Beginner Needing Help with Kh & Ph

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this but I wanted to reach out to knowledgeable people as my own research hasn't really pinned down what issue I am having. New to all this so be gentle, I wanna fix this and have healthy water for my fish.

The issue is KH and PH are super low even after 2 weeks of a generous, though I don't think too much, crushed coral. My GH is very high even with almost a 50% water change with distilled water.

I'm also waiting for a better water testing kit to come in so I can't give specifics as well as I'd like to, 6 in 1 test strips. I know the substrate I used lowers ph but I thought the crushed coral would correct this.

Tank- Has cycled
10 Gal
UNS Controsoil Brown
Crushed coral
Live plants
1 Betta
1 Snail
GH-150 down from 300 after distilled water change
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 10 low but a little hard to tell with the test strip
Chlorine - 0
KH - 0
PH - 6.5 or lower, test strip cant go lower

Im planning on switching to just distilled water and hope as gh drops, kh and ph will rise but if there is anything else I need to do please let me know!

 

The substrate you used is an active substrate. It will buffer your water to pH 6-6.5 KH 0-2 no matter what you add to it. That's part of the purpose

If you don't like the parameters you'll have to switch the substrate out or just wait until the buffering capacity is depleted. That may be months though

 

My fish seems happy, but is it safe to wait? Do you have recommendations on better substrates for live plants?

I switched substrate once already cause made a major mistake at Petco, gahhh, crushed shells substrate. Real shells. This has been a great learning experience and a lot of fun, if I get confident enough I may get a bigger one. I will follow a guide for that though .

 

Bettas and most aquarium plants come from soft water, so I wouldn't worry about it. I have a 5 gallon betta tank that I use pure RO water, with once a week ThriveC dose. I use the test strips too, and here is what I get for that tank: 0 ppm KH, between 0 & 30 ppm GH, and 6.0 (or less) pH. My betta has been happy in there for well over a year now.

Some folks say that nitrifying bacteria cannot survive in low KH/low pH water, but this has not been my experience.

Personally, I think your tank sounds good.

 

My fish seems happy, but is it safe to wait? Do you have recommendations on better substrates for live plants?

I switched substrate once already cause made a major mistake at Petco, gahhh, crushed shells substrate. Real shells. This has been a great learning experience and a lot of fun, if I get confident enough I may get a bigger one. I will follow a guide for that though .

The substrate you used is great for plants and there's nothing wrong with those parameters. Your pH probably is around 6.5 but I'd get a more accurate test if it bothers you. The only thing that might be an issue is your snail. Snails will not do well in that pH

 

If I wanted to do a planted tank like this but with different fish, should I get a different substrate, or are there fish that can do well in these parameters?

 

If I wanted to do a planted tank like this but with different fish, should I get a different substrate, or are there fish that can do well in these parameters?

Controsoil is perfect for a planted tank. As I mentioned before, most plants prefer soft/acidic water.

For fishes, just be sure to choose species that come from soft water. Hard water fishes don't do so well in soft water.

Most of the fishes from South America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia are soft water species.

 

You should also use something like equilibrium to remineralize your water if you are using distilled water.