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I was setting up a 10gal heavily planted S. American tank at work. I have previously used "peat plates" to grow plants and been extremely happy with it. So I thought I would try using some gardener's peat (like you buy for your yard) to set up a substrate for the tank and save some money. My thinking was this would provide a great substrate for roots , plus it would acidify the water and stain it a bit to get the S. American look I wanted.

Well it worked great for the first two months. The plants and fish did great and the water was slightly acidic and faintly tea colored (note I overlayed 1" of peat with gravel to keep the peat in place) Then it happened....the tank self destructed...

First the tannic acid turned the tank almost opaque and then a huge hair algae bloom...the pH actually remained fairly constant, but I didn't test nitrates I'm guessing they were way up. Anyway I just got through tearing down the old tank and getting rid of the peat.

On the plus side I have never seen such great root growth in the peat. The plants had sent tons of roots throughout the substrate. On the negative side, the peat was obviously rotting and decomposing. I've never had that problem with "peat plates", just the gardner's peat.

Bottom line...I would spend the extra money and buy the peat plates or use minimal gardener's peat and maybe mix it with the gravel to see if that will prevent the decomposition.

Anyone else ever experiment with peat or other substrates for plants? Any ideas on how to use gardener's peat without the subsequent explosion?

I would not hasten you descision on the results were from the peatmoss. As I use the stuff regularly in my plant tanks. And I use the big 3 foot blocks you buy at the gardeners store. You might chech and see if the kind you bought had any other chemical or addatives to it. There may be another culperet in there. I also place peat in my filters, and in my canister filters with high flow across it. This helps it to sink normally after a week or two in the canister filter. I use this week old petemoss in my killie tanks for breeding, and it is the only substrate in those tanks. 5 gal tanks with 2 inches of petemoss on bottom. I have never had any problems with it. And I have been using it for over 10 years like this.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Like he said, and you mentioned Acid- it was the particular type of peat moss Im sure.
Obviously that brand was not a particularly viable form of peat, or perhaps as Acid mentioned, it had another additive.
I considered using peat moss for my 25g tank, however, not 1 bag I examined even had ingredients listed. So I didnt trust it. Who knows what could be in there?
Also, one time I remember my mom (huge gardening freak) bought this new type of "peat moss" and when we got it home we discovered a very fine print down at the bottom of the bag that said Ingredients: 45% Peat Moss, 45% Steer Manure, 10% Phosphate something
The label said 100% Natural Peat Moss- No additives.
Sure sure.
It pays to be careful which brand you buy and always check for ingredients- when in doubt, skip to a different brand!


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Another option, though more expensive, is the peat pellets that are sold for the Fluval canister filters. These come in a little box at your LFS.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I've used peat for close to 20 years.
I add a little to each tank I have set up.
After 1-2 months, the effects of the tannins and reduction wears off.
I've never had it rot or goes sour like you seem to indicate.

I use ground peatmoss, not the loose whole sphag, use the Scott's ground peat etc, pre soak it also.

There is another product called leonardite that is peat like and is like something between peat and coal. Both just old plants.

Some folks have used that, it'll last longer but release slower.

Peat is easier than using soil IMO/IME, both you can also use that if you wish.

I treat peat tanks like any non CO2 approach, I do not do water changes(Top off for evaporation only) for 3-6 months, I have a good size fish load+ algae eaters and I feed the fish well each day.
That is your plant food dosing also.

A number of things could have caused the tank to go sour.

Regards,
Tom Barr