Fluval Peat Granules or Peat Fiber

[diamond_discus]

I have a Fluval 305 Canister and a Emperor 280 Power Filter. I plan to use Fluval Peat to lower my water PH and improve the water hardness. Can anyone tell me if I should get the Fluval Peat Granules or Peat Fiber ? What are the pros and cons ? Or should I just go to HomeDepot and get the Canadian Peat ?

[lhforbes12]

I just use the kind you get at Home Depot. $10 for a bale that will last years.

[nacra99]

I use HomeDepot peat. Make sure it's one without fungicides and fertilizer added.
Do take note that with harder waters with higher KH, peat is not very effective at lowering pH and hardness. What are your water parameters? You might not actually need to adjust them.

Marc

[diamond_discus]

My water parameter is : betweem 7 and 8 PH
Total Hardness -- 186 ppm

Is this high ?

[lhforbes12]

My water parameter is : betweem 7 and 8 PH
Total Hardness -- 186 ppm

Is this high ?

No it is not, that is right at the cusp of being considered soft to mildly hard.

[drayman86]

I've spent quite a bit of time and effort researching the effects of peat on water hardness by treating water (about a 200L barrel) with varying amounts of peat for various time periods. Long story short: pear doesn't have a significant effect on the removal of solids. My water out of the tap is about 4-6 GH and KH, and neither are significantly impacted by peat. pH, however, can be lowered from about 7.5 (aged/aerated 24 hours) to a nice 6.5 with the peat, and no significant amount of tannins remaining.

[diamond_discus]

Thanks, drayman86.

My tap water is close to 8.0 and I want to lower it below 7.0, ideally close to 6.5. I have been using acid buffer and discus buffer ... If peat can do the job, I would much rather use that instead of adding those extra chemical.

What other method can we lower the general hardness ?

[Timbo]

My tap water is close to 8.0 and I want to lower it below 7.0, ideally close to 6.5.


hi diamond_discus

can i ask why you want to lower it to 6.5? are you keeping wilds?

[diamond_discus]

I don't know .. I thought it's better to have discus in water that is lower than 7.0, and ideally at 6.5 range ?

For breeding, I heard that the prefer PH is close to 6.0. If I transfer pair back and forth between community tank and breeding tank, and if the PH difference is so huge, would it cause ph shock and hurt those fish ?

By the way, I thought discus fish can grow better and healthier in soft and acidic water ?

[nacra99]

I don't know .. I thought it's better to have discus in water that is lower than 7.0, and ideally at 6.5 range ?
...
By the way, I thought discus fish can grow better and healthier in soft and acidic water ?

Well.. that that used to be true like 20 years ago when many of the discus on the market were wild or within a couple generations of wild. Most of todays domestic strains are very accepting of a wider range of pH. The key is to keep the parameters stable, which may be difficult to do when trying to mix chemicals. My domestics are in pH 7.8, gH 10, TDS 180.

So if you have domestics, your parameters are fine! They will breed in whatever water that they live in, but you need a lower GH (about 6 is good) for eggs to hatch properly.

marc

[diamond_discus]

Okay, maybe I will re-measure my tap water, aged tap water and see if I should stop using so much chemical then. But sorry for my ignorance, what is TDS ?

In case if the GH is high, can I still use peat to lower the GH ?

[nacra99]

TDS is "Total Dissolved Solids" which is a measure of everything dissolved which includes, among other dissolved metals, Calcium and Magnesium, both of which constitute what we call General Hardness (GH)

Yes, peat will reduce GH to a certain extent. But like i mentioned before. If your water is extremely hard or has very high kH, peat will not be very effective. IMO, the best and cleanest way to reduce hardness is to use R/O water.

[White Worm]

I'm also coming to this conclusion because you would really have to add alot of peat to make a difference depending on your intial tap readings. I've tried buffer but my water bounces right back within 24 hours. I have been using peat and it seems to help but not to the extent of what I need. My tap is close to 7.5 coming out and then settles to 8.0 or so. With peat, I have been keeping it around 7.4 which I still dont think is working well for eggs and is difficult when doing wc's daily. Looks like Ro is the way to go for really hard water if you want to breed. For all other purposes, stable Ph is what you need to be concerned with.

[diamond_discus]

Let's go back to my original question ...

If I were to use peat, should I use the peat granules or the peat fiber ?

[pcsb23]

If you are going to use peat any peat without additives will do the trick and work out cheaper that the granules or the fibre. There is no real difference between the granules and the fibre ime, excpet in handling.

fwiw, I wouldn't bother though.

hth,

[White Worm]

Granules have higher concentration than fiber given the same amount in a nylon stocking. Granules are cleaner, heavier and easier to deal with but harder to locate (have to go to lfs for granules) (fiber can be bought at hardware store). Depends on room available in tank and exact use. I would use Granules. Easier to filter through granules than mashed fiber. There are many variables to this equation.......Depending on your tap hardness, using buffer isnt good because your water may bounce back after 24 hours. Dont add chemicals and alter the chemistry if you dont have to. Also, not a good idea if you dont know how or why you are doing it. To keep discus, your water is fine. If you want to experiement with levels, do it with some bottled RO water from lfs....much safer.... Does that answer your original question?