# ADA Amazonia not lowering Ph.



## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

Do you have any rocks, crushed coral, or anything that could be raising the pH?


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## skygb000 (Dec 8, 2011)

No . I have only Aqua Soil and some peacock moss. I use a 2215 for this tank.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

How much soil is there? Needs to be about 3 inches in the bottom for good buffering.

Also, what are you using to measure pH?


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## sbarbee54 (Jan 12, 2012)

Mine has lowered it a bunch


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

As Liam asked, how much did you use? a 20gal tank, will use at least a 9L bag to get 2-3" depending on how much it packs down, 3 bags for 2x20gal for a good depth.


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## dr.tran (Oct 8, 2007)

mordalphus said:


> How much soil is there? Needs to be about 3 inches in the bottom for good buffering.
> 
> Also, what are you using to measure pH?


If hes using RO water, I don't think that would matter. I assume his kH would be less than 1 and his pH would not rise to 7 even with no substrate. 


Sky,

Not to be redundant but theres no rocks are any other hardscape is there? That could possibly leach carbonate which would in turn raise your pH.

Do a big water change with RO water and make sure that it is at 6 pH. Then test the tank to see if the pH will go down. Then wait a day and see if theres any changes. If the pH is still at 7 and you eliminated any other source for kH, then your aquasoil might be a defective batch. Also is it reused aquasoil?


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## Vincent Tran (Aug 7, 2012)

Is your tank all RO or all tap? I only used a 9L bag in my 20L, so I have a very shallow layer. Even then, it buffers it down to below 6, but I use all RO water.


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## skygb000 (Dec 8, 2011)

This is not the first time I use Aqua Soil. All of my previous tanks never had this issue.
It's a brand new bag of AS. I checked my KH. It's 7.
But my RO water have a KH of 2. How's it possible to go up to 7? Is there any other way to lower KH beside adding RO water?
I did many water change with RO water. It's been 3 months already . And yet Ph is still 7.

I found a similar thread with the same issue on shrimpnow: http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/showthread.php/6427-amazonia-II-not-lowering-ph

I used API test kit and digital one to test Ph.

I really appreciate your helps.


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## fishandplantsguy (May 27, 2020)

I am seeing the same like skygb000. I've used ADA Amazonia before in a 90G and in a 10G my PH is 7.0 just like my tap water. No hardscape. Just a filter with floss and Fluval Bio Ceramics. Very strange...


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

fishandplantsguy said:


> I am seeing the same like skygb000. I've used ADA Amazonia before in a 90G and in a 10G my PH is 7.0 just like my tap water. No hardscape. Just a filter with floss and Fluval Bio Ceramics. Very strange...


This post is from nearly a decade ago. So holy wow at the thread resurrection.

That aside, tell us more. How much substrate are you using? What's its depth? 

Which specific ADA Amazonia product are you using? How old is it? How has it been stored? Where'd you obtain it?

What are the parameters of your source water? kH? gH? TDS? Are you using test strips or liquids to test?

Care to post photos of the tank so we can have a better idea of your setup?


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## fishandplantsguy (May 27, 2020)

Hi somewhatshocked - Yeah I know this is a super old thread but was looking for others with similar issues. I haven't been in the hobby for a few years. Getting back into it now. 
I found the issue but let me tell you the specs on the tank. It's a newly setup 10 gallon with an old 24" Fluval LED light (first gen or 1.0) it is a holding tank for my plants before using it in other aquariums for scaping. It is bare bottom with two shallow sandwich size container of ADA Amanzonia ver 2. I am using a corner filter. I actually don't check any water parameters. I usually know my tap water is hard but over the years know ADA soil will soften it as I have kept CRS before with great success, back in the days. 
I decided to check PH because I notice the plants were melting. Notice PH with ADA Soil was higher than my tap water. I finally narrowed it down to the Fluval Biomax Filter Media. It was buffering the water to 7.6 and once I removed it the PH is going down to 6.8 (which is what I am looking for). Seachem Matrix does this buffering too. I had it in another tank and it was buffering the PH to 7.2 Once I removed it the tank is down to 6.8 Now my other tank with Cherry shrimps are looking better (More active). Didn't realized they weren't happy, I did noticed they were not breeding like I use to have them in ADA soil.
I hope this helps anyone else having this issue.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

fishandplantsguy said:


> Hi somewhatshocked - Yeah I know this is a super old thread but was looking for others with similar issues. I haven't been in the hobby for a few years. Getting back into it now.
> I found the issue but let me tell you the specs on the tank. It's a newly setup 10 gallon with an old 24" Fluval LED light (first gen or 1.0) it is a holding tank for my plants before using it in other aquariums for scaping. It is bare bottom with two shallow sandwich size container of ADA Amanzonia ver 2. I am using a corner filter. I actually don't check any water parameters. I usually know my tap water is hard but over the years know ADA soil will soften it as I have kept CRS before with great success, back in the days.
> I decided to check PH because I notice the plants were melting. Notice PH with ADA Soil was higher than my tap water. I finally narrowed it down to the Fluval Biomax Filter Media. It was buffering the water to 7.6 and once I removed it the PH is going down to 6.8 (which is what I am looking for). Seachem Matrix does this buffering too. I had it in another tank and it was buffering the PH to 7.2 Once I removed it the tank is down to 6.8 Now my other tank with Cherry shrimps are looking better (More active). Didn't realized they weren't happy, I did noticed they were not breeding like I use to have them in ADA soil.
> I hope this helps anyone else having this issue.


Neither Biomax nor Matrix should impact your water parameters in any way. Biomax is inert ceramic media and Matrix is effectively crushed pumice. Neither should impact pH or kH.


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## fishandplantsguy (May 27, 2020)

That's what the product description said too. I did a test. I filled two container with tap water. Check the PH in each. They were 7.0 then add Biomax to one and Matrix in the other. Waited 24 hours and Biomax was 8.0 and Matrix 7.2
I would just tell others to check your parameters if you notice something is not right.


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