Where I live we have crazy heavy water. Also a pH of 8.2. I have just purchased my first fluval 206 and am considering adding peat to get both the hardness and pH down. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? Is there a special "aquarium" peat to use? Are the changes it creates stable and maintainable? How noticeable will then difference be? Does it affect nitrate levels? Loads of questions and probably some I've missed out but any advice or experiences of peat would be much appreciated.
Filtering with peat.
- Thread starter matty2085
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Andrew McFadden
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I believe you have to use a lot of it to do anything at all. Just running it n your filter will more than likely do nothing.
phin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I use peat, just organic sphagum peat from the hardware store. comes compressed in a large bale for $9. I stuffed as much as I could in a stocking ( couple handfulls), compressed it down and put it in the top tray of my canister filter. It takes up all the space in the tray and have virtually no bypass, so all water has to run through 3 inches of compressed peat on its way back into the tank. It darkens the water considerably, which I don't mind except it blocks out the light my plants receive. I run purigen to take the color out of the water.
It seems that you might have better results using seachem acid buffer to lower KH. It is not the same as the pH down products. If used carefully, by precipitatating the carbonates in your water into carbon dioxide you can adjust KH down to a desired level, allowing the peat filtration to provide a constant acid source, thus lowering pH.
Many will caution you against it. However, if you make small adjustments, monitor KH & pH levels closely, you can do it safely and it will stay stable. Once your KH is adjusted using acid buffer you will only need to match KH on water used for water changes, so if you are using tap water, you will want to add acid buffer in approprate amounts to the tap water before you add it to the tank, match the KH and then add.
On occasion, my KH will drop to 2 degrees german hardness, I add a small amount of potassium bicarbonate directly to my tank to bring my KH back to 3 degrees. I maintain a steady KH of 3 and pH of 6.5 with DIY CO2 & peat filtration. My tap water is extremely alkaline (10 degrees) and hard (14 degrees).
It seems that you might have better results using seachem acid buffer to lower KH. It is not the same as the pH down products. If used carefully, by precipitatating the carbonates in your water into carbon dioxide you can adjust KH down to a desired level, allowing the peat filtration to provide a constant acid source, thus lowering pH.
Many will caution you against it. However, if you make small adjustments, monitor KH & pH levels closely, you can do it safely and it will stay stable. Once your KH is adjusted using acid buffer you will only need to match KH on water used for water changes, so if you are using tap water, you will want to add acid buffer in approprate amounts to the tap water before you add it to the tank, match the KH and then add.
On occasion, my KH will drop to 2 degrees german hardness, I add a small amount of potassium bicarbonate directly to my tank to bring my KH back to 3 degrees. I maintain a steady KH of 3 and pH of 6.5 with DIY CO2 & peat filtration. My tap water is extremely alkaline (10 degrees) and hard (14 degrees).
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