a few peat questions

[Kaza]

I have read the recent posts on the use of peat, so I am hoping it might solve my problem with the water after leaving for a couple of days the PH is up on 8.5 - 9 which means I have to lower the PH for breeding. I would like to use peat in the storage barrels however how much do I use? At the moment my water has a hardness of 5-6 and KH of 2-3. Do I just use the normal peat blocks from bunnings? I am a bit worried to try this as I have quite a few fry/eggs ect at the moment, however the hatch out rate is low maybe only 40 out of 150 eggs and so I think I need to do something.

[Ben]

Hi Kaza,
thats quite a high Ph, maybe you should opt for using something that will lower it a bit more quickly and easily as it would take a very large amount of peat to lower it, as well as time.

Just recently i trialed using some sodium biphosphate with some 8 week old fry. I had to lower the ph from 7.55 to 6.95. There were no nasty side affects and the fry took it well.
I have only started using sodium biphosphate within the last month and everyone looks well!

This might be a bit cheaper too than using peat.

HTH,

Ben

[Kaza]

Thanks Ben for your answer, I have tried peat now which does take the water down to 7.9 however I think that the sodium biphosphate sounds good. Where did you buy it from?

[Ben]

You just need to be careful as you just add a very small amount at a time, wait for 10 minutes and check PH.

http://www.aquaticlifeaquariums.com.au/


cheers,

Ben