# ADA Aquasoil 1



## dchow (Oct 30, 2009)

So I just started a tank for CRS with ADA I. I started cycling last week and decided to do the water testing today.

I filled the tank using distilled water and used a TDS meter, and the API master test kit to do the test. There are several plants in there that look to be growing and no plants that are obviously dying.

pH 6.0
Ammonia 8.0+ PPM 
Nitrites 0 PPM
Nitrates 0 PPM
TDS 23 PPM

So, to my understanding the ADA soil will leech nutrients into the water but my real concern is why my pH is so low. I thought the ADA soil was only suppose to buffer it to a 6.8ish range. My test kit may be a bit old as I purchased it last year.

Does anyone know why my pH would be that low?


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

pH being so low is a very GOOD thing. pH of 6.0 is perfectly fine if not, excellent for crystals


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## dchow (Oct 30, 2009)

Oh. Haha. 6.0 is the lowest reading the kit can take I'm not sure if its more acidic.


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

dchow said:


> Oh. Haha. 6.0 is the lowest reading the kit can take I'm not sure if its more acidic.


even if at 5.0 it is perfectly fine. Your more than ok, so long as the test kit is right lol. But do cycle the tank given the ammonia is that high. do a few water changes.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

It looks to me that the tds of 23 means there isn't any buffering capacity in the water to help regulate the Ph.


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

Your pH will go up as you do the WCs....when I started my tank I had my pH at 5.5....and I did WC everyday in the second week and now it's steady at 6.6

If I would've known it's ok to have a pH under 6 for CRS, I would've done only 2-3 WC, but I read that CRS love pH between 6.2-6.6 so I did all thosw WCs.


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

You'll do w/c to remove ammonia and no2 so over time the ph will go up but not by much.

Keep in mind that shrimp soils are designed to drop Ph once (acid on the surface area of the soil) then slowly maintain it afterwards (acids releases slowly from inside each gradual over a long period of time) this is why if you raise your PH with too many water changes, it takes the ph a long time to come back down. Of course you can always crumble some apart in your hand. 
Ideally you want to stay in that 6.2-6.8ph range.

You can always use tap water to bump the ph up.


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