RE: newbie needs help -Reply -Reply

[Doug Brown <debrown@kodak.com>]

Welcome fish pro and (not to discriminate) anyone else that just joined -
don't forget to keep your hard hat around for some of the discussions
though!

Welcome back to the peat moss thread too. Heh heh. I've been doing this for
years. I love peat moss. I'll repost all my peat stories if you want (was
that a big groan?). Really, get Canadian sphagnum (easy enough), stick it
in a nylon toe, old filter bag or something similar and stick it in the
tank. There is no need to boil it if you're putting it in a bag (I've done
this for years), but you might have to weight it down with a rock if you're
putting it straight in the tank instead of wedging it in a filter. I truly
believe the only health threat to fish from peat is insecticides, and have
never had a problem with Canadian sphagnum. If you have "normal hardness"
water it will take a LOT to lower the hardness and pH significantly. BTW,
sphagnum peat by itself will not generally lower the pH past 4.5 or so, and
this is only after most carbonate hardness has been removed. Great advice
as always is to look into a RO unit if you are at all serious about this. I
use RO water and still filter through peat (in tanks with power filters) to
get tannins as well as the fine filtration benefits and extra bacteria
substrate. The small wood pores and diatoms in peat make for nice cheap
"ultrafiltration". I replace half the peat with water changes every 2-4
weeks or so.

That's enough for now ...

-Doug Brown
debrown@kodak.com



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