Peat - How to use it??
Barrie Pfeifer
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? How long does the peat last?
Obviously I'll measure it, but how much will this affect the hardness and
pH??
cheers,
Barrie.
Patrick Timlin
> 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...
--
Patrick Timlin --- pti...@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/ptimlin/
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
T*M
> I then scoop several tablespoons of the peat into the filter bag that I have my
> charcoal in and slide the bag back into the filter.
>
> I was told that it takes several days for the peat to start decaying and start
> lowering your PH.
If it goes into the filter dry, it will take several days to thoroughly
wet.
I do something similar again, except after the peat is put into the bag,
(I think its actually a bag for the AQ300) I pour about 2 cups of
boiling water over it and let it sit about 5 minutes. This completely
wets the peat moss. One bag fills the media section of an old AQ mini,
it sits on the side of a 5 gal. bucket, and drops the pH from 7.8 to 6.8
to 7.0 in 20 minutes for the first bucket and 30 minutes for the second.
Mary Anne
PeacfulRvr
looks like dirt from hardware store. I then bake it at 350 for 10 minutes to
kill anything in it however I believe it is already sterile.
I then scoop several tablespoons of the peat into the filter bag that I have my
charcoal in and slide the bag back into the filter.
I was told that it takes several days for the peat to start decaying and start
lowering your PH. I am able to keep a 55 gal tank at 6.6 - 6.8 useing this in
two powerfilters that hang on the back of my tank.
Mark Burningham
bottom. Irish moss peat is then heaped on top. Pour water over the peat and
allow to trickle into another receptacle. Peat is very acidic and takes my
water from pH 8.3 KH15 to pH5.5 KH2, there fore your watewr may need
buffering. If you do this outside the tank, it means there is less
likelihood of upsetting your tank inhabitants.
Mark
http://www.marksfish.f9.co.uk
Barrie Pfeifer <Barrie-...@Psion.com> wrote in message
news:382c...@news.psion.com...
> Hi,
>
> 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? How long does the peat last?
>
> Obviously I'll measure it, but how much will this affect the hardness and
> pH??
>
> cheers,
> Barrie.
>
>
ChrisPlatt
have come in contact with pesticides, fertilizer and who knows what...
I recommend you purchase Hagen Peat Plates or Eheim Peat Fibers, available at
your LFS. Install as large a piece as practical inside a nylon filter bag in
your power filter; replace weekly until you reach the approximate desired pH
and hardness; thereafter replace with each filter change. Then by doing *10%
weekly* water changes *no* buffering of either new water or tank water should
be necessary.
In more than ten years working in a LFS I knew of no cases where this method
even stressed a fish let alone killed one.
Simplify; simplify!
-Chris
e a n@spammenot.pfeifer.demon.co.uk B e a n
Barrie.