Peat bomb

[suisoman2]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my discus tank with a holding tank for water preparation. previously I just hosed straight from the tap and it gave me problems with Ph, chlorine and gass bubbles. The water would upset my bacteria colony when doing big changes and the fish were less than happy with the treatment :'(.
Due to practical and financial limitation I can not go for an RO unit as this moment in time. I read somewhere "peat bombs" used to be the standard in Discus keeping before RO became popular .
So now I have a holding tank of 50% below main tank to age the water for a day or two before changing and I like to think about improving the situation even more.
Water comes out the tap at KH8 and GH12 here. Now my questions:
- are these water values an issue? I have the impression many people are convinced it is better to be lower as my Ph is buffered quite high now?
- Are peat bombs still used? does anyone have plans or references to these? Does a peat bomb gradually loose its effectiveness or does a peat bomb work pretty consistent untill it suddenly drops off?
I understand the principle of peat bomb but I don't know how to dimension it based on a certain water volume to pass through at a certain hardness. I can measure , but then I need to build first. Anybody with experience can help me out here?
A peat bomb would be a convenient way for me to soften the water before it gets in the holding tank ( straight from the tap -peat bomb-holding tank-24H-main tank )
Thanks for any replies! :)

[ronrca]

Welcome to Simplydiscus! ;)
Why do you want to lower your ph? I use aged tap water with parameters of 8.2ph, 100ppm gh and kh. These numbers are fine for growing out and keeping discus. The most important factor is stable and steady water parameters before, during and after water changes.

[Carol_Roberts]

GH 8 is fine for growing out discus. You may get eggs to hatch just fine too.

Peat can be very messy and with KH of 12 it may not lower pH enough to matter.

[suisoman2]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will reconsider messing with my water at this stage. It's not that the calcium crusts are growing faster than the discus ;D. I don't really have problems with the fish. They will need to grow for at least another 6 months to a year before I can even attempt to breed them. and who knows , I might be able to afford the additional space and money for water softening at that time( when the virus really catches on ).

suisoman ( Dirk )

[Smokey]

Dirk - you have a p.m...

Smokey

[suisoman2]

Hi all, thanks for the reps so far.
Just to let you know that I decided to test peat filtering on my water before building the bomb. ;)

I now filter the (25% daily ) replacement water over black peat granules for 24 H in the water preparation container. Honestly the hardness does drop only one point but acidity gets lowered near 7 instead of the 8 I usually have after degassing. I installed this change about a week ago and my discus responded by being more active and have slightly better coloration :)( may also be the filtering of the light through the tea coloured water and just me wanting to see nicer blues ) . The dark one in the corner is now coming out and joins the rest in feeding , but that may be be due to overall recovery process.

I will continue this test for a month or two and then decide if I want :-\ to build the bomb.

BTW, can anybody tell me the difference between black peat granules and blonde peat fibrous stuff. Does it matter?

[suisoman2]

smokey, I read the pm and replied to the adress but I guess it never got to you.
Dirk

[Smokey]

Got you. My power supplies died; just got the comp. back up and running.

Smokey