# Leeching ADA Africana in a bucket?



## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Hey All,

My ADA Amazonia is close to 1.5 years and pH is sitting around 6.6-6.8pH. Im afraid it will start to rise even further in the coming months.

I want to know how you guys manage to address aging soil without re-doing the whole tank?

I am thinking of leeching the soil in a bucket with a sponge filter for 3 weeks and re-test for ammonia. Then add a 1" layer of ADA Africana ontop of my Amazonia.

Any thoughts? I really dont want to buy a 2nd tank and light.


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Africana has next to no ammonia, as does Malaya, only Amazonia is the loaded ammonia version. I had a site linked that showed it all from the different versions, but the site is down. Trying to find another version.


----------



## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

I just dumped 3 containers of Netlea soil into my tank that had a higher PH than I wanted. I didn't rinse it or anything just slowly drizzled the dry soil into the tank (nothing in it at the time and it had been running for a few months with just a couple of small killifish in it)

I checked both ammonia and PH for several days expecting a spike or at least something.....nada. There is NO ammonia in there, and PH is now at 6

I added my high grade crystal and snow white shrimps into this tank after about 1 hour of dripping the water in to their container, and they are all perfectly fine....no doa's or anything.

There old tank was starting to leech out some higher ph so I decided to redo that tank for the small killifish to live in. I just dumped again Netlea soil in the tank and added some plants....will check the ammonia and PH tomorrow and monitor it for a couple more days before adding the fish.

Ive done it this way before with no problems.


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Netlea crystal soil has next to no ammonia. Netlea plant soil has tonnes of ammonia. Same with ADA. Amazonia has tonnes of it, the others have next to none.


----------



## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I second GeToChKn's comment on Netlea's ammonia content. I've cycled more than 3 Netlea tanks and the ammonia concentration never went over 2ppm, mostly at 1 - 1.5ppm range. If you have a cycled tank and add smaller amount of new Netlea I guess ammonia may not be an issue. Another experience member on this forum changed out his Amazonia in CRS tank with brand new Amazonia also didn't see any issue. I would feel better though if I soak it for a few weeks first in a bucket.


----------



## Bigdaddyo (Jan 23, 2010)

So did you soak your ADA for a few weeks before introducing it to your tank?

I'm in the same boat right now. My ADA Amazonia doesn't seem to buffer the PH very well. I have half a bag and I was think of the using a pale to cycle the soil. I have well established canister filter that would help with the ammonia spike from the ADA.


----------



## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

My Africana showed no signs of ammonia leech so I simply added it to my breeder boxes and the 1/2 Liter I used seems to help keep it abit lower. 

If your dealing with Amazonia, I would use a bucket and RO water with 50% water changes every day or so. Dont think there is a way to speed up the leech process....


----------



## Bigdaddyo (Jan 23, 2010)

Symplicity said:


> My Africana showed no signs of ammonia leech so I simply added it to my breeder boxes and the 1/2 Liter I used seems to help keep it abit lower.
> 
> If your dealing with Amazonia, I would use a bucket and RO water with 50% water changes every day or so. Dont think there is a way to speed up the leech process....


I can't say I've been overly impressed with my ADA but I'll cycle what I have and transplant it when it's really. I keep reading good things about the netlea soil.


----------



## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

getochkn said:


> Netlea crystal soil has next to no ammonia. Netlea plant soil has tonnes of ammonia. Same with ADA. Amazonia has tonnes of it, the others have next to none.


it took me 2months to properly cycle the netlea crystal soil. Id say akadama still the best its cheap and no ammonia. I transfer my shrimps from netlea to akadama tank and there is a really huge difference my shrimps are more happy now and very active.


----------



## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

camboy012406 said:


> it took me 2months to properly cycle the netlea crystal soil. Id say akadama still the best its cheap and no ammonia. I transfer my shrimps from netlea to akadama tank and there is a really huge difference my shrimps are more happy now and very active.


I've read a lot about Akadama stopping buffering after a short time and doing other weird things. It's not an aquarium soil, it's made for planted bonsai tree's and things like that, so I've stayed away from it.

Have a read through here.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=198805&page=2

People like mordalphus(Was an Ebiken seller before he stopped selling), Max Kenji (The only Benibachi dealer in North Ameria), Somewhatshocked (breeds all shrimp, makes his own shrimp food line), Hedge_fund (is really good at breeding CRS and other shrimp), when they say they are having problems and noticing things like that, I tend to take their word as they know what they are talking about it.

The problem I found with Netlea was it buffered too low. 4-8-5pH is rather low for a tank, hard to get bacteria growing, snails die in it, etc. Need a stable 6.5pH buffering last forever soil. lol.

Part of what I'm looking at if I have the ability to setup a shrimp rack soon. Keeping shrimp without worry about substrates. Powerhouse media is 1 choice. It's expensive but is supposed to last 2+ years and it's just media that buffers and doubles as media, so you add it to your filter. Easy to change to that out. At maybe $100 a tank for a 20gal, seems expensive but 2 bags of Netlea, ADA, Akadama, etc over the course of 2+ years are going to cost you almost that, so more upfront cost, but if it can buffer well for 2+ years, I may be interested.


----------



## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

getochkn said:


> I've read a lot about Akadama stopping buffering after a short time and doing other weird things. It's not an aquarium soil, it's made for planted bonsai tree's and things like that, so I've stayed away from it.
> 
> Have a read through here.
> 
> ...


there are many types of akadama anyways they probably bought the wrong ones


----------



## jumpsmasher (Oct 1, 2012)

camboy012406 said:


> there are many types of akadama anyways they probably bought the wrong ones


Ya seems to be many different kinds of Akadama out there - me, Ron and another local shrimp keeper managed to get some akadama thru a group buy that Ebi-Ken (Frank) organized a couple of months back. I figured if Frank can vouch for it, it should be pretty decent.

I only used it for less than a month so far it been holding steady at 6.5. I used it so far for a couple of my new PRL setups including some from Max and so far it seem pretty solid but way too early to say how long the buffering life is

I really like Africana, I find it is harder than Amazonia and leeches a lot less ammonia. But it is really aggressive when it comes to lowering the PH - at least with RO water. My Taiwan been tank uses a 2/3 Africana + 1/3 Amazonia mix and the pH sits at around 4.6 ~ 4.8

If the Akadama I got from Frank has similar properties while keeping pH around 6.5, and last at least 1-2 years, I will be pretty happy with it.

I got a couple bags left and I am going to try setting up a new tank for my OEBT to see how they like it compared to my current inert setup for them/

Of course, if the Akadama imports in Canada get blocked like what happen to the Double Red line stuff in the US, than we will all have to look at alternatives like getochkn has for keeping our pH mildly acidic (ph 6.5 ~ 6.8).


----------

