Sphagnum peat questions

[valm1988]

Hello, I currently have two 20 gallon freshwater aquariums which have goldgish, angels, guppies, corydoras, and one pleco. I would love to have more tanks, but I can only fit so much into a one bedroom apartment.
Anyway, we recently moved, and come to find out, we have very hard, alkaline water here. I tried introducing new guppies into my guppy tank and they died within two days. I am using API 5 in 1 test strip to get the following readings:

GH : ~ 180ppm (mg/L)
KH : ~ 180ppm (mg/L)
pH : ~ 8.0
NO2 : 0ppm
NO3 : ~80ppm (mg/L)

I did lots of research and decided that I would like to try to lower the hardness and pH using sphagnum peat. I also read about using rainwater, but I'm concerned about pollutants as I live in a city. And RO is not within my current budget. So I purchased sphagnum from a seller on ebay, received it today. I'm still waiting on the net bags I purchased. Basically, I just want to make sure that I introduce it correctly, and I was wondering how much I should use per tank, how long it will last, and how soon I should expect results.
I'm including a picture of the peat I got, to make sure it's the right texture. I understand it will make the water yellowish. Will that last forever, or will it settle? Thank you for any feedback!

 

[valm1988]

Edit & additional info:

The NO3 for the guppy tank is actually around 40ppm, not 80.

Also, I do understand that the GH and KH may be suitable for the types of fish I currently have, but I would still like to lower it, so I can feel better about introducing pet store fish which may be used to softer water. Also, I have a scientific mind and I'm genuinely curious how much the peat will affect the values.

 

[pbeemer]

you need to do something (add plants?) to get those nitrates down

i've never used peat/sphagnum moss to adjust the pH; i expect the quantitative results will depend on the exact salts in your water.

the effect should be permanent (until you add more water). what's is mostly happening is that the humic acids in the peat are combining with the calcium in the water (which seems to be most of your hardness) and forming insoluble calcium salts which settle out.

i expect the color to increase as long as you have the moss in contact with the aquarium water. once your hardness is down where you like it, you can probably reduce the color a little with activated charcoal.

 

[myswtsins]

• Test strips are very inaccurate. A liquid test kit is MUCH more reliable and highly recommended, especially if you are going to be messing with the water chemistry.
• Nitrates are too high. This could have just as easily (more likely even) killed the new guppies as the water being too hard.
• It is better to have a stable ph and hardness then a "perfect" ph or hardness. If you want to do the peat thing anyways I would suggest pre-peating water before a water change. Aging your water change water in a bucket, barrel, tank etc with the peat before adding to the aquarium.
• Doing a long acclimation will make it easier to transfer LFS fish to whatever your water is.
• How much peat to use? No idea, it varies. Monitor the water closely and adjust accordingly.
• Peat colored water will remain as long as you use peat. Like mentioned above you can try some carbon/charcoal after reaching your desired levels but again monitor your levels.
• RO systems are pretty affordable these days. Have you looked around at all? Something like THIS might be enough for you. There are lots of options out there though. You can just cut your tap water with RO water to make it how you like.

 

[fishorama]

We lived in Kalamazoo...way back, late 70-early 80s-ish & AFAIR had rock hard water (really high GH, KH & pH) so maybe livebearers can be happy if you pay attention to very slowly acclimating them. Beware of trying to keep soft(ish) water tetras or apistos, rams etc.We thought it was because we were newbs but, in hindsight, It was the hard water.

As Jen said, RO systems are pretty inexpensive these days. But talk to some locals if you can & they're still around (no idea, but Burdick St. & Connie's in Portage were straight up!).

As for peat, it'll be a constant stress on your fish unless you do frequent small water changes w/the peat softened water (either in the filtration or in a separate holding bin or tank)