New setup -- unfamiliar with ADA soils and a few other questions

[aqua_crazy]

So its been almost 2 years since I left this wonderful hobby. Last week I made the jump and set back up my 40g breeder. I have spent the last few nights reading over everything I could on this site. The break from the hobby and poor memory has left me with a few questions.

To give you a little background I am not a newbie but my complete abscence has left me forgetting things. I started back in 2008 with my first planted tank and the bug got me good. I picked up every bit of information I could on growing/maintaining aquatic plants from Walstad's book to Amano's coffee table glory to AGA's quarterly journal, and everything inbetween. Soon I was working at a great LFS maintaining their planted setups and orders as well as running service calls for customers. Unfortunately in July 2010 I had to move and that recquired selling my tanks, the only one I kept was my 40g high-tech planted setup. After the move the tank was never set back up and has been collecting dust. Couple weeks ago I started tossing around the idea of setting it back up and started looking into ADAs product line. About a week ago when I decided to clean it up and bring it back to life.

I decided this time not to mess around with Eco-Complete or Fluorite which I was familiar with and go straight to the ADA Aquasoil Amazonia. Heres where my situation falls now. I am unfamiliar with ADA Aquasoil Amazonia as it was hard for me to acquire a few years back. Luckily I found a LFS that carried ADA products. Picked up 6L bag of Power Sand Special M, two 9L bags of Aquasoil Amazonia and a small bag of Amazonia Powder along with Penac P and Penac W. Unfortunately I quickly fell into the belief that ADA knows best and started believing that I should only use their products and for-go what I normally would have done a few years back. I had originally planned to follow their steps to the "T" - But damn their products are outrageously expensive and Im not so sure there's really anything magical about them (not like me Lucky Charms).

After doing some internet searching I remembered this site and the EI method of dosing and how effective this method was, not just in terms of results but cost as well. Before I go on here are the setup specs:

36"x17"x16" (40g - with substrate and hardscape actual total was 32g)

Rena XP3 (NO AC yet, was going to wait till week 2)

Coralife 36" PC 2x96watt (6500k bulbs) - 1x 96watt 10 hours; 1x 96watt 4 hours (turns on 3 hours after first); Light sits 3" above water surface 17" above substrate

JBJ CO2 Regulator w/ bubble counter running about 5 BPS using glass and ceramic style diffuser

80lbs CO2 tank

ADA Power Sand Special w/ Penac P and Penac W base
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia
ADA Amazonia Powder

Flora:
Hemianthus 'cuba'
Eleocharis acicularis
Blyxa japonica
Glossostigma elatinoides
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'red'
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'
Staurogyne sp 'porto velho'
Vesicularia sp
Vesicularia dubyana
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Cabomba furcata
Rotala indica
Ludwigia 'cuba'


Tank started Monday 1/23/12 - Forgot about DSM and started fishless cycling. Performed 30% daily w/c with RO+Kent Marine RO Right for first week. Switching to 50% w/c every other day for 2nd week

Water quality in tank tested on Monday 1/30/12
PH 6.0
KH ? (Could not find my KH and GH test kits)
GH ?
NH4 4ppm
N02 0ppm
N03 15ppm


View attachment 2831


Now that I've given you as much info as I can think of heres where my questions begin.

Should I start dosing early in the cycle? If so, just micros and potassium? I know Aquasoil leaches nutrients into the water column early into the nitrogen cycle.
Do you recommend the use of bottled bacteria i.e. Stability or Cycle? This will help consume the NH4 I am getting from the Aquasoil
ADA recommends the use of their product Green Bacter early on is this just the same thing as the other bottled bacteria?

I know 192watts is extremely high lighting for this size tank. I am not adverse to keeping CO2 high along with nutrients but with the light so close to the waters surface Im afraid inorder to control algae Im going to need my CO2 at fatal levels for fish. If I were to raise lighting how far above the waters surface would you recommend?
Or should I only run 1 96watt at 3" above for the entire 10 hour duration? If so, is it still possible to achieve the carpetting of glosso and HC and maintain the reds in my cabomba furcata?

