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My DIY peat filter

28K views 87 replies 26 participants last post by  mgeorges 
#1 ·
Working off what Randyl had posted and other posts on the internet, I needed a cheap way to lower my pH until I can figure out a RO system and not be lugging jugs of water up 3 flights of stairs all the time. My tap water has jumped up from 7.2 to 8.2 in the past few months and it's not making the neo's or the tigers happy. I'd also like to be able to use this water as a test for some low grade crystals and see if I can get away from using RO for them.

I took a 4L (1gallon) water jug, cut off the bottom and drilled a small hole in the bottom. This fits into a 5gal jug like a funnel. I stuffed a bunch of floss in the bottom, really tight, then a piece of sponge, some more floss, and I have a bunch of carbon/phosphate/ammonia pads so I cut up some of them and put them in there. Probably not needed but I have them, bought a bunch as a noob a while ago at a midnight madness sale at Big Al's, so I have them, might as well use them, then more floss and some peat in pantyhose. I then put my shower facet on a slow drip right on the top of the peat. It takes about an hour to 1.5hrs depending on if people in the house flush or are doing laundry and I have 5gal of water that was 8.2pH, 230tds, 8gh down 5.8pH, 105tds, 4 gh.

Here's a pic of my ghetto funnel system.


and a jug of water just done, crystal clear. It may have a tiny, tiny, brown tinge but purigen in my tanks will filter that out. Already been swapping out water in my tiger tank to get the pH down from 8.0 to 7.5 and will do some more over the week to get it to around 7. If I need, I can mix my peat water with tap water and age it to get the pH where I want it anywhere from 5.8 that it's at to 6.5, 7, whatever value I want.

 
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#5 ·
Hello ,Tonight i was trying something similar ,I have a 60 liter CRS tank with 20 odd higher grade CRS my problem is my ph tends to rise over time to around 7.5 .

I do use RO water and peat to bring it back down to 6.6 but it never lasts more than a few days and i get a rebound ,its a very slow rebound so its no danger to the shrimp.

What i was looking for a way to constantly lower the ph to a certain level and keep it there ...my idea is to use a drip system of peat water to lower the ph ...this would be on a timer . the same way ferts are dosed mechanically .

Ive built the device and tested it and it works now i just have to figure out dosing rates and timing .

Typically i will see a swing of 0.3 in a day so i wont have to dose much to bring it back down.

I am also testing to see if there is any ph swing in the peat water itself from when its first made to a few days later .

I can post my results and show you how i did it with pics tomorrow if your interested ?

Mark
 
#7 ·
Markpeggie, your kH may also be rather high and that is going to cause the pH to creep back up and the peat isn't filtering enough out. I just tested, my tap is 4kH, my peat water was 0kH, so I assume mine won't drift much upwards.
 
#8 ·
A faster way to do this is what some people call a "peat bomb" . Take a section of 4" pvc with screw on caps and plumb a power head to push water through the pipe . It can be used in a holding tank or plumbed right into a supply line to your holding tank without the pump. A few discus keepers used to do this a few years ago. The screw on caps allow you to easily change out the peat.
 
#11 ·
So took me about 6 hours to make 20gals, about the same as a 60gpd ro unit would. Seems after about 20gals the floss and sponges need cleaning, and the peat is starting to wear out a bit as the pH went up about 0.2 in the final batch. Not bad, used about 30cents worth if peat.
 
#14 ·
Ya, no run off. I want to measure for a few days, see if I get any more of a pH rise then going to setup a tank and test it with some low crystal culls and see what happens. lol. So far mixing it in my too high pH yellow/tiger tank, they seem to be liking it. Seeing saddles, seeing the tigers all dancing around last night after doing a 25% WC to bring the pH down.
 
#18 ·
It's a slow drip and whether its 20mins to fill 20gallons or 6 hours to fill 20gallons, it's still only 20gallons of water used in the end. RO would be 80-100 gallons used. Now if it doesn't work, I'll have to go the RO route but I'm testing, always looking to save money and be cheap about my hobby. lol.
 
