Ph - vs - Peat

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soulFish

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MFK Member
Jan 14, 2007
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Tampa, FL
Ok heres the deal our tap water tests out at 7.4ph and I am wanting to lower it to about 7.0-7.2ph.

I have a 20Gal with Loaches, a Bichir, a Shark, a Pleco and Gouramis (Not sure of all the spellings, forgive me)

I was told to use Peat granuals to help lower the Ph. So I put the Peat inside the bags, inside the filter holders in my HOB Emperor. I've had it in there 24hrs and I've been testing the water. The Ph still reads at 7.4, and it looks like the PPeat is starting to break down into smaller chunks. But now I've noticed my Shark rubing on rocks and the Gouramis are looking a bit stressed.

Can Peat stress the fish out or make the shark rub on rocks? Could I have added too much Peat into the filter? Even though it's not lowering the Ph levels?
 
I don't see how it would. I'm using Canadian sphagnum peat in my Emp and my ammonia is at 0
 
Ok just did a 25% water change and Ammonia is down to 1.0

How could the Ammonia just jump that high that quick? I literally did 25% 3 days ago. I did hoever switch to a new HOB, but the old Bio filter is floating in the tank. For now the Peat is staying out of the tank. Any ideas why this happened?
 
The peat should have nothing to due with that. I LOVE THAT STUFF. Could be the tank might be overstocked or something you fed them. It wasnt shrimp or anything was it? Also...why is the old bio filter floating in the tank? When I change a HOB filter I get the water from a water change and throw it in a good size rubbermaid and run the new filter with that water...this way when its introduced to the tank it will have the same established bacteria.
 
soulFish;676549; said:
Ok heres the deal our tap water tests out at 7.4ph and I am wanting to lower it to about 7.0-7.2ph.

I have a 20Gal with Loaches, a Bichir, a Shark, a Pleco and Gouramis (Not sure of all the spellings, forgive me)

I was told to use Peat granuals to help lower the Ph. So I put the Peat inside the bags, inside the filter holders in my HOB Emperor. I've had it in there 24hrs and I've been testing the water. The Ph still reads at 7.4, and it looks like the PPeat is starting to break down into smaller chunks. But now I've noticed my Shark rubing on rocks and the Gouramis are looking a bit stressed.

Can Peat stress the fish out or make the shark rub on rocks? Could I have added too much Peat into the filter? Even though it's not lowering the Ph levels?
Click to expand...

theres a strong buffer thats resisting the pH change pretty good. your water must be pretty hard, add more peat.
 
soulFish;676604; said:
Ok just did a 25% water change and Ammonia is down to 1.0

How could the Ammonia just jump that high that quick? I literally did 25% 3 days ago. I did hoever switch to a new HOB, but the old Bio filter is floating in the tank. For now the Peat is staying out of the tank. Any ideas why this happened?
Click to expand...

how long has the tank been set up? and how long have the fish been in the tank?

thats a pretty big bioload for that small a volume of water
 
The tank should not be overcrowded, atleast I wouldnt think so. I have in this tank:

20Gal Tank
3 Leopard Ctenopoma (2.5")
3 Giant Danio (2" & 2.5")
2 Redtail Botia Loach (2" & 1.5")
2 Glass Cats (2")
1 Royal Pleco (3")
1 Redtail Shark (1")
1 Albino Bichir (3")

The Filtration is a bit on the big side, since I'm planning on moving this tank up in size. The HOB is a Emporer 400 Gph

I just added all these guy to the tank on Sat. All but the Pleco & Bichir were in a 10Gal doing fine. I added the 10Gal water into the 20Gal and topped it off. So it had atleast a 50% water change on Sat. At that time the Ph was 7.4 (same as our Tap) and the Ammonia was about .5 @ 75f.

I have been feeding the Leopard Ctenopoma, small dried krill, they seem to love it and have been going crazy for it. Not sure it thats the culprate, but since you asked. The other foods being used are flake, bloodworms, and half a pleco chip.

On Monday I added the Peat to the Emp 400, into the extra media holders. One mistake I did make was not using the media fine mesh bags. The media holders had the Peat Granuals in the Emp media containers. So the water got cloudy from that. But from what you guys say broken down peat would not cause a Ammonia spike, but here is the full story. Any ideas?
 
changing p.h. and maintaining it with chems or peat is a loosing battle.whats wrong with 7.4-Ive got what people call soft water fish in a g.h. of 300 and a p.h. of 7.6 they all do fine.a steady p.h. far out weighs changing it.good luck....
 
I agree a stable Ph is more desirable, than making spikes in it. But my real problem was the Ammonia spike, it jumped from .5 to 2.5 in 3 days! Last night I noticed my Leopards hiding and scratching, and also the shark was scratching, so I did some water testing and the Ammonia level was toxic, hence the weird behavior in the fish. So I am just trying to get help with finding the culprate in the Amonia spike. The Ph and the Peat was just the starting point.
 
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