Concentrated Peat Extract Recipe

[aarhud]

Brian Andrews wrote a fantastic series of ebooks (not sure if they are available in print) about commercial farming of ornamental fish. In the books, he covers pretty much everything from spawning too rearing fry to sellable size. Each section can be purchased individually, so I purchased the books applicable to the hobby. The sections on tetra breeding are great.

In one section he gives his recipe for making concentrated peat extract. He brings water to a boil, and adds in caustic soda. He then adds peat and continues to stir the mix. Once the correct consistency is achieved, he strains out the peat and moves the liquid to buckets. The next day, Brian adds hydrochloric acid to bring the pH down to 6 to 7. The liquid is then stored for future use.

The dosage of the extract is suggested at 20-50 ml to 50 liters of water.


The author sings the praises of this peat extract throughout the books. He states that willingness to spawn increases greatly when the extract is added. Specifically in regards to Charcins and labyrinth fish. Many of us have seen the same thing in regards to peat water.

The recipe is labor intensive. What is the purpose of the caustic soda? What is gained from raising the pH so high with the soda, just to drop it back down via the acid?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

In one section he gives his recipe for making concentrated peat extract. He brings water to a boil, and adds in caustic soda. He then adds peat and continues to stir the mix. Once the correct consistency is achieved, he strains out the peat and moves the liquid to buckets. The next day, Brian adds hydrochloric acid to bring the pH down to 6 to 7. The liquid is then stored for future use.........The recipe is labor intensive. What is the purpose of the caustic soda? What is gained from raising the pH so high with the soda, just to drop it back down via the acid?

The addition of caustic soda (NaOH), is to increase the extraction of the humic and tannic compounds from the peat. It works at high temperature and pH.

They used to boil peat with NaOH to release tannins for leather processing.

It isn't something I've done (or would ever do) but the OH- ion would be neutralised by the H+ ion from the HCl, and the Na+ and Cl- ions are pH neutral (but difficult to remove from the extract). I don't see any advantage to boiling the peat or adding NaOH.

I haven't used peat for a while, but <"sphagnum peat in a cotton pillowcase"> works OK.

cheers Darrel

 

[aarhud]

Thank you Darrel!

So the author is after the humic and tannic compounds and is not worried about softening his water. Whereas us Apistogramma keepers use peat to soften our water and the humic/tannic compounds are an additional benefit.

I don't see a need to do this either. The farm owner has a very large setup which necessitates being able to produce a large volume of concentrated peat extract. But it's interesting, to say the least.