Lowering Ph With Peat

[Rougarou]

After having an ongoing battle agaist algae, I have drawn the conclusion that it is a result of my tanks being imbalanced due to poor city water. My water is checked regularly, and falls into optimum parameters on all fronts, with the exception of Ph. It’s extremely high, which is what i believe is causing the algae proble, and causing my plants to generally struggle. What I would like to do, is try to lower the Ph all naturally with peat, as I to keep my tanks as chemically free as possible. I want to lower the Ph very gradually, over the course of months, if necessary. Here’s the catch: I would like to pretreat my change water as opposed to using the granular filter bags, as dumping lousy city water into the already peat filtered water seems counter productive. I want zero change in water quality between my change water and existing water. Does anyone have any experience with pretreating the change water with peat? Any advice , tips, or thoughts on the the subject would be appreciated. For the record, I also wouldn’t be opposed to liquid Blackwater extract, if anyone feels that’s a productive, viable option as well. Thanks in advance.

Discuss.

 

[Midwater]

I did some experiments a few years ago, of boiling up indian almond leaves and then reducing to make my own black water concentrate. But however much I added to my city water, it made virtually no difference to PH.

But when I added some to RO water, it lowered the PH measurably.

It might be that you have to soften your city water before you pass it through peat.

 

[duanes]

It has to do with your waters buffering capacity, its alkalinity, hardly ever pH
If your water has a strong buffering capcity, if alkaliniy is over ie 100 ppm, you can use a bushel of peat, and your water might budge a 10th in pH,
if your water has low buffering capacity, it might change 50% over night, with a quart of peat
I covered the substrate in leaf litter, and my pH barely dropped a 10th, experiment below,

Thread 'Experiment w Almond Leaves'

May 3, 2021

There are at least 2 almond trees on the island where I live, and after todays 4 hour storm, I collected about a half dozen fallen leaves
.
These were dropped in my tank (180 gal with a nearly full 125 gal sump) still floating a couple hours later

Initial pH was measured 3 times with 3 aliquots tested with a normal range pH solution, and each vial rinsed 3 times between each sample measured.
All maxed out at the peak of normal range (so an unreliable number)

Then 3 samples were taken and measured using a high pH solution, rinsed in the same manner...

• duanes
• Replies: 38
• Forum: General Aquaria Discussion

• 

Most algae reponds to nutrients in the water, nitrate and/or phosphate, pH has little to do with algal growth.
If you have a nitrate concentration of oner 10 ppm, you will get algae, because nitrate is super food for algae.
The only true way to keep nittrate, and other such nutrients at bay, is thru water changes, to keep nitrate under control.

As in my experiment, my pH hovers in the 8 range, so I keep species that have evolved to live in that pH range.
Changing pH to a lower level would only make sense, if you want to keep low pH species ( for example, species from black water rivers like the Rio Negro or Orinoco.
But to do so, unless your water has a low alkalinity, you may need to put on your chemistry hat, and experiment with actual acids, such as sulfuric, or lacial acetic.
Or
Do what I do, change a lot of water to hold nutrients like nitrate low, use enough higher plants to compete with the algae, and keep species that work in your water.
My heavily planted sump below.

And below, the nitrate levels I shoot for, and achieve with the plants and water changes.

 

[Rougarou]

It might be that you have to soften your city water before you pass it through peat.

Thanks for the response. I believe that you are correct, and I’ll have to figure out a way to accomplish this. I have read about using the leaves in my resrech and it’s certainly something to consider.

 

[Rougarou]

Most algae reponds to nutrients in the water, nitrate and/or phosphate, pH has little to do with algal growth.
If you have a nitrate concentration of oner 10 ppm, you will get algae, because nitrate is super food for algae.
The only true way to keep nittrate, and other such nutrients at bay, is thru water changes, to keep nitrate under control.

Thank you for taking the time for leaving such a detailed and informative post. It has given me much to consider.

Here’s a little more specific information. I have three tanks:

1) A 55 in a room that receives , admittedly, probably too much natural sunlight, due largely to being in the same room with terrestrial house plants. No artificial light here. Tank is about 50% planted, and stocked with a few Ropefish, some sort of Chinese algae eater(who’s been a big help , actually), and some Assassin snails.

2) A 30 in another room that receives very little indirect sunlight. This one is lightly planted, and relies on artificial light as it’s primary source. The light is a Marineland Plant Gro LED, with a dimmer/timer installed. The dimmer is set to ramp up to 30% capacity of it’s intensity over 4 hours, and then ramp down. It’s effectiveness I feel is negligible, but plants seem to struggle to stay alive exceptionally in this tank. And algae has also become an issue in this one. It is stocked with a couple of small Poly’s.

3) A 20 in a space that receives almost no light. The plan is to turn this one into an exclusively planted tank.

Water changes on the two active tanks are done weekly, religiously. Fish are fed every other day, no more than they will eat in a couple of minutes, so excess nutrients don’t seem to be an issue. Water tests show(if they’re remotely accurate) that conditions are perfect, with the exception of the Ph, which I think is too high. What I’m trying to accomplish is to create an environment where plants can thrive, and let them take care of the algae. I’m hesitant to try and balance the water through chemical means, as I believe that chemicals are just a Band-Aid to cover the real problem, which is unbalanced chemistry.