# Substrate rinsing



## James O (4 Mar 2016)

ive read that many substrates leach ammonia when first submerged and rinsing for a week with daily water changes can help

I've go Amazonia and want to use it in a plant only tank.  It's a little 30cm cube of 27l.  I'm using it to grow on some buce plants (hat tip to mr. Luke) a bit more quickly.

Will the ammonia build up in such a small tank be an issue? Should I rinse it through before planting?


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## MrHidley (4 Mar 2016)

James O said:


> ive read that many substrates leach ammonia when first submerged and rinsing for a week with daily water changes can help
> 
> I've go Amazonia and want to use it in a plant only tank.  It's a little 30cm cube of 27l.  I'm using it to grow on some buce plants (hat tip to mr. Luke) a bit more quickly.
> 
> Will the ammonia build up in such a small tank be an issue? Should I rinse it through before planting?



It will leach ammonia for 4-6 weeks. It can be a problem, what most of us that use active substrates do is daily 50% water changes for the first couple of weeks, and then scaling back over the 4-6 week period.


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## zozo (5 Mar 2016)

I guess it depends on the type of substarte used..  In my first tank i added Akadama and did not measure much amonia peaks.. It never did realy peak to a accute poissonous level.. In my second tank i used Fuji Sand, which didn't leach any amonia at all, but had a slight not realy problematic nitrite peak. Still i cycled both tanks for several weeks.. Just saying.

Amazonia contains nutrients, aren't these the cause of the amonia peak? What good is it to pay top dollar for nutrient enriched substrate if you wash it out??


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## James O (6 Mar 2016)

Thanks guys. 

As this is a plant only tank it's just how/if the ammonia will affect the plants


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## zozo (6 Mar 2016)

You could dry start to cycle the soil, or as many dirt users do, cycle the substrate for a few weeks without plants to prevent a huge amonia spike after flooding.. In the amazonia, what i read (never used) its rich in organic nutrients. Tank doesn't need to be flooded to jumpstart the bacterial process to cycle it. You read all over people using it and flood from day one, do very large water changes the first few weeks. 

I would love to try it, but i'm just to hard headed to pay the price..


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## dw1305 (6 Mar 2016)

Hi all,





zozo said:


> i added Akadama and did not measure much amonia peaks


You shouldn't really have had any, unless you soaked it in a nutrient solution before use?

Akadama would differ from nutrient rich substrates because, in its raw state, all the cation exchange sites are filled with H+ ions (it comes from an area of high rainfall). It would reduce pH and hardness, but not add any nutrients.

If you have a substrate with a high CEC and you soak it in a solution with high levels of NH3/NH4+ it will rapidly exchange that ammonia/ammonium into the tank water, because NH4+ is one of the least strongly bound cations.



 
cheers Darrel


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## zozo (6 Mar 2016)

Thanks Darrel, that's good to know.. I caped it with a few cm of colombo powder type substrate, it must have come from that.. But it still was a minor one maybe 0.2mg, hard to see with a color test.


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## James O (6 Mar 2016)

Wow Darrel

What about the ammonia from Amazonia?  Should I rinse for s few weeks before adding plants?


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## dw1305 (6 Mar 2016)

Hi all,





James O said:


> What about the ammonia from Amazonia?


I'm not sure. Personally I would plant fairly heavily right from the start and if I had very soft water I'd add some dGH/dKH. I believe that Amazonia is a an "active" substrate and will lower pH, suggesting that the exchange sites have a lot of H+, as well as NH4+, ions. 

If you rinse it, basically you are going to be rinse the nutrients (you've paid for) out of it. If you plant, and use the suggested water changes, hopefully most of the nutrients will be converted into plant tissue, and any excess ammonia converted into NO3- in the filter, or upper layers of the substrate.

In my case I'm not interested in fast initial plant growth (I don't aquascape my tanks and they mainly stay set up for years at a time), so I limit the available nutrients in the substrate by using ~90% sand with only a small amount of leaf litter and clay added.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (6 Mar 2016)

Every making of video i've seen where ada substrate is used (and i've seen a lot) all went in straight from the bag. Spray it, plant it, flood it and do water changes..


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## parotet (7 Mar 2016)

Hi all

I always use enriched substrates because I want a very lean dosing in the water column. I am used to change water in my new setups every other day during the first week, and then until the first month twice a week to wash the excess of ammonia (my guess is that it is not needed that long, but as we all know, WCs don't hurt). My belief was that, far from being a problem, with this WC regime the nutrients leached were helping to boost plant growth and help them to get established (I don't use micros until the first month -or more; and I only use macros whenever needed). Actually, I introduce shrimps on day 7 without any toxicity problems. Water changes and of course a high amount of plant biomass help to keep ammonia at 0.
I only wash the substrate when I recycle it from another tank. In that case it is not a matter of nutrients but of rinsing all the organic debris from the previous layout. Then I use it as an inert substrate for the bottom and cap it with new enriched substrate.

Jordi


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