I've used RO water and added Kent Marine "RO Right" for years but can not find a mineral listing with percentages. Does anyone have experience with RO Right? I notice lots of talk about Seachem's Equilibrium.

I see a lot of people using tap or RO with a tap blend based on water quality for the area. I'm debating on using a RO/Tap blend but would like to get a few other opinions based on my water quality report below.

PH - 7.6
NO3 (Nitrates) - 23
KH - 360ppm
GH - 440ppm
K- 4.1
Sodium - 110
Mg - 34
Ca - 120
TDS- 770
Conductivity - 1158
Fe ?? (Water quality report did not list Fe or Iron anywhere on the report)

I have started getting some green hair like algae on my rocks and HC probably due to high NH4 levels. Let me know your thoughts.

Sorry for the bombardment of questions and if I've asked something thats already written in another post.

 

[Tom Barr]

Just a quick note, move the CO2 diffuser to the other side where the current will make the bubbles drop and float around better.

Keep that diffuser nice and clean.

Main issue for Tap and RO: what KH you want..........that is the only real thing to look at and chose.

Do not use any RO Wrong.
GH booster works well, but you likely do not need much.


1 x 96W is plenty of light. But you might try one bulb on for 4 hours, then the other on for the 4 hours later.
This will give a better spread.

Bacteria will cycle due to the NH4 in the soil, just do 2-3x a week 50-80% water changes for now.
For a month at least, then maybe 2x a week 30-50%.

The water changes will save you form many things.
Dosing Excel might be a good idea.

Add Amano shrimp as test subjects for CO2, watch closely and see about lowering the CO2 down till you see growth slowing BEFORE adding livestock, then bump back up to the last highest rate.
Look and pay special attention to current, water surface movement and perhaps make tick marks on the valve to adjust the CO2 and have a reference from the last highest/lowest setting, this will make adjust easier later.
Current; I use Hoppy's rule of thumb: just enough current ripple on the surface to just not quite break the surface.

I can always easily add more CO2, I cannot always add more O2 any other way.

 

[aqua_crazy]

Noted. I hate mixing it up with RO Wrong.

How long after startup do you recommend dosing macros N and P? I've started dosing K at 20ppm.

I appreciate the help.

 

[aqua_crazy]

Heres a little update with pics, enjoy...

View attachment 2864

Week 1:
50% daily w/c (15g RO w/ RO Right)
*did not dose fertz
PH - 6.0
NH3 - 4ppm (started adding Stability @ end of week 1 to help keep NH3 down)
NO2 - 0ppm
NO3 - 15ppm
GH - 3
KH - 0

[attachment=1008:name]

Week 2:
50% daily w/c (10g RO 5g tap w/ Equilibrium)
*dosed 10ppm K everyother day
*dosed micros inbetween
PH - 6.0
NH3 - .5ppm (reading taken 2 days after Stability was added 2ppm NH3)
NO2 - 0ppm
NO3 - 5ppm
KH - 3
GH - 4
NOTE: Added 6 O-cats and 6 Amano Shrimp end of week 2 (help speed up cycle and test CO2 levels)

[attachment=1009:name]

Week 3:
50% w/c every other day (10g RO 5g tap w/ Equilibrium)
*dosed 20ppm K and 1ppm P every other day
*dosed micros on days inbetween (.5ppm Fe)
PH - 6.0
NH3 - .25ppm
NO2 - 0ppm
NO3 - 0ppm
KH - 3
GH - 4
NOTE: Added 6 more O-cats beginning of week 3

*Pictures are taken at the end of each week. Water readings taken before and after each water change; the numbers here are prior to each water change. All green hair algae has vanished. Started getting GSA on glass, waiting another week or more to remove.