# I want to rescape with ADA AS, but have fish...



## 5678 (14 Jul 2015)

As per title, I have one 50l tank and want to redo it factoring lessons learned so far. 

I want to use ADA Amazonia to try it out for myself, but I'm unsure how I can manage this with my fish. 

I have a 25 litre bucket that I guess I could home them in with a small internal filter running whilst I sort out the rescape. 

But how long can I expect the Amazonia to take before it stops letting out high levels of ammonia? The bucket isn't really big enough

Would dosing a large amount of Seachem Prime work? Or would that negate the benefit of using the Amazonia?

I was tempted to use the Tropica substrates, but I'd always be annoyed that I hadn't tried the ADA.


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## foxfish (14 Jul 2015)

You could mature the ADA in your bucket, put it in the bucket with water & a filter & do water changes for a month.


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## 5678 (14 Jul 2015)

Guess so! Hadn't thought of doing it that way round. The only annoyance would be having to scape with wet Amazonia.


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## ajm83 (14 Jul 2015)

I use an Ikea Samla plastic storage box for a quarantine tank. Would probably work quite nicely for this and is  < £5. I've kept fish in it for a few weeks with no problems. Obviously ensure the heater is not directly touching the box..! The ideal thing would be to find an equivalent product which is marked as being food safe.


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## 5678 (14 Jul 2015)

LOL, hadn't thought of that either! 

One of these looks perfect, http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70206314/#/00102975 I can put some wood/moss in there to provide them some cover along with a heater and the filter. 

Wife is getting annoyed even at the suggestion of it!


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## Jose (15 Jul 2015)

Maybe you could bake it to oxydize the ammonia. Look for this at thebarrreport.com.


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## ian_m (15 Jul 2015)

Or dose daily with Prime or Amquel which will remove ammonia. Had to do that before after an emergency rebuild.

Or daily large water changes.


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## Jose (15 Jul 2015)

ian_m said:


> Or dose daily with Prime or Amquel which will remove ammonia. Had to do that before after an emergency rebuild.


I dont think this is safe because it will just join to the ammonia temporarily but it will probably go back into solution.



ian_m said:


> Or daily large water changes.


I like this more. 

If you want to be sure mix the three methods i.e bake the soil, water changes and dose prime daily.


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## Chris Jackson (15 Jul 2015)

I  have new AS on top of old (about 30% new 70% old) Its early days but I am not having any issues with daily 20% water changes and a large well established filter. 

If you can plant densely from the start and do daily changes for the first couple of weeks I reckon it should be fine and Amazonia really does seem to be a superb substrate.


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## ian_m (15 Jul 2015)

Jose said:


> I dont think this is safe because it will just join to the ammonia temporarily but it will probably go back into solution.


No both bind to ammonia and keep it bound.


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## Jose (15 Jul 2015)

ian_m said:


> No both bind to ammonia and keep it bound.


I've heard they bind to it until your filter bacteria can take care of it. If ammounts are high and filter is not great then it can go back to the water.


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## ian_m (15 Jul 2015)

Jose said:


> If ammounts are high and filter is not great then it can go back to the water.


Never heard that before. I had no issues when I had to do emergency ammonia removal and in those days I was using only a crappy 400l/hr internal filter on 180litre tank.

Yes I was aware the Prime and Kordon can affect the results of ammonia tests (bleaches test strips I seem to remember).


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## 5678 (15 Jul 2015)

I read up on Prime quite a bit when I set my tank up and I understand it to convert ammonia to ammonium which is then removed by water changes and not the filter. 

If Prime will do the job without and negative impact on the aquasoil then I'm happy with that. I'll leave my fish in the make shift tank for a week once the rescape is done and then look to reintroduce them after a week of daily water changes and a 5X dose of prime.


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## ian_m (15 Jul 2015)

I used Kordon Amquel (not the AmQuel+, which doesn't remove ammonia) when I did mine.


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## alto (15 Jul 2015)

5678 said:


> If Prime will do the job without and negative impact on the aquasoil then I'm happy with that. I'll leave my fish in the make shift tank for a week once the rescape is done and then look to reintroduce them after a week of daily water changes and a 5X dose of prime.



Check Seachem's Ammonia Article & Seagram - I'd be inclined to use Amguard & Ammonia Alert as this will provide more stable control than increased dosing of Prime (which seldom "lasts" longer than an hour under typical aquarium conditions, even when dosed in higher amounts).

You can use any food grade container for the fish, note that you do want to provide a dark back & side if you place the fish in a temporary container, also consider vibrations.

Have fun with the rescape 

(of course you could use Tropica's (made in Japan) Aquasoil   )


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## 5678 (15 Jul 2015)

Good call on Amguard. Hadn't seen that and have just read up on it. I'll be sure to get some of that. I already have one of their Ammonia Alert cards.

The container I have is a solid blue plastic. I am going to put some wood with moss and a few rocks in there to break it up a bit for them.


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## alto (15 Jul 2015)

The sensor membrane works best if it's kept wet (re the 1 year expected life), if you pull the card & allow it to dry then attempt to re-use at a later date, response is more variable.
(I don't know if this is still on the Seachem site somewhere ... it had come up in a discussion)

What livestock do you have?


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## ian_m (15 Jul 2015)

I ran my fish in a 1/2 size plastic dustbin for a week or so once. No filter, just heater and airstone. Hung the heater from a piece of wood across the top of the dustbin, so it wouldn't touch and melt the sides. Put some plastic plants and rocks in to fish to hide in. Had to put a cover on as one evening we had a "jumper" trying to escape (clown loach).


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