# Too Much Peat?



## BJRuttenberg (Sep 25, 2005)

Can I add too much peat? Would it cause my substrate to be too acidic thus inhibiting root development?


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## Jdinh04 (Oct 7, 2004)

The thing is you don't wanna add a lot of peat. A fine dust sprinkle over the bottom floor of the tank will be good enough. Then just pour your substrate over the tank and flatten it out.


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## BJRuttenberg (Sep 25, 2005)

What if it's a little too late?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Shouldn't be a problem really, the peat properties will eventually deplete out with the water changes. You can do several 2x week water changes to speed up the process. I imagine your water is slightly brown, so once the water clears up a bit then you can relax on the water changes. But ultimately it it probably won't make the substrate that acidic unless you dumped large fist fulls in there. 

-John N.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I don't think it will be a problem, again, depending on how much peat you added, how deep your Flourite is, and whether or not the peat was presoaked. 

I added about an inch of presoaked pet (soaked for several days in a 5g bucket with 100% water changes every day) to my 10g tank over a year ago. The peat was added to the bottom of the tank and capped with 20lbs of Tahitian Moon Sand. 

The water has always been clear so either the presoaking or the sand "cap" has kept the tannins from discoloring the water column. It has also kept my pH between 6.6 and 6.8 without the addition of CO2 for the past 18 months or so.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I don't like adding peat to my tanks. The tannins are one thing, but I think the real problem comes from replanting stems and root plants. Every time a stem is planted, the cap has to be broken and you release peat muck from the bottom of the tank which floats around and fouls the water.

Additionally, over time the peat sort of decays and becomes very fine, making it even more of a pain as it dusts up your water column...


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## oceanaqua (Oct 24, 2005)

My plants are enjoying my 1 inch thick layer of peat, the tannin will go away after awhile. My flourite layer is also especially thick so I don't have many problem of peat disloding to the water column. The plants are very fond of the peat because when I uproot a plant the roots are attach to the peat layer making it a mess, but the cloud quickly goes away. I never seen roots attach to the flourite so I think peat has its benifit and nutrients for the plants. Btw, garden soil and miracle grow is basicly a mixture of peat and fertilizer.


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