I searched on the net and found it say somewhere they were, but after put a stocking full into my tank of 7 ph, 6 days later my ph has gone up to at least 7.6?? There is nothing else in the tank but a heater and a sponge filter.

Are you sure there were no additives in the peat? Where did you get it from? Did you rinse it before use? If so for how long and in what - Tap or tank water?

how hard is your water?

Yates Organic Hauraki Gold Peat Moss. I didn't rince it, just put into a stocking and dropped in the tank.

Water hardness 120ppm. It was rainwater.

my guess is it's your water hardness, my water is 0-1 degrees hard and therefore the peat has a big effect on the pH. Peat does soften water so try adding more

I think peat moss is dried sphagnum moss used to hold water and is what a lot of peat comes from eventually. It is a bit like saying wood and coal are the same thing (they were once)

It says Premium NZ Sphagnum on the bag as well. Wrong stuff then eh?

Hi Showtime,

Sphagnum moss and peat moss are not the same when it comes to water conditioning, you need to look for brown woody like stuff(you do need to give it a rince to remove the super fine particals).

you said

Water hardness 120ppm. It was rainwater.

OMG 120ppm is not rain water, rain water is 0ppm GH.

So something has contaminated it.

Why do you wont to use the peat for anyway if you have rain water?

peat will not soften 120ppm that much anyway.

Why's......... may enable us to help you better?

What fish are you keeping? Nothing wrong with 7.6 for many species.

This is the tank I'm setting up to put my rummy nose in for breeding. The peat was suggested in the Bryan Jones article that Caryl listed recently

If you boil it up it has a greater and much quicker effect. In a stocking still works just takes more time.

yes well thats does make a difference.

You should be able to find the correct peat at a garden centre.

If you are still having problems finding it just use pure rain water for the rummy nose.

I'm afraid the water at 120ppm is no good any more for your purpose as it needs to be below 7ppm or even 5ppm for the eggs to hatch I believe.