Columbo Flora Base. Ammonia Spike?

[TetraFin]

Hi all!

Sooo, I'm looking at completely rescaping my tank, and have decided to change substrate. I currently have a fine, smooth gravel and am pretty sure I want to change to columbo flora base. The texture should be about the same, but it will be a good substrate for me to plant in to, and this is my first planting adventure, (time to put the plastic plants into storage!).

After doing some research flora base, i'm led to believe this can cause an ammonia spike. Has anyone here got first hand experience of using this stuff, and how to deal with the spike? I want to put it in my tank right away, my aim is to plant before christmas, go away for a week (having someone pop by to feed), and come back to a planted tank thats going well, then gradually add more fish as my tank is very under populated currently, (4 guppies and 2 panda corys in 130L!). But I don't think that will be possible without poisioning my fish, will it? What other ways can I get around this?

One idea that has popped into my head as i'm writting this is to pull my old aquaone ar380 (34L) out of the cupboard, fill it with all the substrate i'm going to want in my main tank, (my guess is it will be one third full) fill with tank water, use mature media from my current tank and fishless cycle the tank, which means it should be ready for use early part of Jan. Means putting my plan on hold for a short while, but also means I have a second tank set up as a quaratine tank for the fish I hope to add next year..... I think this way is sounding like a winner! Can anyone see any flaws with it, which I have over looked?

 

[Naringlo]

I don't think the substrate will cause an ammonia spike but the person popping by to feed your fish will!

I've recently purchased the colombo flora base and it works perfectly. No ammonia spikes. It was recommended to me by the planted mod.

If you're away for only a week, I think most people here will say just leave the fish instead of getting someone to pop by and feed them.

I'm unsure about your idea so i won't comment on that but I will let you know that when I got the new substrate, I added it to a tank that was already going. I just emptied the tank of the original substrate (sand) and put the flora base in and filled it back up, let it settle and put the fish back in once things had stabilised (temperature, ph etc) and added the fish like you would if you had just bought them. I even added 3 new fish to the tank. No ammonia spikes. (Y) I do have good filtration for my size tank though.

Hope this helps.

 

[Naringlo]

Actually I just read a post abut changing substrate. It may cause an ammonia spike. I didn't get once because I took the fish out and emptied it. If it doesn't bother you, you could use your spare tank to house the fish for a day and empty your main tank and put the substrate in and fill it back up. Or do a lot of water changes.