Filtration through peat

CajunCC

CajunCC

I take pictures
Sep 10, 2004
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Harrisburg, PA
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I've been considering running peat fibers/granules in my filter for a while, to soften the water and drop the pH a bit. Although I do have a few questions. First of all, should I get the granules or the fibers? Is one more effective than the other? I figure the granules would be easier and less messy to work with.

Another thing that came to mind is that the pH will slowly drop from the peat, but what happens when I do a water change? Will changing 25-30% of the water have enough of an impact on pH to stress the fish?
 
I am using the granules which i placed them in a filter bag, and then in the filter itself. It is less messy this way i feel. I'm also doing about 30% of weekly water changes, the pH didnt jump that much, at least from what i can tell from the test kits.
 
Well i went out and picked up a box of peat granules. I put them in the filter basket this afternoon and about 5 hours later, the water is already taking on a slight brownish color. I'll check the pH later tonight and see how it is.
 
don't get your hopes up about dropping the hardness. I tried for over 8 months to reduce hardness by using peat. I used a ton of it.......It did slightly lower ph and it gives the water a nice color. Once you get a ro unit the peat will drop the pH nicely.................

how much do those pellets cost?
you can buy a bag of peat moss at a garden store for like $2.
 
Peat will change the KH of your water and most of us know that the KH of the water will tell your PH after thinking about the Co2…

Ok back to the basics. Yes peat will lower the PH of your water but it dose it very slowly and the peat only last a week or two before needing to be changed.

I would go to say if you want to lower you PH you might want to look at your KH and GH readings. Depending on what your readings you could look into a RO water filter and mix your tap with RO to get the readings you want. I know RO now your thinking $$$. I have had good luck with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Filter http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22577;category_id=1755 . You could use a mix of 50/50 tap to filtered water.
 
Yeah, I have well water, so the KH is pretty high. I'm not looking for some miracle cure. I just want to get the pH out of the 8.5-9 range. I may look into that AP filter though.
 
I have the same problem with well water. The peat wasn't very succesful so I went to gradually diluting the well water with rainwater and currently have the kH down to 120 ppm. I'll take it down to 80-100 somewhere and see how that goes for a while.

My pH was also around the 8.5-9.0 tho testing today it looks to be slightly under 8.5 for a change.
 
got_nailed said:
Peat will change the KH of your water and most of us know that the KH of the water will tell your PH after thinking about the Co2…

Ok back to the basics. Yes peat will lower the PH of your water but it dose it very slowly and the peat only last a week or two before needing to be changed.

I would go to say if you want to lower you PH you might want to look at your KH and GH readings. Depending on what your readings you could look into a RO water filter and mix your tap with RO to get the readings you want. I know RO now your thinking $$$. I have had good luck with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Filter http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22577;category_id=1755 . You could use a mix of 50/50 tap to filtered water.
Click to expand...


This is a product I am interested in.............How often does the cartridge have to be changed and what is the cartridge made of?...............How well in general does this filter work?
 
I used to filter with peat and gave it up, I used to do 25%-30% water changes. It lowered my pH from 8.0 to 7.6. I was using Sera Super Peat and was effective but I had to change the filter every week otherwise the peat lost its effectiveness.
 
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