Peat....

[Talfie 2 <Talfie2@wow.com>]

<<Peat will turn the water slightly brown, but it will lower pH and soften 
the water. And the brown color is kind of nice -- like the Amazon. :-). 
You'll have to change the peat periodically -- every couple of weeks, at 
least. When I use peat, I just grab a chunk from the nursery bag, put it 
in a nylon stocking and put it into a filter. I know that some people 
boil peat, but the stuff I use claims it's sterilized, and boiling is 
messy and probably lessens the effect of the peat.>>

Do you use anything else to treat your water other than the peat? I have never tried to change the levels in my tanks..so I a little leary. Also, will adding the peat drop the PH  too dramatically? My PH is currently running about 7.6 &amp;  I don't want to shock any of the fish in the tank.

<<Thanks for the enthusiastic response. Are you interested in dwarfs only, 
or do you like bigger cichlids (and non-cichlids), too?>>

I like some of the larger cichlids, but like to have alot of small fish rather than a few large fish. (Though I did break down and buy a baby severum...he's still playing nice..but he is only the size of a silver dollar now!)

My other (smaller) tank is primarily gouramis and tetras.  Actually, I just recently bred a pair of my honey dwarf gouramis.....my first venture into breeding. (Still waiting for the babies to get big enough to move out of the breeding tank.....I want to try again with something else now!!)

Tracie