#20 ·
Since bringing the pH down from 8.2-8.4 down to 7.2 using peat filtered water and tap water mixed, my yellows and tigers are loving it and I have about 6 berried shrimp between the 2. Beats the 0 berried I had for months before hand because of the high pH water I've gotten in the last 6 months.
 
#22 ·
After some testing and working with it, I have it pretty consistent to get whatever pH I want mixing with tap or minerals as it comes out about 5.2pH 3-4gH, 0-1kH from the peat filter and about 3 handfuls of peat makes me 20gal of water at those params. That's about 10 cents worth of peat.
 
#23 ·
The key to this is the speed of the water passing through the peat. Too fast and it doesn't do enough buffering. It takes me about 1.5hrs to make a 5gal jug, probably not much slower than a RO unit takes to make it. I add a bit of mineral plus back to boost it up a bit and get some trace minerals in there.

So far everyone is doing good with it, got about 7 berried CRS in it, some babies around. Lost some babies but that's probably a nitrate issue right now since mine are high and I'm working on taking that down. For my tigers/rcs/yellows, I mix about 1/4 peat water with tap water and it gets it about 6.8pH 180TDS to use them for them.
 
#24 ·
HEY i thought u might like this as far as time saving
i took ur idea but fused it with a cerge reactor :)
peat floss and carbon. about 3 handfulls of peat in a mesh bag, floss to prevent particles and carbon to keep it clear

run in a 5 gallon bucket by a 200 gph pump and 20 minutes later. poof 6.8 ph and 3 kh

haven't tested the tds difference yet. i will do that tomorrow when i do the shrimp water change :)
 
#27 ·
Cool. Glad others are trying other stuff with this. I've thought of doing something else eventually with it. I tried using a separate tank before with peat in it, but that didn't work. Still a few more things to try and may try your idea at some point.
 
#26 ·
1 pass with it going from a drip from my shower head through the peat gives me 100TDS, 5.3pH. I don't want it any lower. lol. The faster the water goes through in a reactor type of state, or what they call a "peat bomb" (pvc tubing filled with peat) will give a lot higher results in pH/TDS, but with a slow drip, 1 pass is good.
 
#29 ·
I have made black water by putting peat in a mesh bag and soaking it in hot water. It's pretty amazing how fast it works.

It would not hurt to keep a bag of peat in the filter to help. I use to keep peat in the filter with really good results.
 
#30 ·
I would add it to a filter if your water was close anyways and keep replacing it. The problem is people think you can put some in your filter and use very different water with it. It does wear out and take a bit to get activated, so it would be a balancing game. To have some in a filter though just to help keep the gh/kh/ph down and replacing the same amount at a regular time interval might be a bit helpful.
 
#33 ·
This is sticky-worthy. Someone alert the mods!

Does the amount of peat used affect the pH in the end or is it just the speed at which the water flows through? If I ever get to set up another tank, it'll be OEBT or BTOE, so I wouldn't want it super low.

-Lisa
 
#34 ·
I use about 2-3 handfuls of peat in my DIY filter-funnel thingy, that makes me 20gal of around 5.3pH 110TDS water, then I ditch the peat. I could probably make more but I only have 4 5-gal jugs, so I fill those and use them then make more. I did find though that the faster the water goes through, the higher the pH. I let it literally drip water from my shower head, so it takes about 1.5hrs to make a jug and that gets it low. If I increase the water flow, it can take 45mins and the pH/TDS ends up higher, so the longer the water is in contact with the peat, the better it works.
 
#39 ·
so mine is a twostage setup now.
two whole housefilters setup in series. one is peat and floss, the second isa carbon block
bucket for 20 minutes dropped ph from 7.8-8 to 6.8 tds from 115 to 104.. peat is dead from previous experiments ithink. but the water was stiill usuable

next week ill postpics with new peat and hope for better results. i dont wanna get down to 5! but carbon does affect this process i assume as it probably absorbs the humic acidpeat releases so too muchcarbon may affect ur ph values
 
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