Peat
Melissa
I have some questions for all of you with prior experience or knowledge about
using peat in aquariums and it"s effect.
Ok. First, how low does peat make the PH? I want to keep my water at about 6.5
to neutral.
Also, how fast does it work and how much should I use for a 45 gal tank?
Thanks for you help
Melissa
*There is no pleasure in life so great as doing what others say you cannot*
-Remove woohoo to reply by mail ~~
Patrick Timlin
> I have some questions for all of you with prior experience or
> knowledge about using peat in aquariums and it"s effect.
Melissa,
To save myself a little typing, well a lot actually, I went and grabbed
this reply I posted to a peat question last month on alt.aquaria.
Hopefully it will answer most of your questions, but feel free to post
new ones or ask for any clarifications if you are confused by something
I wrote.
[begin quoted post...]
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"Barrie Pfeifer" <Barrie-...@Psion.com> wrote:
> I live in an area with hard, alkaline water and am
> thinking about using peat to soften and drop the pH.
> I'd like to know how people run the water through the peat and also
> how much and what sort of peat to use?
Well there are a ton of different ways to do this. So I will just tell
you one way I normally use it.
I have a 4 gallon bucket that happens to be square rather than round.
So it is perfect for hanging a power filter off of. I have an old
Aquaclear filter that I was not using for anything else (an old model
1200 which later became the 300). It just fit across the width of the
side of the bucket.
For peat, I am using your standard garden store type sold in large
bundles for maybe $6 or whatever. It is something I had around anyway
for general gardening. There are basically two types of peat. The stuff
I use is more like dirt in that it is brown and crumbly. The other type
is the more green and fiberous type. I have not used that kind so I am
not sure how well it works. But the brown crumbly stuff works great for
me.
Next I simply got a couple nylon filter bags. I am using the kind sold
for aquaria use, but you could also use anything like the foot or leg
part of pantyhose, cheese cloth, or anything other porous material you
can make a bag out of. I fill these bags with the peat, and then
because I have it all over my hands and the outside of these bags, I
give it a quick rinse with the hose. Now I simply stick these bags into
the power filter on the bucket and let it run on the four gallons of
water.
Each weekend, I use this water for water changes on a couple of my
small tanks. I simply turn off the filter, siphon the water out into
one gallon jugs (easier to carry around). Then I refill the bucket with
new water and start it back up again for the next weekend. BTW, I put
the 4-gallon bucket up on top of another bucket so it will be off the
ground and I can siphon easier into jugs sitting on the ground lower
than the bucket.
The water is a nice golden peaty color. You really notice it in the
white bucket, but in the tank you don't see it that well. I personally
do not mind it and kind of like it. Others do not like the water and
might run this water through activated carbon next or at least have
some running on the tank. Other people like this look and try to
encourage it. One person (Hi Nestor!) even adds black water extract to
the tank even with peat treated water to get the tank nice a nice
dark "Amazon Gold". The color is not harmful to anything and is a
personal preferrence.
> How long does the peat last?
Typically I have two or three bags of peat. Touch your your fingers and
thums together of your hands (left hand finger tips against right hand
finger tips), and that space represent about how much each bag has in
it, maybe a tad less. With the four gallons I treat at a time, this
peat will last a few good months, definately two.
> Obviously I'll measure it, but how much will this affect the
> hardness and pH??
In my case, my tap water (private well) is roughly 7.6-7.8 in pH and
about 4-5 dH (70-90 ppm) hardness and 5-6 dK carbonate/bicarbonate
hardness (aka alkalinity; or a close enough term for our purposes).
After a week in the bucket, the pH is reads the very lowest on my test
kit which is 6.0. So it is 6.0 or even less. The alkalinity is
unreadable on my test kit (it tests one drop per dH/dK and a single
drop indicates positive) so it is somewhere under one degree or 17.8
ppm, and the hardness is something like 1-2dH (one or two drops give me
a reading) which means the hardness falls somewhere in the 18-36 ppm
range.
If your water is a lot harder and higher in pH, you might need more
peat or more contact time. However the few times I have tested my water
was after a full week in the bucket. For all I know, it is mostly all
treated within a day or two, and your water might still be fully
treated to these levels in that same week. But the two variables are
time and amount. You can treat the water faster by adding more peat, or
you can make a little peat treat a lot more water if you allow longer
contact time.
I really should take some digital pictures of my setup and the steps,
and put up a little "how to.." page on my web site. hmmmmm...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[end quoted post]
--
Patrick Timlin --- pti...@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/ptimlin/
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mickie
Melissa wrote in message <19991208025732...@ng-bd1.aol.com>...
:Hello all!!
:
:
:I have some questions for all of you with prior experience or knowledge
about
:using peat in aquariums and it"s effect.
:Ok. First, how low does peat make the PH? I want to keep my water at about
6.5
:to neutral.
:Also, how fast does it work and how much should I use for a 45 gal tank?
:
:Thanks for you help
:
:Melissa
I would say a definate, depends.
Depends on the alkalinity of your tap water and how much peat you use.
