Peat In filter to maintain pH

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

Hello everyone,

 I was reading a post of someone stating that they use peat in their filter to maintain the pH in their blackwater tanks. What are your experiences with using peat in filters? I've heard of peat but I've never used it. Does it really keep the pH stable? 

What brands of peat do you use and recommend? 

 

Reason I want to try this out is because I have a 7 gallon blackwater tank with only 1 male half-moon betta with lots of botanicals and last time I tested my water parameters, pH was at a 6.4 but sometimes when I do water changes, the Ph changes drastically and I want to avoid this from happening again. I already have pretty soft water with kH ranging from 1-3 and gH from 6-8 using the API Freshwater Test kit. 

 

[tolstoy21]

On 4/11/2024 at 6:13 PM, Tropicalfishkeeping201 said:

I was reading a post of someone stating that they use peat in their filter to maintain the pH in their blackwater tanks. What are your experiences with using peat in filters? I've heard of peat but I've never used it. Does it really keep the pH stable? 

I've used both regular peat from a garden store and Fluval's peat pellets. I prefer the Fluval pellets over regular peat because they take zero preparation and don't stain the water. I'm not against the 'blackwater' look at all, but when I used regular peat, the water turned so dark I could not see the fish in it. I guess I needed to soak and rinse the peat more or something, which is why I went back to Fluval's product, because they have done all the hard work for you. In the instances where I have used it, I was using it in straight RO water with no Kh present.

In your case, I'm curious if peat will react fast enough against the addition of buffers to counteract the sudden presence of Kh. In my experience, water will react to the presence of Kh much faster (driving Ph up) than it does to presence of botanicals (which gradually drives Ph down).

Do you know how much does a water change swing your Ph? It might not be enough to be of any concern at all.

Edited April 11 by tolstoy21

[face]

Does the ph out of your tap go closer to your tank water if it’s just left in a bucket in other words does it off gas if so you can’t buffer against it co2 will change ph regardless of kh of any amount of acid you add the ph change is also normally harmless 

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 4/11/2024 at 3:34 PM, tolstoy21 said:

I've used both regular peat from a garden store and Fluval's peat pellets. I prefer the Fluval pellets over regular peat because they take zero preparation and don't stain the water. I'm not against the 'blackwater' look at all, but when I used regular peat, the water turned so dark I could not see the fish in it. I guess I needed to soak and rinse the peat more or something, which is why I went back to Fluval's product, because they have done all the hard work for you. In the instances where I have used it, I was using it in straight RO water with no Kh present.

In your case, I'm curious if peat will react fast enough against the addition of buffers to counteract the sudden presence of Kh. In my experience, water will react to the presence of Kh much faster (driving Ph up) than it does to presence of botanicals (which gradually drives Ph down).

Do you know how much does a water change swing your Ph? It might not be enough to be of any concern at all.

Thank you so much for sharing. Last time I did a water change, pH went from a 6.6 to a 7.4 and from there I decided I wanted to try this to see if the Ph can stay more stable in the 6 range. 

Is this the peat that you use from Fluval?

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 4/11/2024 at 6:04 PM, face said:

Does the ph out of your tap go closer to your tank water if it’s just left in a bucket in other words does it off gas if so you can’t buffer against it co2 will change ph regardless of kh of any amount of acid you add the ph change is also normally harmless 

I did this off-gassing test almost two years ago but in another tank, not in my betta tank. There was a big difference in Ph from my tank water and from coming straight out of the tap. From tap water, even after doing the aeration test, Ph was still pretty high while in my tank, the pH is very low. These were the results using the API Freshwater Test Kit:

Sun 8/14/22 Tank water parameters:

• Ammonia: 0 ppm
• Nitrite: 0 ppm
• Nitrate: 0 ppm
• pH: 6.6 or  6.8 ( It was hard to differentiate the colors if it was 6.6 or 6.8 but looked more like it was 6.6)
• KH: 35.8 ppm
• GH: 196.9 ppm

Results after testing my tap water ( Tested on 8/14/22) 

• Ph: 7.6
• High range ph: 8.4 or 8.8 ( It was hard to differentiate the colors but it looked more like it was 8.8)
• Kh: 125.3 ppm
• GH:  161.1 ppm

