# Active substrate and KH



## DEL 707 (20 Oct 2019)

I have a nano tank with Tropica Aquarium Soil Powder.
I'm using Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ to reminerlise my RO water, my water stats are PH 6.52, GH 7 and KH 2.

I was asking around about why my KH is so low and someone said it's because I have an active soil and would be better of switching to Salty Shrimp GH+, since my soil is removing any additional KH.

Is this true? Should I switch to another product?


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## oscarlloydjohn (20 Oct 2019)

Yes, you should probably switch to the Salty Shrimp GH+ 

All the buffering substrate wants to do is remove KH, so there is no point in adding it. This way you will have more stable parameters.

I use active soil without adding any KH and it works really well.


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## DEL 707 (20 Oct 2019)

My concern is about my PH.

Before I switched to Salty Shrimp I was using Seachem Equilibrium and my PH was under 6.


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## oscarlloydjohn (21 Oct 2019)

DEL 707 said:


> My concern is about my PH.
> 
> Before I switched to Salty Shrimp I was using Seachem Equilibrium and my PH was under 6.



Active substrates usually buffer the pH to around 6. They are usually aimed at crystal shrimp tanks which require soft water.


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## DEL 707 (22 Oct 2019)

Am I doing any damage by adding KH?

I really want my PH to be 6.5 plus.
Before hand it was 5.8


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## dw1305 (22 Oct 2019)

Hi all, 





DEL 707 said:


> I'm using Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ to reminerlise my RO water,


What is your tap water like?





DEL 707 said:


> Am I doing any damage by adding KH?


 No, not really. All that will happen is the active substrate will stop being active more quickly. 

Potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) is a <"cheap and easily obtainable source of dKH">.

cheers Darrel


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