use of peat

[brad]

What would be the best way to get the effects of peat? I have a sponge filter, so throwing it in the filter is out. I read somewhere to fill on old nylon and drop it in the tank. Without much water movement around it, will I really get that much effect from it?
thanks!

 

[cdawson]

I usually just hang it near the top of the sponge filter in a filter bag.

 

[cootwarm]

I mix mine in a plastic 30 gallon trash barrel. I put a 5 gallon bucket of pure peat moss in the barrel, then fill it with water and aeriate it for a few days. When ready, just let it settle for an hour or so, then skim off the peat moss and use this for your water changes. There will still be some tiny peat particles suspended in the water, but the filter will remove this within a couple days. If this bothers you, more can be removed by straining it though cheese cloth before using it.

To start with, my tapwater parms are KH=5, GH=8 and pH=7.5 before I add the peat. After 4 or 5 days the peat water is about KH=1, GH=2 or 3, and pH is 4.5

You can mix this peat water with tap water to achieve specific values. Specific values can be difficult to maintain as there are other seemingly unrelated factors that can cause these values to change. For example CO2 can change pH.

Myself, I don't bother with specific values. For Apistogrammas that require extremely soft and acidy water I use straight peat water. If the fish aren't aleady in water with such a low pH, they need to be gradually adjusted to it over a few days. I usually do this by using the peat water to make 25% water changes every 2 or 3 days. After 6 or so water changes the tank is mostly peat water.

For apistos that don't require such extreme values, I just use peat water every 4th or 5th water change, then check the values to be sure they are still within an acceptable range for the fish in the tank.

Cacatuoides and borellii like higher values, but sometimes I need to add a little peat water to their tanks to stimulate them to breed. My cacatuoides especially, will go many weeks with out spawning, but if I add a little peat water, they seem to get excited almost immediately and spawn by the next morning.

Michael

 

[cootwarm]

One thing I forgot to memtion. Use unly pure sphagnum peat moss. Sometime the peat moss sold in garden stores has additives.

Michael

 

[brad]

Thanks for the help. My water parameters out of the tap are ph: 7.4 gh: 12 kh: 12. My cacatuoides are happy and healthy but would like to see them spawn. I don`t want my water so dark that I can`t see the fish, but a light tint is fine. Cacs seem to be quite easy to breed (from what I`ve read) so hopefully I only have to lower it a bit to encourage them.

2 weeks ago, my male was always harassing the female to spawn and she would always run and hide from him. Now she comes to get him and he shows no interest. They`re gonna be fun to figure out. Maybe the peat will help.

 

[cdawson]

Thanks for the help. My water parameters out of the tap are ph: 7.4 gh: 12 kh: 12. My cacatuoides are happy and healthy but would like to see them spawn. I don`t want my water so dark that I can`t see the fish, but a light tint is fine. Cacs seem to be quite easy to breed (from what I`ve read) so hopefully I only have to lower it a bit to encourage them.

2 weeks ago, my male was always harassing the female to spawn and she would always run and hide from him. Now she comes to get him and he shows no interest. They`re gonna be fun to figure out. Maybe the peat will help.

Those parameters are fine for cacatuoides, peat filtering is not necessary. In fact it would probably drop the ph too low. I tried peat filtering for my cactuoides pair and it just ended up causing them NOT to spawn. The day I removed it and changed the water, they spawned. Your tap water ph is pretty much the same as mine is, but our hardness is much lower. Around 4-5 gh and 2 kh.

 

[Griz]

I agree that your water should be fine for your cacs. Mine are healthy and will breed in pH 7.5 / GH 9 / KH 6. I have been using granular peat (lots of it) in an Aquaclear but it hasn't affected my pH at all. With your water being harder, I doubt you would see much effect by placing it in your tank in a netting material. cootwarm's suggestion should work for you though, and I would recommend trying that if you are committed to lowering your pH.

Personally, I like the look of heavily peat stained water. Even though it hasn't lowered my pH for me I feel it better replicates a more natural environment for my fish. I can't give you the science behind it, but I believe that there are benefits for the fish beyond it's effect on pH. This may help breeding success even though the pH remains the same.

You can purchase blackwater extracts but I have no personal experience with these products.

 

[cootwarm]

That's funny that cdawson has the opposite experience as I've had using peat water with cacs. I've had them go many, many weeks without them showing any interest in spawning until I add a "little" peat water to their tank. Maybe cdawson used more peat than I do.

This little bit of peat water (about 5%-10%) produces almost no change in the pH and hardness values. So I think it's something else in the peat that stimulates the cacs. There is definitely something in the peat water causing this because the effect is almost immediate. Perhaps it produces the same effect as spring flooding, thus signaling time to spawn. I don't know for sure.

I read somewhere that cacs not only DON'T need low pH and hardness, but if these values are too low, it's actually unhealthy for them.

