with some other media filter too.

[larrymull]

Good news of sorts on day 23 ammonia has come down to .5 and nitrites is up at 2.0. I did see it with some other tank media to help with the beneficial bacteria.

I'm hoping to see more improvement this week.

[larrymull]

Ok Day 24 and we have some more movement in the cycling process.

6.4ph
0 ammonia
2 nitrites
40 nitrates.

I  had stopped dosing with baking soda to lift the ph up above 7.4 to leech more ammonia. Is this the reason I am seeing no ammonia anymore at ph6.4 or has the cycle just progressed? @Disciple or anyone else care to comment.

Thanks.

[Disciple]

Hello Larry,

My opinion is that you have progressed in the Cycle. I believe you will start seeing the Nitrites disappear next and the Nitrates will spike to above 80.

You have to be careful with the Ada soil though, as it does continue to leach ammonia for quite a few weeks but it seem you are getting there.

[larrymull]

Some more good news. Nitrites is now reading zero with nitrates sitting at the 20 mark. 

I am aware that the ada amazonia may leech some more ammonia in the coming weeks so this is my plan.

Over the weekend I am going to do a 80% water change, and refill the tank with RO water at 150TDS using salty shrimp and bring the temperature back down to 23 degrees. Once this has been done, I am going to check my water parameters again and then if everything looks ok I am going to send in the Red Cherry's to see how the tank is holding up.

Once I feel confident with how the tank is measuring up and I have consistent water parameters, I am going to slowly bring across my TB collection which hopefully at that stage will include a berried BB and a berried KK.

With using ADA amazonia and RO water should I expect a low reading on the ph?

Well that is the plan anyway. If anyone has anything else to add I would appreciate it.

[larrymull]

I think i'm finally there. Yesterday I did a 80% water change and added RO water with Salty Shrimp and added a Red Cherry Shrimp.

I dropped the temperature down to 23 degrees. Added some IAL, some more minerals and left it alone for 24hrs.

Today I did some water parameter tests and came up with the following:-

6.2 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates, 2kh, 4gh, TDS 130 (I am going to slowly raise this to 150).

Anyway, things are on track and I am going to just monitor how the RCS goes in the tank for the next couple of days and may even add some more.

The other good news is my BB is now berried to a male KK, so good timing on the tank.

[Disciple]

Good work!

[larrymull]

So far this week everything has gone well, there has been no ammonia spikes and last night I added some more RO water because of evaporation with a higher GH+ value....currently TDS is sitting around 145. I am hoping to get this around 170-180 as my other tank seems to be doing well at this mark.

The Red Cherry's are cleaning up the tank nicely especially the fungus and ugly stuff on the golden vine, i haven't fed them anything so they have no choice.

My next move is to move over some mischlings as I am too scared to move over my pregnant BB and KK in case they stress and drop their eggs. Once the mischlings are settled and I feel there is no ammonia spiking I will continue to bring over the other shrimp. 

My other tank will be used to housed CRS/RCS

[larrymull]

Hi Guys,

I thought I would give a 6 month update. 

Well things appear to have finally have settled down for me and my TB and YCS tank. I am a much happier camper.

After many losses of shrimp in the tank (believe to be caused by high nitrates) the last month has seen no shrimp deaths and a much happier and healthier colony of shrimp. I added some more aeration to the tank as well and so far the shrimplings seem to be growing and enjoying their surroundings (this was a problem in the past). 

The only real issue I have encountered is for the life of me I can't get the YCS breeding again. 

The saddest part of this journey has been losing my beloved BB female who was a real producer for me, she was gorgeous and was my favourite shrimp. I have bred some lovely Extreme KK which I am pretty proud of and look of a high standard.

Anyway I just wanted to give you guys an update that through great pain in 15' hopefully 16' is a year I get to build on my knowledge and continue this great hobby.

A special thanks to all the crew out in SKF for helping out.

[neo-2FX]

Hopefully onto better times!

Now for some photos!!!!

[larrymull]

12 minutes ago, neo-2FX said:

Hopefully onto better times!

Now for some photos!!!!

I know, working on it.

[neo-2FX]

How's this tank going @larrymull??

[larrymull]

On 9 May 2016 at 11:25 PM, neo-2FX said:

How's this tank going @larrymull??

hey @neo-2FX a lot better than it has been. I decided to basically stop reading forums, reviews, articles and just leave the tank alone and it has been a lot more successful than it was. No issue with nitrates and I no longer do many tests on the water, change have a semi-serious routine. I still have the odd deaths but the shrimplets are surviving a lot more so I am happier. Fingers crossed it continues.

[neo-2FX]

That's good news Larry.

It's sometimes the case. The less you touch the tank the better. I've found that the tanks I set and forget end up doing better haha.

[al4n]

1 hour ago, larrymull said:

hey @neo-2FX a lot better than it has been. I decided to basically stop reading forums, reviews, articles and just leave the tank alone and it has been a lot more successful than it was. No issue with nitrates and I no longer do many tests on the water, change have a semi-serious routine. I still have the odd deaths but the shrimplets are surviving a lot more so I am happier. Fingers crossed it continues.

best advice

[larrymull]

On 13/05/2016 at 1:17 PM, neo-2FX said:

That's good news Larry.

It's sometimes the case. The less you touch the tank the better. I've found that the tanks I set and forget end up doing better haha.

@neo-2FX hey mate thought I'd give another little update, it has been too long. Tanks are going great! I ditched RO water and just used tap water and have had no deaths because of it over the past 6 months. The colony is thriving. Trust you're well.