Ada Soil Amazonia....tips

[boshk]

I started my fishless cycle 5 days ago and today I had to restart the whole thing again.
 
My tap water has a pH of around 7.6, I was eager to speed up the cycle so went out and purchased 4 small plants and ADA soil, little did I know this soil can change the pH considerably.
Thanks to a couple of members of another forum, I found out my pH had dropped to 6.4 which slows/stops bacteria growth.
 
Did a 80% water change, waited 24hrs and pH went from 7.6 to 6.4 again.
 
So I took all the soil out.
 
This is just advice for someone completely new.
 
This ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia is apparently one of the best around for plants.
It does however give off ammonia and changes your water's pH, so apparently you need to cycle the soil, takes any where from 2 weeks to a month to get rid of the ammonia. As for the pH issue, there isn't much info on whether it will still change your pH or just a lesser extent after cycling.
 
I'm sure more experienced aquarists can cycle a brand new tank and the soil at the same time and be able to control their ammonia and pH to achieve max reproduction of the bacterias.
 
I'm drying the soil now under the sun. Just debating what I can do with it or is it money down the drain. Maybe a 2nd smaller (5gall) aquarium which is plant only?
 
 

 

[TallTree01]

I didn't find my aquasoil Amazonia to alter pH much stuff all. What I did while fish less cycling my tank is leave it to seep ammonia out until the ammonia consistently read zero. It took around 2 weeks I believe. Then I continued the cycle as normal and finished it in a further couple of weeks.

 

[boshk]

I didn't find my aquasoil Amazonia to alter pH much stuff all. What I did while fish less cycling my tank is leave it to seep ammonia out until the ammonia consistently read zero. It took around 2 weeks I believe. Then I continued the cycle as normal and finished it in a further couple of weeks.

ah okay, well I'm testing it out now.
I had 2 large driftwood and the 9L bag of soil in the tank and within 12hrs it dropped the pH by 1.
 
I have the soil in one bucket and driftwood in another, lets see which or both drops the pH.