Old ADA soil?

[jellyfish6]

I'm just going through the process of stripping out some old plants and replacing with some others. The ADA soil must now be over 12months old and apart from general maintenance (a bit of vacuuming over the surface), I don't do anything to the soil .

My questions,

Should I be doing anything else as far as the soil is concerned? I've noticed when removing plants that there is a fair bit of 'muck' building-up below the surface and patches of BBA attached to individual pieces of the Soil.

What's the average life-span for this product? As I dose dry salts will it ever need replacing, (as long as it doesn't break down)?

I've always had gravel substrates in the past which you could vacuum to remove any 'muck'..... surly at some point it needs a good clean!

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
It's a good idea, if you are doing a strip down, to clean out the muck. Too much organic waste produces pollution. The bacterial populations will rebuild easily after a good clean.

As long as the clay maintains it's integrity then there is no reason to replace it. The lifespan of clay sediment is basically the length of time that it stays as grains and does not turn into mush. Clay products function well by pulling nutrients from the water and passing them on to the plant root hairs. As a result, Aquasoil generally maintains a high Nitrogen content and a fair Phosphorous content assuming EI level of water column dosing.

BBA is associated with poor CO2 application and which has little relation to sediment performance. You can either remove the affected grains or treat them in Excel or similar liquid carbon products.

Cheers,

 

[jellyfish6]

Thanks ceg, as general maintenance, do you vacuum your substrate or try not to disturb it?

 

[ceg4048]

Yes, I do. Organic waste in a fuel injected tank is a scourge, so I do my best to remove as much muck as I can without ruining the scape. The entire tank doesn't have to be done in one go, mind you, but do ensure that the vacuuming is done in concert with a large water change, otherwise there is a risk of pulling ammonia and other toxins up from the sediment and dumping it into the water column.

Cheers,