Peat??

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Sea Robin
MFK Member
Aug 21, 2005
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I have heard of peat, and heard that my German Rams would do well from it. This may be a novice question, but what the heck is peat? How would I use it and what does it do? I heard it colors the water to be darker. Any help, info, and suggestions would be appreciated.
 
peat is natuarl substance (moss) it will lower your ph slighty and add a tea stain to the water which makes most fish more comfortable not many rivers and lakes that are crystal clear buy it from the lfs put in a bag or buy it bagged rinse well stick in a chamber in your filter and replace every month remove any activated carbon though as this removes tea staining depending on your tank size a couple peices of bog wood will have the same effect just rinse them in hot water dont soak as you want to leave the tannins in the wood.

i strive for this on my tanks the fish are much more calm then a clear tank .
 
Howdy,

peat is partially decaying moss from a swamp or moor. It acts as an ion exchanger, softens your water, buffers it at a lower pH value and enriches it with humic substances, which causes a bronish tint of your water. Driftwood can have similar properties at much lower potency and continuously decreasing capacity. Don't try it. If you do it, do it right and use peat. You will have to monitor your gH and kH as well as pH values in order to properly adjust these parameters with peat. In doing so, you need to replace old peat with new once the effects decrease. Depending on your tap water's hardness, peat might not have much of an effect on the pH and hardness, and you have to lower the hardness before you add peat or you have to use a lot of peat.

It sound like some work, but it really is worth it!

HarleyK
 
As an experiment once, i made a landpart in my aquarium/terrarium with peatblocks (i had no fish in it) - i knew the ph would be low, but after a few weeks, it was down at 3. So dont add to much ;)
 
Is there any sort of ratio of peat per gallon? Also has anyone used this in water where it is naturally hard 7.8-8.0
Thanks,
Jason
 
All of the other replies are accurate, but I thought I should mention one small thing: German Rams couldn't care less whether your pH is 8.5 or 5 as long as it is consistent. The belief that SA fish must have acidic water is an old, old rumor that just won't go away.

I keep and breed my rams in tap water and the pH is over 8. Just because the Amazon tends to be low pH doesn't imply that fish prefer it. Mostly, they just like pH to be consistent.

However, one good way to kill fish is to subject them to a large, fast pH swing when you are doing a water change. Peat will not improve the health of your rams, but meddling with pH certainly can cause problems.
 
Also take into consideration when checking water parameters if you are using a color based scale. Heavily stained water can give you trouble reading these.
 
If you're rams are looking well and breeding, then I wouldn't suggest you use peat. Just as LoTech said, consistency and stability is the key. However if you're having trouble stimulating breeding or such, then you can always pre-treat a water barrel with peat and do your tests in there before doing partial water changes with it.
 
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