But I will give you my results:
My tap water is moderatly hard with low alkalinity but a high pH. (around
8.5) I prefilter 30 gallons of water with about 2 - 3 cups of moist peat
for one week. This brings the pH down to about 7.0 - 6.8. I have rigged a
fluval 4 to hold the peat in a knee high to maximize water flow through the
peat.
I have also run 1 cup of peat in an old coffee maker and run water through
it. This results in a ph lower than my test kit can measure. I add this to
tap water in a pinch.
doug
> Melissa wrote in message :
> :I have some questions for all of you with prior experience or knowledge
> about
> :using peat in aquariums and it"s effect.
> :
> :Ok. First, how low does peat make the PH? I want to keep my water at about
> 6.5
> :to neutral.
> :Melissa
"Mickie" <ohmi...@nospam.rr.com> wrote:
> But I will give you my results:
>
> My tap water is moderatly hard with low alkalinity but a high pH. (around
> 8.5) I prefilter 30 gallons of water with about 2 - 3 cups of moist peat
> for one week. This brings the pH down to about 7.0 - 6.8. I have rigged a
> fluval 4 to hold the peat in a knee high to maximize water flow through the
> peat.
>
> I have also run 1 cup of peat in an old coffee maker and run water through
> it. This results in a ph lower than my test kit can measure. I add this to
> tap water in a pinch.
Unfortunately, I lost my peat FAQ when my hard drive went and had to be
rebuilt, but I'll give you a synopsis.
Peat will leach organic acids into the water and adsorb dissolve things
(such as Mg,and Ca) in the water, making it softer and more acid. Peat
can make things *very* acid (down to around 4.2 if you try, I think). I
do this and then dilute the peat filtered water to bring it to around 6.8.
Mickie's prefiltering method and coffee filter method are both good ones
(The coffee maker's a neat trick, I gotta try it!). I get my peat from
the garden store, just make sure it's only peat and no additives, like
fertilizers. I suspect the smallest package you'll find is a 3 cu. ft
compressed package.
I then boil a half gallon of it in my microwave (with 1 gal water),
which waterlogs it and makes it sink. I dump this into the water in the
13 gal and let it sit. After a day, the peat settles and you can siphon
off the top what you need. For my water (dGH 4, dKH 1, pH8 + DIY CO2) I
dilute this about 1:10.
The other method which you'll see is to put peat in your filter until the
pH drops to where you want it and then remove the peat. I think
prefiltering's prefereable since you can match the pH going in an thus
don't have pH swings as much.
Also, you *can* remove the color with carbon if you like. That will take
out the organic acids and the chelating elements, but the acids will leave
their protons behind so the pH stays put when you remove them. Also, the
compounds that color the water (tannins mostly I think) and the ones that
acidify it (humic acids) aren't the same ones, in case you're curious.
Let me know if you have questions,
Doug
Melissa
I am going to be ordering "Blackpeat Granulues" from pet warehouse. I want the
peat to lower my harness. But I dont want my Ph to get too acidic.
The granulues fit in my filter.. So I guess when I get them, I'll just stick em
inmy filter and keep testing the water till it gets to the desired level (s)
and remove the peat?
My tap water is soft but my tank wter is very hard. Ive done water changes but
it isnt helping it (not yet atleast).. Mabye I should just gradually add
peat filtered water to the tank instead of putting it in filter (or just put a
small amount in filter) so it doesnt shock the fish from going soft to quickly.
Any comments?
doug
> My tap water is soft but my tank wter is very hard.
Hey, Melissa,
I see Patrick saved me the work of typic out a long answer to your peat
question <bg!>, but this caught my eye. Reducing pH and hardness more or
less go hand in hand when working with peat. Perhaps if you leached the
hell out of it first, you could reduce hardness (through adsorption) while
not lowering pH (if all the humic acids are gone), but that'd be a lot of
work.
The fact that you put soft water in and it hardens *very* strongly
suggests that you have a source of Ca or Mg in your tank. That is almost
certainly a rock, some shells, sand or something like that. Metal
perhaps? What do you have in the tank? Perhaps by taking things out and
doing water changes you can narrow down what's causing the hardening of
your water...
Otherwise, playing with peat is kind of fun, and most LFS people seem to
be impressed (and often more helpful) if you can say "How well does that
fish do in acid water? I use *peat filtering* in my tanks..." :-)
Doug
SNAFFLE198
Are you sure this problem is not related to gravel or rocks in the tank? I
would try to isolate why the water becomes hard after being in the tank, before
adding new things to the equation.
Just a suggestion,
jessica
Mickie
doug wrote in message ...
:
:> My tap water is soft but my tank wter is very hard.
:
<snip>
:The fact that you put soft water in and it hardens *very* strongly
:suggests that you have a source of Ca or Mg in your tank. That is almost
:certainly a rock, some shells, sand or something like that. Metal
:perhaps? What do you have in the tank? Perhaps by taking things out and
:doing water changes you can narrow down what's causing the hardening of
:your water...
Doug, took the words right out of my mouth.
<snip>