# Timescale for adding fish and plants with tropica soil



## Blueskiesdz (22 Oct 2015)

I have recently added Tropica soil in my new tank and on reading the set up advice from Tropica it states that I can add algae eating fish and shrimps after only a few days.  Has anyone follows this advice ? I've always cycled my previous tanks before adding any fish etc so this advice seems a little odd.  I'm just wondering if the 3 days water changes alleviate any ammonia of nitrite spikes so fish can be added sooner. 

Anybody with experiences with this soil ?


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## Hyoscine (22 Oct 2015)

Maybe hold fire until someone with a bit more experience replies, but I'm sure you can add plants immediately. I'd be very wary of adding anything else so soon though. If it's anything like the ADA or TMC stuff, it'll be leaching ammonia for two or three weeks.


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## Tim Harrison (23 Oct 2015)

It's one of the only times I use a test kit to check if ammonia levels etc are within the ballpark of acceptability. 
I've no experience of Tropica soil but usually with soil the tank cycles in a week or two. 
What I usually do next is to add critters very gradually a few at a time over the next few weeks so as not to overload the system.


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## Bacms (23 Oct 2015)

Worth tropica soil you don't get the ammonia peak. But your filter still needs to cycle and until that is done it is not safe to add fish or shrimp. Tropica is assuming your filter is already cycle. 

Plants from day 1 are fine though just the usual problems with unstable tanks such as diatoms but it does go away with time, nothing that can be done about it

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk


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## Blueskiesdz (23 Oct 2015)

Lovely thanks for your replies. The tank is heavily planted so I'll wait ( like I've done before) for the tank to cycle. 

Bacms, that makes sense I didn't think they would be referring to a cycled tank.


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## Stu Worrall (24 Oct 2015)

Like bacms says. It's assumed you've got a pre seeded filter but if it's heavily planted it will kick in quicker. I used 5 bags on my 120 and it doesn't suffer from the usual Ammonia spike like ada which is great.


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