Peat balls to Soften Water and Lower pH in an Aquarium

[xxblinkx]

How much do they color the water?

[pondguru]

Not much. It is basically like adding prepared blackwater extract. The colour usually gets removed by your filtration in 5-10 minutes but the benefit stays until the water is diluted by a water change.

[CichlidAsh]

I should have my new tank soon 165l and will be certainly looking into this product as I want too try out Killi fish (in the soon too be spare 40l). I can not belive that someone posted that Peat would kill the fish if you placed it in the aquarium though.

Only thing I could say about the product is the ball does look kind of ugly so hiding it in the aquarium would be needed. Would this product help with plant growth at all?

[pondguru]

There's no way around the look of the balls, really unless you go full peat substrate which you can't remove if the pH drops too low.

Most people use them in breeding tanks so the look doesn't matter although they can be flattened out quite a bit. They do release alot of goodness which does seem to benefit plant growth.

They are starting to be discussed on a few forums, with people who have not tried them cussing them and people who use them saying they are great. Feedback is good on Ebay.

[UberFiseh]

@CichlidAsh

Plants seem to like lower pH, which peat balls help with.

[xHizukax]

WTF!!! this will kill the fish

[pondguru]

The fact that many species of soft water fish have a peat substrate in nature and many species of killifish rely on spawning in peat probably won't convince you that natual peat isn't deadly to fish.

I was always told that you can't argue with ignorance, so I'm in no mood to argue with you, sir.

[Mouajimmy]

@pondguru amen

[the4blueturtles]

will this soften the water? if so how much?

[pondguru]

Softness will vary but in our tanks the pH is reduced to around 6.5. If we squeeze them more than once a week the pH will drop to 6.0.

[ninjagambit]

wish I could get those in utah

[pondguru]

If you follow the link in the description, you can buy some - costs a bit for postage to the US though.

[blownable]

A nice vid. Wood will also naturally lower the pH in your aquarium water through a silar process. Costs a bit to a lot more, but it looks nice.

[pondguru]

I would use wood aswell. I fix suckers to the wood and fix it to the sides of the tank so that it doesn't take up any floor space.

[sk8erboy1231]

is that tar

[pondguru]

If processed (heated), you could get 'tar' from peat but "Tar made from coal or petroleum is considered toxic and carcinogenic because of its high benzene content" whereas tar from wood and peat is not.

Tar is "A black, oily, sticky, viscous substance, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons derived from organic materials such as wood, peat, or coal"

As the peat isn't processed, there is no oily 'tar' residues or tar properties but I know what you mean it looks very like tar. Concentrated goodness.