Peat or not Peat

[Adrienne]

I gather from various discussions I've read that peat can help lower the pH in a tank.

Where do you get it from - is it the same as the garden centre stuff.

Would the best place to put it be in the sump?

Any idea as to how much would be needed to lower the pH of a 450 litre tank with a sump holding around 100 litres.

Is this the most natural way of lowering pH?

My pH is currently 7.6 and may have to look at getting it slightly under 7.

[Discusguru]

Do not try to alter the PH in the tank or you'll end up fighting a losing batter. If you lower the PH in the tank to <7, then you have to lower the PH of the water you use for WC too.

ron

[spudiot]

yeh, but his PH might be whats killing off his Rams??

[Adrienne]

I'll definately bow to Rons experience on this. The email I got from him said its more likely to be my fluctuating pH more than anything else. Just have to work out how to stabilise it :-?

[Adrienne]

yeh, but his PH might be whats killing off his Rams??

spudiot 'her' - female, late 40's, 3 children I guess about your age

not that you could be expected to know, only a few do and then mostly those from up here or on the IR chat

[Discusguru]

7.6 PH will not kill the ram.

[nemines]

wats the pH of your tap water? wats ur KH? you could always try CO2 fertilization, which will lower your pH and help your plants.

[nemines]

if you have ammonia and a high pH then that could have caused your ram's death, as ammonia is toxic above pH 7

[Adrienne]

Ammonia - nil, nitrate nil, ph nil, haven't tested for hardness but have access to a deionizer which I will start to use when I come back from holiday in 10 days time.

[purplecatfish]

I've found that adding bog wood rather than peat is a better way of lowering the pH and adding tannins. It works for a longer time and is more stable.

But definitely don't mess about with adding chemicals to lower pH.

Fluctuating pH isn't pleasant when you think about it. If you lower (or raise) a pH by 1 you have made it 10 times more acidic (or alkaline), lowering by 2 makes it 100 times more acidic (or alkaline). So if you drop your pH quickly by adding chemicals then the effect is similar to us being droped in and burnt by acid only to have the chemicals breakdown the pH to rise and give an alkaline burn. While the fish can get used to a particular pH it is the changes that cause the burns.

[Caryl]

pH nil? How can you have nil pH?

[Adrienne]

whoops :oops:

ammonia nil, ph 7.6

[Luke*]

lol

[Caryl]

What is the pH of your tap water?

I am relieved to hear you have a pH after all :lol:

[Adrienne]

tap water 7.6 as well.

[Caryl]

Is it similar over most of Auckland? Were the fish in the same pH in the shop? If so, why alter it? 7.6 isn't too bad.

[Adrienne]

I'm not going to alter it. The tanks really being set up for the discus I'm getting (from discusguru). A couple of my gold rams have died in the last week and I had been told that they like the same pH as discus and 7.6 I thought was a bit high. I had tested it on Monday and it was 7 - mind you yesterdays test was done with a new test kit.

However the remaining 6 rams seem fine at the moment so may have had nothing to do with it.

And the best of all - apparently as long as its stable the discus will be fine too when I get them.

[Luke*]

yes a stable pH is much more important than a low one

[spudiot]

spudiot 'her' - female, late 40's, 3 children I guess about your age

not that you could be expected to know, only a few do and then mostly those from up here or on the IR chat

My bad.... :oops:

And if your kids are 24 then you're correct...

[Adrienne]

my sons just turning 20 so not too far out