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I have a 25 gal planted community tank, I have been using peat granules wrapped in filter floss for almost as long as I have had the tank. My question is how much peat for 25 gal and how often should I change it. My fish all seem to be fine but I would like to have abetter idea of what I should be doing. Peat filtering is not expanded on too much in the fish books I have and I have quite a few of those. I have just taken the crbon out of the filter as well and would like to know if I need to replace it with anything. I am using AC 50 filter with the foam, peat and floss, biomax, I was using carbon and zeolite as well. Thanx in advance for your advice.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

I use peat in all my tanks as well, well almost all. But instead of puting it right in the filter, I use a seperate bucket. That way I can accuratly control the pH, GH and KH of the tank.

Unsure krib, but I'd be going off the colour of the water and the pH value for your answer.

If you can't see the fish for tannin, thats probably too much!

I have a bag of peat sitting here waiting to go in, so i'm rather curious too


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I've got a 29 gallon that I've put peat into for a few years now, I don't accuratley measure the peat (it goes into a bag in my Fluval) but I'd say it's aproxamately 1/4 to 1/2 cup, and I change it whenever the tannins in the water start to fade. Usually every few months.

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

An entire box of peat granules turned my water a nice dark brown even with tons of carbon in the filter as well and managed to budge the ph an entire .2. It was worthless to run it on the actual tank. However running it in a bucket or storage container until the ph is low(peat can get it as low as 5.0) and then running it through alot of activated carbon could effectively create low ph water for your tank without the discoloring. I would suggest plastic storage containers, an extra filter, and some of seachem's purigen. Purigen is stronger than carbon and more effective at removing the color plus it's rechargeable so you won't be throwing away all that carbon.

Does the Purigen remove organic stuff as well? I want to keep all the hummic (or whatever its called lol) acids and such...

The water is a real nice yellow tint that sets the fish off quite well. I'm not really trying to lower the pH using the peat, rather stabilize it, the water comes out of my tap close to 8 and the books I used when I set up the tank all recommended a pH around 7.5 (which isn't on my test card, it's all even numbers). And each time I would lower the pH, it would creep back up. I started using the peat because the pH stays where I want it better. I tried using a product called pH Stabilizer KH booster. The amount recommended did not even come close to stabilizing the pH, so I discontinued that and went back to using pH. Thanks for all the input. As long as the water doesn't get too dark and as long as it doesn't get too clear I guess what I'm using is the right amount. Thanks again!

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Purigen is made for planted tanks and doesn't remove a noticeable amount of nutrients. Like carbon it will remove the color but not the effect the acids have on the ph. The ph will drop the same amount whether you are using chemical filtration or not but the color will be removed more with purigen than carbon.