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hey there!

does anybody use peat in their filter? i want too to recreate more amazon type water for my tetra, as well as providing nutrients for the plants (and i quite like the idea of having slightly yellow water). however my tap water is already quite low ph and im not sure how much of an effect the darkened water would have on my lighting for my plants.

so any ideas and advice would be very much appreciated!

Well, if you use driftwood or bogwood in the tank, and don't soak it prior to putting it in the tank, it should release tannins that will darken the water. I don't know of the effect on the plants/lighting balance. But, I don know that you'd have to weight the wood down with a rock or something in order to keep it at the bottom of the tank.

I am fairly new to all this, so hopefully someone with a bit more experience will come round and offer a suggestion!

If your ph is already low you may end up with way too low of ph after adding peat or driftwood. Do you know the kh? You need a good kh test if you start messing with the ph. Buffer the kh to 5 degrees or above with baking soda and then add a small amount of peat to your filter. Wait a few days before you judge how much it's tinted your water. If it's too light add more if it's too dark use less. Since your just going for a little tint to the water it shouldn't take much peat or be too hard to keep the ph up.

If the ph drops too low then add a little more baking soda to buffer it better. Add the baking soda to reach the kh you want on a new bucket of water for water changes and not directly to the tank. Do water changes with the new harder water to increase kh or ph instead of directly changing the tank. Fish will get stressed and possibly die if you change the parameters too quickly which is why you do it through water changes. It gives them time to adapt. Also remove any chemical filtration. Carbon and other chemical filtration will remove some of the color and require you to use more peat which will drop the ph farther and require more baking soda. The tank has more risk of becoming unstable the more peat or baking soda you have to add.