[dfunk]

We have hard water ph changes throughout the year. but for the most part its 8.2+ . Starting over on a 12g nano tank. This time I added about 1/2" of peat w/ 2-3 inches of rinsed (1year old) Eco-Complete.

Soaked and rinsed the peat. Its been cycling for 24 hours still reddish cloudy tinge to the water. Since I have an Aquapod 3 chamber filter I opted out of activated carbon this run, awaiting some Purigen. Will this help with the cloudiness? Bio balls and fluvial ceramic media are the other items in the filter.

So far the PH is still off my charts. how long does the peat take to make a change to ph and hardness? Also added some Neutral Regulator ( which I now read that a non phosphate based Acid Buffer would be a better options) No change to ph in the tank , but i tried adding it to the tap water and it seemed to bring it down.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Hoppy]

Either use your tap water as it is (with Prime, of course) or mix it with distilled or RO/DI water, or use RO/DI water with GH booster added. All other attempts to manipulate the pH and hardness are going to fail, either quickly or in the long run. It is well worth it to just use tap water and try very hard to make that work out for you. The other options make water changes a big headache, every time you do one.

 

[mistergreen]

+1 agree

 

[dfunk]

Either use your tap water as it is (with Prime, of course) or mix it with distilled or RO/DI water, or use RO/DI water with GH booster added. All other attempts to manipulate the pH and hardness are going to fail, either quickly or in the long run. It is well worth it to just use tap water and try very hard to make that work out for you. The other options make water changes a big headache, every time you do one.

Hmm.. What is Prime?

 

[dfunk]

and Should I start over w/o the peat?

 

[Hoppy]

All water companies add either chlorine or chloramine (a mix of chlorine and ammonia) to their water to sanitize it. Both of those substances are harmful to the fish and plants. So, we add a dechlorinator to the water any time we add more than 10% new tap water to the tank. One of the best dechlorinators is Seachem Prime, which removes the chlorine and neutralizes the ammonia from the chloramine.

I would start over without using peat. A light dusting of ground peat on the bottom of the tank before adding the substrate is a good idea, because it helps keep the substrate at a more favorable pH for beneficial bacteria in the substrate.

 

[reignOfFred]

the higher the pH, the less impact peat has on the water. At your levels the use of it is pretty much a waste of time.

 

[dfunk]

Yeah... I think I'm seeing that.. Cloudy red water and no change in PH.. I think I'm going to try a 50% R/O di / tap mix