# peat or shells to soil. Both?



## peteski312 (Feb 15, 2008)

So peat i know will lower ph, anything else it does to help the substrate? Do shells raise the ph? If so which do i use or both? My current ph is about 7.6 with plants and discus, fine to me. If i am content with my ph then do i need to be adding these things to a soil underlayer? What are the benefits?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

A very thin layer of peat under the substrate is good for helping make the nutrients in the substrate available to plant roots, not for altering tank water pH. (I'm pretty sure that is correct, but if not, someone should correct me.) Shells or any other forms of calcium carbonate slowly dissolve to raise the KH and GH of the water. If you want a more constant hardness, the shells aren't a good idea. (Unless something else is depleting the hardness.)


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Shells are normally used if you have soft water and want to increase the hardness. I've done this because my snails' shells were dissolving and I wanted to keep them. I just dropped some aragonite sand in a couple tanks and put it in the filters of a couple others - results were the same. The key is to have the water flow through/over it if you want to change the water. If I'd buried it in the substrate any changes would have been much slower to show because the calcium, etc. would have had to work it's way out of the substrate.

Peat will soften/acidify the water if you put a bag of it in the tank or filter and let the water flow through it. I think hoppy is right about it's purpose in the substrate though. 

If all your plants and discus are healthy and not showing any signs of stress, I wouldn't risk changing the water quality by adding peat or shells. Don't mess with a good thing!


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## peteski312 (Feb 15, 2008)

good tips, thanks. I'm slowly and carefully making plans for my 90 gal which i will be setting up mid june and want to find a good substrate mix.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You will be happiest if you don't try to use a substrate mix. Just settle on one of the commercial substrates, if you can afford it, and adapt your fertilizing to the substrate you select. They will all grow plants well.

If you can't afford the commercial substrates, look at either a Turface or Soilmaster type material as a substrate, and, again adapt your fertilizing to it. Or, use 3M ColorQuartz sand or pool filter sand.

The problem with using layered substrates is that the layers don't remain separate. Eventually what was on the bottom will be mixed in with what was on the top, and that can be a mess. Mixing various substrates before adding them to the tank accomplishes nothing of value.


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