pH issues??

I bought this aquarium pH test kit (drops) that I was going to return because I ordered a meter on Ebay. I decided to keep it and measure the water pH.
rain water = 6.0-6.1
tap water=7.0

I'm using steam distilled water, but it measures 6.0-6.1 ??? (it says with ozone on the bottle). I thought distilled water was supposed to be 7.0.

Now I'm freaking. Is the tester off? Am I stunting my seedlings and what are the signs of a low pH. I did use a soilless mix (Sunshine 4) with some Dolomite lime, so hopefully it's OK.

Any help would be appreciated!

My grow journal has pics of my seedlings.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/187734-first-grow-cfl-3.html

demonic1 said:

What kind of PH tester did you get? Did it come with a calibration solution? If not, you could get some from the hydro store and some storage solution. I found the most accurate digital ph testers have at least 2 calibration points, and never let tester dry up. I am not sure what that distilled water should be however, I would trust the digital ph meter once it is calibrated properly.

Click to expand...

The one I'm using (with the drops) did not have a calibration solution. From all I've read tap water should be >7, distilled should be 7. I have a cheapo meter on order (combo moisture/pH) to hopefully confirm or deny my readings. It looks like it doesn't have any calibration solution either.

Thanks for the response.

I was always under the assumption that distilled water (what I was using) was neutral pH (7) and perfect for pH in soilless as the peat moss decomposes to slightly acidic. This would keep me in the 6-7 range.

Reading on the web, distilled water is almost always acidic (can get as low as 5.0) because the CO2 in the air combines with the water to form carbonic acid in the steam distillation process.

My plan is to try Brita filtered tap water (should remove contaminants) that has sat and weathered for a day. I could also use pH up solution with my distilled water, but we'll see how the tap water goes.