The test is null and void, sorry. Test strips by API are already bad quality, but with so much water on the strip the test fields have mixed.
Do it again, and hold the strip's side against a paper towel for a moment to take off surplus water. Also wait for the usual 60sec until the readings are ready.
The NO3-scale has too big steps. The reading is probably between 10 and 20.
IMPORTANT: For A. cacatuoides the pH and hardness don't have to be that low. KH of 3-5° and pH around 6.5 is enough, especially for tankbred domestic variants.
But to know how far down you can go in the first place, KH is necessary to know. The scale (again, API is rubbish) is a litte off anyways. More steps between 0 and 40 would be great.
Anyhow, to lower your pH significantly with leaves and botanicals the KH has to be below 40mg/l or 1-2°KH.
If the reading is above that it will take ages with that method and eventually just hold.
What I mean with significantly: Usually with soft (KH ~3°/~60mg/l) water, leaves and alder cones initially lower the pH by maybe 0.2 - 0.4 points. Then it stops dropping and unless more botanicals are added regularly to form a leaf litter bed and beneficial mulm it will rise again with the next waterchange that adds new KH to the tank. The mulm and rotting botanicals stabilize the pH at around 6.5.
From there the only way to go down is lowering KH. And to do so, you don't add, but take away. That's why most people here use rainwater distilled water or RO water. Many either use pure RO or, like me, cut the tap with RO to get to a very low KH (I'm below detection right now).
With KH that low the botanical method (provided waterchanges are done without raising KH) gets the pH down 0.2 - 0.4 points a month. That way it took me 4 months to reach a stable pH of 6.0.
Sure there are other methods to add acidity. Peat, blackwater extract, diluted acids (aka pH-down). Many of them can make the water much more acidic much quicker. But for all of them the same applies: If the KH is still significant, pH will start to fluctuate with waterchanges.
The H+ ions of the acids have to "neutralize" (there is no better word) the Carbonates of the KH before any pH-change can even happen. When changing water with tap (with KH) acids are reduced again and KH is raised again, so the stuff has to be added again. That's why pH-chasing is so dangerous. People using pH down and buffers and all that bottled stuff without changing their water itself first are getting in real trouble and sometimes have do add immense amounts of stuff until reaching the desired readings. Just for the fluctuations to come again with the next waterchange.
So my advice: When you have a good reading of the KH, decide how to go on. Adding leaves is a given anyway, but it's your choice if you want to lower the pH.
Do it again, and hold the strip's side against a paper towel for a moment to take off surplus water. Also wait for the usual 60sec until the readings are ready.
The NO3-scale has too big steps. The reading is probably between 10 and 20.
IMPORTANT: For A. cacatuoides the pH and hardness don't have to be that low. KH of 3-5° and pH around 6.5 is enough, especially for tankbred domestic variants.
But to know how far down you can go in the first place, KH is necessary to know. The scale (again, API is rubbish) is a litte off anyways. More steps between 0 and 40 would be great.
Anyhow, to lower your pH significantly with leaves and botanicals the KH has to be below 40mg/l or 1-2°KH.
If the reading is above that it will take ages with that method and eventually just hold.
What I mean with significantly: Usually with soft (KH ~3°/~60mg/l) water, leaves and alder cones initially lower the pH by maybe 0.2 - 0.4 points. Then it stops dropping and unless more botanicals are added regularly to form a leaf litter bed and beneficial mulm it will rise again with the next waterchange that adds new KH to the tank. The mulm and rotting botanicals stabilize the pH at around 6.5.
From there the only way to go down is lowering KH. And to do so, you don't add, but take away. That's why most people here use rainwater distilled water or RO water. Many either use pure RO or, like me, cut the tap with RO to get to a very low KH (I'm below detection right now).
With KH that low the botanical method (provided waterchanges are done without raising KH) gets the pH down 0.2 - 0.4 points a month. That way it took me 4 months to reach a stable pH of 6.0.
Sure there are other methods to add acidity. Peat, blackwater extract, diluted acids (aka pH-down). Many of them can make the water much more acidic much quicker. But for all of them the same applies: If the KH is still significant, pH will start to fluctuate with waterchanges.
The H+ ions of the acids have to "neutralize" (there is no better word) the Carbonates of the KH before any pH-change can even happen. When changing water with tap (with KH) acids are reduced again and KH is raised again, so the stuff has to be added again. That's why pH-chasing is so dangerous. People using pH down and buffers and all that bottled stuff without changing their water itself first are getting in real trouble and sometimes have do add immense amounts of stuff until reaching the desired readings. Just for the fluctuations to come again with the next waterchange.
So my advice: When you have a good reading of the KH, decide how to go on. Adding leaves is a given anyway, but it's your choice if you want to lower the pH.