# filtering with peat



## stanjam (May 12, 2013)

My 75 gal tank is still pretty new. My tap water has a ph of 7.6 and is pretty soft. The ph is artificially raised from its source water of 6.8. I want to get more like that.

Have begun filtering with fluval peat pellets, no carbon. This is supposed to soften and acidify the water. My question is how long should this take? How often should I renew the peat? The yellow color is okay, I can clear that up once I have the water where I want it.

I would rather do this naturally, rather than screwing around with chemicals.


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## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Adding peat will lower your PH. Mine is 7.8 out of the tap and was lowered to 6.9-7.0 with a peat substrate.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Ah, IME, you are fighting a losing battle. My tap pH is 8.4 and I tried peat for a year or so in my filters. You have to change it every 2 to 4 weeks and keeping it's effects from fluctuating is night impossible.

I gave up. Plants and fish prefer stability over a specific pH. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and live with what you got. 

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## stanjam (May 12, 2013)

OVT said:


> Ah, IME, you are fighting a losing battle. My tap pH is 8.4 and I tried peat for a year or so in my filters. You have to change it every 2 to 4 weeks and keeping it's effects from fluctuating is night impossible.
> 
> I gave up. Plants and fish prefer stability over a specific pH. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and live with what you got.
> 
> via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2


Will a discus handle 7.6 okay?

I miss my old towns well water. Threw 5 L. Buckelkopf in a tank and had two breeding pair in 4 days! Oh well lol.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I have kept breeding Discus in that water for about 7 years. Once I get off the phone I can post a bunch of pictures.

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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)




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## gabysapha (Oct 26, 2011)

OVT said:


>


Beautiful tanks! You kept discus in ph 7.6? It's nice to see such successful tanks with such water parameters.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Thank you.
My water out of tap is 8.4 - 8.6.
In well established tanks, pH tends to drop due to decay from plants, driftwood, fish waste, plant respiration and so on. My tanks' pH tends to level of at 6.8 to 7.4, based on specific tanks.

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## stanjam (May 12, 2013)

Great stuff to know! My ph should stabilize at a good place then when I am finally ready to add a discus or two.


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## bikinibottom (Nov 18, 2012)

My opinion of using peat for adjusting pH -- not worth the effort. In my case I used peat granules in a canister filter (1 cup for a 40-gal tank). It lowered the pH from 7.4 to 7.2 for about 2 weeks and then crept back up. And it seemed to stress a couple fish in the process.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

If you have the right mineral balance for the fish, if the GH and KH are in the right range, then do not worry about the pH. 

If you still want to alter the pH, then do it to the new water you are preparing for a water change. I use a knee-hi nylon stocking of peat moss in a garbage can (I have several cans- 20 gallons to 44 gallons) and circulate the water overnight with a fountain pump. The peat can be reused several times, but may take longer to get the pH down. After several uses, I toss it in the garden. 

You can also keep peat in the filter, but it is a small amount, and the chemistry (both the pH and mineral content) of the water will vary on water change day quite a bit (depending on how big a water change you do), a sudden jump up. Then gradually through the week it will drop as the peat moss does its thing. Peat moss can act as an ion exchange media, removing many minerals and adding H+ to the water, acidifying it. But it takes time. 
By preparing the water outside the aquarium you are adding water that has already been exposed to the peat moss's action (large volume of fresh peat) so it is pretty close to what you want the tank to be. Then the peat in the filter will not have to work so hard to keep it that way. Much less change for the fish when you do a water change.


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