# ADA Africana?



## dj2606 (Mar 27, 2009)

Hey everyone,

So my tanks with ADA Africana substrate have been running for about 3 weeks now. I use RO/DI water for these tanks. I just received my pH digital meter and calibrated it, then double checked. I then tested the pH of the water with the africana and it's reading 6.8, my RO/DI water is also reading 6.8 pH. 


I was told that this substrate buffers the water around 5.5. Did I get a bad bag of Africana? What are everyone else's experiences with this substrate? 

Any thoughts?


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

How many inches up substrate do you have? You should do 3-5" so it will buffer better and last a long time. Also is you GH 0 on the RO water, because if not and it is super high or your KH is high it might not buffer that much.


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## dj2606 (Mar 27, 2009)

GH and KH are in fact 0 until I add the remineralizer to it. When adding the remineralizer to the RO/DI I increase it to 4 GH, 0 KH, pH unaffected (remains 6.8), the TDS of the water before I add the remineralizer reads 0 and after reads 68.

I purchase 4 9 L bags of ADA Africana for 4 20L. I used each bag in each of the 4 20L and is about 3 1/2 inches of substrate.


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Let it sit, my friends I set up with him after 4 weeks went from 7.4 tap to 5.3-5.5 & the RO one we did was 6.8 start and was 5.0 when done


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## dj2606 (Mar 27, 2009)

It's still cycling....


I dosed ammonia on it for the first 2 weeks (because unlike amazonia it didn't leach ammonia) and stopped waiting for it to finish. Unsure if I should have stopped, but I just checked and it is still reading about 4ppm. Didn't see the need to continue if the ammonia was present. 

Maybe after it cycles the pH will drop like you said. Fingers crossed because I plan to use these for BB, Bkk, JPRL


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Yeah, I know when I does with straight ammonia it rhows my PH up for a couple days when i cycle tanks


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Yeah, pH of ammonia is 12, it could be enough to keep your pH from dropping. I've never had a pH higher than 5.5 with africana


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## becks17 (Dec 21, 2009)

I did a pretty good job for me as far as buffering. I have super hard tap water with pH around 8 and GH/KH through the roof, brought it down to around pH6.5 (never below 6) and GH/KH 6-7. For me though, the substrate just turned to mud in a few months and became a huge mess. I've heard other people not having this problem. Did I just get a bad batch?


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