"Akvaristen" wrote in message
et...
In an attempt to lower the pH (and make fish and plants happy) in my 50 gl
planted tank with Cardinal and Red-eye tetra's, I am going to experiment
with my change-water. At the moment I have a pH of 8.2 and KH of 8 in the
tank. I am using a commercial "natural" Co2 system based on fermentation.
Clearly it is not doing as good as it should. I have been using it for a
while, but neglected to refill. I may swith to "pure" Co2, but have some
space limitations. I also recently increased the lighting to 110W 7500K. I
am using tap water. I have now setup a 32 gl Rubbermaid with 8 qts of
Sphagnum Peat Moss (100%), no fertilizers (I certainly hope) in a
pillowcase. The water is stirred by a powerhead and has already turned
dark.
I plan to let it sit there for a week, then use it for waterchanges. I
will
be tracking the pH along the way.

My question to the group is, have anyone tried similar thing? Are there
any
pitfalls?

Lots of people use peat filtered water. The thing you need to be measuring
is the Kh. You will find that the Ph will drop quite a lot initially but
will then come back up. This is because the peat seems to give off a lot of
CO2 into the water . You can restore this to more normal levels by agitating
the water. Measuring Kh will give you a much better idea of where you are.
At the end of the day the whole reason the Ph falls is because the Kh falls.
SUggest you don't take it too far !

I.