Off-gassing test 24 Hr result (Tested on 8/15/22 (Mon after letting my tap water sit for 24 hrs with an air stone):

• pH: It was either 7.6 or 7.2 but looked more like it was 7.6
• High range: 8.0 
• KH: 143.2 ppm
• GH: 179 ppm

Water parameters of my tank after doing 50% water change yesterday on Tue (8/15/22):

• pH: 7.2
• KH: 53.7 ppm
• GH: 143.2 ppm

 

I'm going to do this test in my betta tank and share the results here, I will keep you posted

Edited April 12 by Tropicalfishkeeping201

[tolstoy21]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:41 PM, Tropicalfishkeeping201 said:

Thank you so much for sharing. Last time I did a water change, pH went from a 6.6 to a 7.4 and from there I decided I wanted to try this to see if the Ph can stay more stable in the 6 range. 

Is this the peat that you use from Fluval?

Yup that's the stuff.

[tolstoy21]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:52 PM, Tropicalfishkeeping201 said:

Results after testing my tap water ( Tested on 8/14/22) 

• Ph: 7.6
• High range ph: 8.4 or 8.8 ( It was hard to differentiate the colors but it looked more like it was 8.8)
• Kh: 125.3 ppm
• GH:  161.1 ppm

Off-gassing test 24 Hr result (Tested on 8/15/22 (Mon after letting my tap water sit for 24 hrs with an air stone):

• pH: It was either 7.6 or 7.2 but looked more like it was 7.6
• High range: 8.0 
• KH: 143.2 ppm
• GH: 179 ppm

Ignore the high-range Ph test. It's only applicable if your Ph is above the level that's readable by the regular Ph test. The high-range test is more applicable to African cichlid or reef/saltwater aquariums. On your water it's just giving bogus readings cause your Ph is not super alkaline.

Looking at your readings, I'd take an educated guess that your Ph drops over time as a result of buffers being eaten up by botanicals, or whatever you have in there that acidifies the water (fish waste itself can have this effect too).

Try the fluval pellets and see if they can help lessen the impact of your water changes. Let us know how it goes. 

If you stage your water in a bucket, you can mix in some Seachem acid buffer to eat up some of the available Kh and reduce the overall Ph before adding it to the tank. (A few drops of muriatic also works, but you'd have to do a little bit of testing and tweaking to get the dosage right). 

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:20 PM, tolstoy21 said:

Ignore the high-range Ph test. It's only applicable if your Ph is above the level that's readable by the regular Ph test. The high-range test is more applicable to African cichlid or reef/saltwater aquariums. On your water it's just giving bogus readings cause your Ph is not super alkaline.

Looking at your readings, I'd take an educated guess that your Ph drops over time as a result of buffers being eaten up by botanicals, or whatever you have in there that acidifies the water (fish waste itself can have this effect too).

Try the fluval pellets and see if they can help lessen the impact of your water changes. Let us know how it goes. 

If you stage your water in a bucket, you can mix in some Seachem acid buffer to eat up some of the available Kh and reduce the overall Ph before adding it to the tank. (A few drops of muriatic also works, but you'd have to do a little bit of testing and tweaking to get the dosage right). 

Thank you very much, I will keep you guys posted on how things go and again, I really appreciate your help 🙂

[anewbie]

Peat will not help you with your high kh. The kh has to be around 0 for peat to useful. Also if you were to use ro water and peat the peat should be put in filter bags so it doesn't clog things up.

Also a lot of water companies put in additiives to raise ph to protect copper pipes; those additives will dissipate over night so when testing tap water you should put some in a cup and let it sit for a day or so before testing for ph.

 

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 4/13/2024 at 7:52 AM, anewbie said:

Peat will not help you with your high kh. The kh has to be around 0 for peat to useful. Also if you were to use ro water and peat the peat should be put in filter bags so it doesn't clog things up.

Also a lot of water companies put in additiives to raise ph to protect copper pipes; those additives will dissipate over night so when testing tap water you should put some in a cup and let it sit for a day or so before testing for ph.

 

Good to know, Thank you for sharing 🙂 I’m going to do that of testing my tap water in a cup and I’ll keep you all posted 🙂