Test strip reading

[LTO]

20gal long 

planted, no co2, cycled ( more than 6m)

i recently had to move my tank from one side of the house to the other, in doing so I replanted my plants and moved the substrate around. 
I noticed that when I test with the strips, I always have some pink in the nitrates, zero nitrite always. 
I’m trying to get my PH higher because it always seems to be below 6.4, so I added crush coral recently and the pH has been on the rise thankfully. 
my tank has driftwood and cholla wood, I’ve tried using wondershells but they only seem to bring the hardness up, never ph. 
Maybe I’m doing something wrong, any advice will be greatly appreciated. 
 

i have panda corys, and neon tetras, Amano shrimp and I had some cherry shrimp but they didn’t seem to survive the move. Also I’m sure the water parameters were not suitable. 
 

[Ken Burke]

Is there a reason you need to raise the ph?  
 

chasing water perimeters is full of peril.  First, you can run into the “bullwhip” effect.  The ph rising slowly at first, then shooting past the target, and finally crashing back to the start.  Another issue,  if you manage get the ph up, comes from water changes.  Not much of an issue for frequent small changes, but if you ever need a larger change you can get a wild swing in ph.  This stresses fish and can lead to bad things.
 

 In general it’s better to shoot for consistency over target.  That’s what makes crushed coral a great option. It applies gentle pressure to increase the ph, and works slowly.  But if you need to increase your ph more aggressively, there are products for that.  Just be real careful.

[LTO]

Trying to have a generally suitable community tank which to my understanding most fish/shrimp at 6.5-8 and my ph has been below 6.5. 
i posted also seeing if any of my test strip points seem out of wack or if they are normal. Example: always having nitrates and never nitrites in a cycled tank, but that could be ez green dose? 

[PattysAquatics]

A cycled tank will have nitrates and no nitrites . That’s a good thing 😁

[Ken Burke]

On 2/19/2022 at 7:49 AM, LTO said:

Trying to have a generally suitable community tank which to my understanding most fish/shrimp at 6.5-8 and my ph has been below 6.5. 
i posted also seeing if any of my test strip points seem out of wack or if they are normal. Example: always having nitrates and never nitrites in a cycled tank, but that could be ez green dose? 

For a planted tank, you generally want nitrates between 20 and 40 ppm.  So you are good there. 
 

crushed coral should be good for a modest increase in ph.  It should increase the ph without a big shock.  My tanks all have shrimp, and test at the bottom of the test strips (6.4). They are thriving, but the coral couldn’t hurt your tanks

 

[LTO]

I do have half a pound of crushed coral in my HOB filter 👍🏽. 
That makes me feel better, I feeling like I was doing something wrong with water changes and always having nitrates. 
I have just always felt like I was doing something wrong or if my test strip reading could be better. Thank you for the posts.

[Ken Burke]

No problem.  That’s why we are all here!