ADA aquasoil

[taz]

I've been using this soil with the powersand but till today the pH still around 5.3 ~ 5.8. How can I get the pH higher? I find it very difficult to acclimatise fish or shrimps. Or will the peat slowly lose the acidity over time?

[BFG]

er, this is the standard ph reading for aquasoil.

[Sleepy_lancs]

yes. It will slowly lose its acidity. But might take quite a while. You might want to use Coral Chips to raise your KH to 4.

[bclee]

In the meantime, you can raise the KH a little to bring up the pH. You can use predissolved Sodium Bicarbonate (aka baking soda). (I understand that direct contact of aquasoil with baking soda might pose some problem.

BC

[hmph]

i have ada aquasoil and jbl aquabasis.
during the first two months, i used a combination of coral chips and baking soda to raise ph/kh.
after that, i used only coral chips.

coral chips did not take effect asap......thus i used baking powder to supplement.

[hwchoy]

if you don't want 5.5 pH then why do you use Aquasoil?

[hmph]

ph not only dropped to 5.5 but also 5.0 as well.

[taz]

[quote:c3c06e479f="hwchoy"]if you don't want 5.5 pH then why do you use Aquasoil?[/quote:c3c06e479f]

I understand the properties of aquasoil and what made me me turn to it is when I found out that this soil also reduces the chances of algae with its low pH. But sadly, I didn't take note that this also will effect the fishes and especially shrimps.
Anyway thanks for all the ideas, I will try the baking soda method and see how it turns out.

[Sleepy_lancs]

I don't know if this is what you want. But SeaChem has a Alkaline buffer with no phosphate (cost about 13-15 bucks). But be forewarned that once you add this, you can forget about PH and KH values for CO2 calculation. Then again you are using ADA soil which has nullified that relationship anyway.

[victri]

All you need to do is to push up your pH to between 6-7. That's a safe range for most shrimp. I use ADA soil in my shrimp tank specifically for the lower pH since the tank is not CO2 injected. I only add a bit of baking soda with each water change when there's a need.

[hwchoy]

I have lots of shrimp in my 1ft cube with Aquasoil, pH is 5.5 but don't seem to be a problem for them.

[PeterGwee]

The aquasoil reduces the chance of algae? Who said that?

You will get algae with whatever kind of soil or substrate as long as the plant demands are not met/ammonia production exceeds plant uptake/ plant growth slows down for whatever reason.

I doubt the low pH is the issue with your critters dying here. It has more to do with the sudden pH swing when CO2 is being injected into the tank water. Do a quick check on the KH...I bet its less than 1. The other factor that might kill your critters is probably ammonia or nitrite from the nitrogen cycle. (You don't have to go through the nitrogen cycle if you plant heavily from the start and provide all the necessary plant food.)

Regards
Peter Gwee

[hwchoy]

in fact I am now inject CO2 aggresively in my 1ft cube with Aquasoil, and all the fishes and shrimps are still pretty happy about it. Shrimps (malayan and ghost) are also carrying eggs and spawning.

[Aeon]

I'm using Aquasoil and Powersand too, no probs for me too. You can try putting coral chips in your filetr media.

[taz]

[quote="PeterGwee"]The aquasoil reduces the chance of algae? Who said that?

Well, the packing says so. . Yah, probably the pH swings took the lives of the shrimps. Well, I did pump in CO2. Otos seems fine by the way.Initially I wanted to add baking soda but I've read somewhere here that this will disintegrate the soil. That put me back. Now I've gain the confidence as some of you have tried. I'll try it tonight.

[wks]

Hi taz, from my personal experience of using ADA aquasoil, it does reduce algae in a way- no algae even the dreadful black brush algae can grow on the soil itself while the plants, driftwood and equipments were not spared.
Any other hobbyist has experienced this?

Jason Wong

[BFG]

I've got BBA on my ADA Aquasoil.

[DEA]

shrimp don't really care about acidic water
nor do cardinals, but corydoras will die in pH of 4 or less
fyi

[hwchoy]

perhaps it is timely to remind people that pH is a log scale, therefore ph 5 is 10 times more acidic than ph 6, and so on…