# Have you used peat moss?



## Vietguy357

Hey everyone. I been having problems with my tanks' ph being to high. The tanks are medium densely planted. I heard you can put peat moss into the filter to buffer and lower the ph. Has anyone use it? I have 2 tanks, 30gal (neons, loaches, angels) and 10gal (red cherry shrimps). They both have a ph of about 7.8. The tap water ph is 7.8 tested after 48 hours. How much would I need in each tank to lower it down to about 6.8 or 7? Thank you for helping.


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## neilshieh

you could try adding r/o water or distilled. the ph should be 0 and lower the ph.


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## Lizzz

+1 on R/O. Peat moss will dye your tank a light tea color, similar to a blackwater tank. Tying it in a cheesecloth bag, or a pair of nylon stockings and placing it in your filter should help lower your pH. Try to add/keep your carbon media to cut back on the color (unless you want it...) I would start with very small amounts in each tank, 1/3 cup, maybe less. Test after a week, and adjust amount of peat accordingly. Be careful with dropping your pH, fish don;t handle it as well as raising pH. Driftwood will also lower your pH, and as long as you soak it first, shouldn't mess with the color in your tank.


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## Vietguy357

Thx. I think I'll try using RO water changes for a week or 2 and see if it lowers my ph. If not then I'll use peat moss.


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## AquaBard

I have used peat before in filters, it works pretty good and I kinda like the "black water" look. unfortunatly if your water is coming out of the tap at a high ph you will always have to either use RO or peat to maintain a lower Ph in your tanks. Also if you have hard water it will be more difficult to maintain a lower ph as those seem to effect each other.


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## Diana K

Do not think about pH as the measure of whether the fish would like the water. This is a holdover from a time when aquarists were not aware of and not able to test the mineral level of the water. 

Get the GH in the right range for the fish, make the KH match within a degree or so, and let the pH do whatever it wants. 

If you are keeping black water species of fish, yes, add peat moss. 

If you can post the GH, KH, TDS and pH of your tap, and what kind of fish (The ones you list are soft water fish, but black water is optional- are there other fish? What species of Loach?), and if you want to breed them.
I may be able to come up with a recipe. 
It will likely involve RO or distilled water to dilute the minerals in the tap water, and might or might not include peat moss. 

pH in RO or distilled water will not read 0. 

The mineral level (GH and KH), the TDS will be very low, might test as 0 ppm or 0 degrees, or there might be a very low trace of minerals in these waters. Either way, they are good to make a mix with tap water to soften the water for your fish. 

Do not alter the mineral level in the tank suddenly or a large amount all at once. Do some math and make water changes once or twice a week such that the net change in GH is not over 10% each time. Over several weeks the levels will come down without stressing the fish. 
Don't just jump right in doing water changes with RO water. Fish can have osmotic problems when the mineral levels drop too fast. 

You could add peat moss to your filter, that would create a slow change that the fish will adapt to just fine, but it is better to know what you are doing first, so test the GH and KH of tap and tank and lets see what is going on. 

My tap water is as follows:
GH and KH 4-5 German degrees of hardness
pH is upper 7s, and into the 8s. 

This water is soft enough to keep most average soft water fish. And the pH is not an issue. It is not soft enough to breed them, though. 

To breed Rams I used 50% RO + 50% Tap, and filtered the water through peat moss for 24 hours before using it for water changes. 
GH and KH were about 2 degrees, pH was in the mid 6s.


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## Vietguy357

I don't have the test for hardness but I think my tap water is pretty hard. Could I use a uv sterilizer to lower the hardness of my water and lower the ph?


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## AquaBard

Vietguy357 said:


> I don't have the test for hardness but I think my tap water is pretty hard. Could I use a uv sterilizer to lower the hardness of my water and lower the ph?


I do not think a sterilizer is going to change your hardness, I have never used one but I do not think they change water chemistry, they more kill algae, disease, and parasites in your water.


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## Lizzz

If you don't want to use peat moss, distilled vinegar is another option. Make sure to avoid wine, and fruit and vegetable vinegars (rice, apple, ect...) I believe the ratio is a little less than 1mL to gallon of water in your tank. Again, less is better. This method should slowly drop your tank, about .5 points. Allow a few days to cycle before dosing again. Do you have a specific reason to dropping your pH? Are your plants/fish suffering? IMO it's best just to leave your pH alone. 7.8 is not that high in retrospect of people who have a level of 8.5 or higher from their tap.


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## JustLikeAPill

I don't think 7.8 is too high, but you could add co2 to bring your ph down to 7 and it would be where you want, plus help the plants.


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## neilshieh

a kh test kit shouldn't be too expensive. go to your water county's website, call them, or google their water params... theres like this relation between hardness, ph, and co2 which is how co2 drop checkers work


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