Michael

 

[brad]

Cool. I`m going to add a little peat water on the next water change but I won`t worry about my ph too much. Thanks guys.

 

[cdawson]

That's funny that cdawson has the opposite experience as I've had using peat water with cacs. I've had them go many, many weeks without them showing any interest in spawning until I add a "little" peat water to their tank. Maybe cdawson used more peat than I do.

This little bit of peat water (about 5%-10%) produces almost no change in the pH and hardness values. So I think it's something else in the peat that stimulates the cacs. There is definitely something in the peat water causing this because the effect is almost immediate. Perhaps it produces the same effect as spring flooding, thus signaling time to spawn. I don't know for sure.

I read somewhere that cacs not only DON'T need low pH and hardness, but if these values are too low, it's actually unhealthy for them.

Michael

I've actually found that to be true, they did look like they were suffering from a rather low ph.

I don't use peat, but I do use BW extract.

 

[cdawson]

I agree that your water should be fine for your cacs. Mine are healthy and will breed in pH 7.5 / GH 9 / KH 6. I have been using granular peat (lots of it) in an Aquaclear but it hasn't affected my pH at all. With your water being harder, I doubt you would see much effect by placing it in your tank in a netting material. cootwarm's suggestion should work for you though, and I would recommend trying that if you are committed to lowering your pH.

Personally, I like the look of heavily peat stained water. Even though it hasn't lowered my pH for me I feel it better replicates a more natural environment for my fish. I can't give you the science behind it, but I believe that there are benefits for the fish beyond it's effect on pH. This may help breeding success even though the pH remains the same.

You can purchase blackwater extracts but I have no personal experience with these products.

I find that granular peat is nothing more than solid BW extract, it doesn't affect hardness or ph at all. It hads nothing more than what BW extract adds. You have to use actual peat moss in a filter bag to get the right effects. Trust me, I used to use granular and then I switched over. A HUGE difference.

 

[Griz]

I'll have to give the real thing a try then. I just assumed that the granular was just a more concentrated form. It never occurred to me that it might affect pH any differently. Thanks.

 

[cdawson]

I'll have to give the real thing a try then. I just assumed that the granular was just a more concentrated form. It never occurred to me that it might affect pH any differently. Thanks.

You'll notice a HUGE difference, granular peat really does nothing but add some essential nutrients to the water that benefit plants. I even tried boiling it, and no colour at all in the water.

 

[Red Baron]

You'll notice a HUGE difference, granular peat really does nothing but add some essential nutrients to the water that benefit plants. I even tried boiling it, and no colour at all in the water.

Not really true . I have been using that for many years now . Etc. p.h straight off my tap is about 7.2 ~ 7.4 . I run it thru peat granular for about 2 hours it would bring the p.h all the way down to 4.0 .

The method i use is simple I have a spare 20g tank which I use to harvest peat water. I put the peat granular into a empty media box of my over head filter and just let it run over and over frommy empty tank.

During water changes for my fish tanks I will mix certain amont of peat filtered water with my tap water to achive my desiered p.h in to my fish tanks.

I have tried using several methods before but with little or no effect.

Method 01 - putting peat in a bag than directly in to my tanks = very little effect.

Method 02 - using peat as a base substrate than covering it with some gravel = again very little effect.

Method 03 - putting peat granular into my cannister filter as a media = very good effect.

Method 04 = putting peat granular into a bag and putting it into a wet/dry sump tank = very good results too.

If you are using a bubble / sponge filter in your tanks than dumping peat in will have little or no effect. You need to run peat granular thru water just like how you use actival carbon to bring out their best.

 

[brad]

I've read a few places that the effect from peat granules or "pellets" has been less than than from straight peat. Most of the places report a good result in lowering kh, but are quite diappointed in it's effect on ph.
What brand do you use Red Baron?

 

[Red Baron]

I've read a few places that the effect from peat granules or "pellets" has been less than than from straight peat. Most of the places report a good result in lowering kh, but are quite diappointed in it's effect on ph.
What brand do you use Red Baron?

I am using peat Granular by the brand Papillon. their website is www.papillonpet.de . Or when the shops run out of sto0ck I will us Aquarmuster`s brand.

The papillion brand`s peat is much superior it does not stains the water as much.

 

[cdawson]

I am using peat Granular by the brand Papillon. their website is www.papillonpet.de . Or when the shops run out of sto0ck I will us Aquarmuster`s brand.

The papillion brand`s peat is much superior it does not stains the water as much.

never heard of it before, or seen it. The only granular I've seen over here is hagen's. I know dupla has a brand, never seen that either though. You must be using bad peat though, it should have a significant effect on your ph. I have the same ph of tap water and it takes my ph from 7.2-7.4 down to 5.5 in almost a week.