Skycatcher dunno if you ever got your answer to the question you had;


There isnt a lot of scientific info on it, but a few things that are well known are these:

The hotter the water while in contact with the peat, the more complete the process. A guy named Mark at a now defunct webpage called MARKSFISH explained how, he would make a 10 to 12 gallon per hour peat filter, out of a bucket. he would put from 3 to 5 inches of poly filter material in the bottom of a bucket and cut a single hole in the bottom, middle;

then he would pour hot tap water, through about a 1/4th to a 1/3 of a 2.2 cubic fot bale of peat, he placed on top;

This would drop 8.something water with a kh of about 12, to 5.5 ph with a kh of about 3.

It's the heat that really makes the process kick off; if you just use a soak of peat, it really, really, takes a WHOLE lot longer. it took me three weeks to bring about 10 gallons of water down by simply soaking about 8 ounces of peat in it; from around 8.5 to 7.


This of course isn't acceptable.


There are people, undergravel filter aficionados, who actually place a layer of peat between layers of gravel, and have their U.G. filter pull the water through that.

I hope this has been some help;