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ive been thinking about getting peat filter media for my hard, alkaline water, but i have a couple questions-

How significantly would this alter my ph? my hardness?

Will this darken my tank?

Are there any precautions i should be aware of?


Thanks

How significantly would this alter my ph? my hardness?

Depends on you individual makeup of water and what your values are, but you could get to your target values by controlling how much peat you use and how often you use it.

Will this darken my tank?

Yes, peat, like all tannic acids will turn your tank darker, depending on your individual use. The use of carbon will help to ligten this colour.

Are there any precautions i should be aware of?

Just be careful to not change your water parameters too quickly, fish don't like big changes. Also, what to you plan on doing this for? Depending on tank size, fish selection, and what you want to do, there are other options to think about. Be sure to change the peat regularly, and keep it in the filter bag so none gets in the tank.

The peat may temporarily alter your pH dependent upon your water base water parameters. If your KH is high, addition of peat may cause a small dip in pH followed by an upward bounce to your original pH. This reaction will be because of the buffering action of your KH.

You can "temper" your water hardness, both GH and KH, by using RO or DI water as part of your water changes.

You may want to post your current water parameters, GH, KH, pH and nitrates. You should also post your target water parameters. Board members can offer suggestions on how to attain the target parameters.

A word of caution - most members will ask you why you want to mess with your water chemistry. They will ask this question as most fish will adapt to a wide range of water conditions. In my case, I keep discus in relatively hard, alkaline water. They do well but I would need to adjust my water parameters to have successful spawns.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

The reason that i want peat is that in the near future i hope to get angels, ruby barbs, and/or diamond tetras, but when my grandfather owned the tank, he couldnt seem to keep these three alive. also, i think it will be better for the fish in my tank. I havent had great luck with my tetras, and im starting to beleive that its the hard, alkaline water.

Anyway, here are my parameters and my goals:

ph- 7.4; goal ph- 6.7

Harness- very hard (need to get a test); goal hardness-Moderately soft (dont know much about kh, gh, or dh)

Nitrate- 40ppm (cant seem to get this down no matter how many gravel vacs i do, but i just added a nitrate reducer so hopefully that will work)

Really its only my hardness that worries me so i think im going to get the API tap water filter instead.

Zach,

Really your nitrates should worry you. I suspect that the nitrate problem is because your water changes are not often enough and are not large enough. How much of a water change do you do? How often do you change the water?

Your pH is fine for angels or tetras or barbs. They do like great water conditions. "Great water conditions" means clean water with low nitrates. Do take a water sample to your lfs or to your local water treatment guy (Culligan?) ask him to test for GH and KH or get a test kit. You want to test both your tank water and your tap water. However, let your tap water stand overnight before testing it.

Now, adding chemicals or peat will not "soften" your water. Soft water is devoid of chemicals. The following is a link to a short article on water hardness: http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hardness.htm.

It should help you to understand hardness/softness (GH and KH).



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Here is your one stop shop for water hardness information:

Water hardness conversion tables

Note that this covers general hardness. The distinction between temporary and permanent hardness is given on the page, but it doesn't cover carbonate hardness as a separate entity.

You'll first need to assess total hardness (i.e., total dissolved mineral content) then determine which fraction of that is due to carbonates/bicarbonates, and which to other dissolved ions (e.g., sulphates).

Once you've assessed those, then you need to deal with pH.

Peat filtration is one of those processes that makes for some interesting discussions at aquarist societies - some people regard it as a magical panacea, while others can't see the point. A more rational view is that for reproducing the water conditions of certain river systems (e.g., Rio Negro), it has considerable utility value. Peat is useful if you wish to set up a 'blackwater' aquarium whose water parameters replicate those of the Rio Negro and similar rivers, and its primary function is to add humic acids to the water. Of course, once those humic acids go in, then a lot of other chemical changes can take place, as those humic acids interact with some of your dissolved minerals, the carbonates and bicarbonates being prime candidates for a chemical reaction. One of the reasons that peat has something of a softening effect on water is precisely through these reactions - taking carbonate mineral compounds out of the water. When those carbonates react with the humic acids, they form organic mineral salts, many of which are insoluble in water and precipitate out. Those precipitates end up ultimately in the substrate, and if you have live plants, they wind up attached to the plant roots. Here, bacteria get to work, and interesting things happen, making some of those minerals available to your plants.

Of course, in the case of bicarbonates, they'll have a buffering effect, and there'll be some oscillation in pH and KH values until the system stabilises. Having said that, the wonders of aquarium chemistry when peat is factored in constitute a rich field for research and exploration!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hi.
That is an interesting reference chart and I've added
it to my "favorites" (AOL terminology).

I wonder why in such a professional site they use
0 comma xxx instead of 0 point xxx? Why use a
comma instead of the decimal point?

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Sorry, I don't know much about using peat do lower pH, but I do know that driftwood will also do it, and you may want to consider using that as well

As for your high nitrates, test your TAP WATER for nitrates, and see if it's high. If you can't get them down in the tank, that's usually the source. If that's the case, you may want to consider getting an RO/DI unit, or planting the tank. I personally don't believe in using unnecesary chemicals in tanks, and I would reccomend that you don't either, but that's just my personal opinion... probably because I try to have everything in my tanks be as totally natural as possible (real rocks, driftwood, plants, etc... hiding all equipment, etc)

Good luck

At 7.4 ph that is not your problem. My angel has been living in 8.2-8.4ph water for over a year now. He's quite happy and grown alot. I've also had many tetras in that water. Almost all fish can handle a ph around 7.0. I don't think dropping it from 7.4 to 6.7 is going to make one bit of difference. You can try it but messing with ph can result in a few headaches and I really don't think it's going to improve your chances of keeping those fish. Something else has to be wrong such as the high nitrates. Have you tested the tapwater to see if it contains any nitrates?

Brief answer to Frank - the website is based in Denmark. Germany and Denmark are two of the European nations that use the comma where the UK and most of the English-speaking world use the period to denote a decimal point in a number. I think you'll find that the French adopt this convention too. Something to bear in mind when browsing German aquarist sites in future, particularly ones that contain a fair amount of technical data!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

How much of a water change do you do? How often do you change the water?

Because i havent been able to get my nitrates down, ive started doing 50% water changes weekly (before it was 20% weekly)

As for your high nitrates, test your TAP WATER for nitrates, and see if it's high

The nitrates from my tap is about 20ppm.

I just have a question for any of those who have a PUR tap water filter (the one that attaches to the faucet)-

Does this at all lower the hardess of the water?