Anyone use/used peat or oak leafs to naturally lower ph?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Haha Justin. "Driftwood will lower your ph! Srsly!" I guess you can throw away your RO unit for your SA cichlids! Oh wait... You have a ton of driftwood in your tanks and GASP! Your ph is still basic!

To the OP: take your water to a lfs and get it tested for ph, kh, and gh. Then we can provide you better advice from there.
 
I did take it for a ph, kh, and gh test about 2 months ago, just after I put the cichlid in (I should've done it before, I know). I remember the ph being 7.8 and I do not remember the other readings other than the guy testing saying the water was really hard. Hard enough that he was surprised by it. I will have to get the gh and kh retested for actual numbers.

I read up some more on the blackwater extracts, and I did not like what I read, it appears it is far from a science just yet- http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/humic.html (about 3/4 down the page mentions the extracts).

So if I get the water tested and the water is too hard to even effect my ph with peat or other additives, my only way to combat the ph then would be through an RO unit correct? I have a bottle of API ph down which I bought 2 months ago, but I'm kinda reluctant to use it.

Also, thanks for the responses guys. I somewhat knew about gh and kh, but never really needed to know, so I took it all with a grain of salt. From what I read, it appears if the water is really hard, you are less likely to be able to drop it with filtering agents such as peat/oak leafs. Am I correct there?
 
aclockworkorange;4554854; said:
A ph test only measures acidic (less than 7.0 ph) and basic (more than 7.0 ph). This does not factor in alkalinity, or kh...
The alkalinity is a measurement of the waters buffering ability, or its ability to absorb and neutralize acid. Clearly the more alkalinity or the higher the Carbonate Hardness of the water the harder it will be to get your water to be more acidic.

IMO, for long term stable acidic ph, RO is the way to go. Feel free to throw any sort of driftwood or blackwater extract in your water and try it out... But if your water isn't soft it won't do anything. My water is VERY soft, and my tank with driftwood drops it from 6.6 down to lower than 6.0 ph. This will NOT happen in hard water.
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I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if you read my post your question is already answered. The measure of your water's hardness is the measurement of it's ability to absorb and neutralize acid... SO IF YOUR WATER IS HARD IT WILL ABSORB AND NEUTRALIZE ANY ACID YOU TRY TO ADD.
There are some chemicals you can use to temporarily get around this but it will always be a guessing game and you will 98% of the time have ph bounces.
Like I said, RO is the way to go if you want stable acidic water for your fish.
 
I gathered that reading your earlier post, but did not know if the peat or oak leafs would do anything at all. From your last post, I see clearly not. I just wanted to know if putting in anything acidic would be a waste of time as opposed to getting a RO unit....which I will likely not do. I'll get my chocolate another home and get a fish that can withstand harder water with higher ph instead.
 
I don't know how much you should worry about pH and water hardness. My CA/SA fish are currently living in liquid rock water(with a pH of nearly 9) and are all happy. Stable pH/hardness is more important than the "right" pH.
 
You can always try some of the blackwater extracts before you give up, but don't be surprised if they don't work in hard water.
 
I wouldn't discount the ionization abilty of peat. However it requires monitoring. Years ago before R/O that's how we did it. I do agree a stable and steady Ph is better that trying to replacate the "correct" Ph. The other option is keep fish the will do well in your water.
 
I am trying to keep this as simple as possible (no mixing of RO and tapwater, having to constantly check the water parameters). I would like to be able to just do my gravel vacuuming and 25% water changes a week. I realize fish are always gonna have something to deal with regardless of species, but I am not trying to have to mess with changing the water parameters right from the tap.

I will try the peat although I am not so confident now that it will make the difference. The only other option is a water softening pillow, but again I feel like I would just be putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound.
 
i just tried out one of those softener media baggies...10oz of super small resin BB's...

works well, dropped the pH about 0.8, from 7.8 to a nice neutral 7.0

i've been gearing up to go get some peat. sdaw some old fluval granules stashed at LFS...hehehe...

but no lie, that softener packet works pretty well :) you can feel it on your fingers after handling the media.
 
Cookie*420;4562074; said:
The only other option is a water softening pillow, but again I feel like I would just be putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound.
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well, im one of those guys that repeatedly bought filter cartridges LOL so trying this media was pretty cool..if you're used to buying cartridges/other media frequently i think it would be good to consider the option. im NOT sure, however on how long it lasts. all it says was 10oz, not recommended usage or anything...so shame on me for not doing calculations beforehand...but ehh...sometimes thats how you learn.

. now im starting to ween myself off of them an experience other media. so im gonna swap the carbon to peat and bio glass media on all my panaque tanks after payday.
 
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