Peat Addition Question

[Moreta]

Hi all,

I have been fussing with my water as its rock hard well water-by the tests I've run it should be solid its so hard! Mixing RO water and tap water (before it hits the softener as I don't want the salt which would bother the plants planned for this tank) to drop the ph. In order to get close to acceptable (neutral) parameters its about a 3 to 1 R/O to well water. I don't want to go all RO as that has its own set of problems :roll: gee I thought mixing water for my marine tanks was complex...my aim was for simplicity for this Apisto Cacatouides tank!

I've seen a lot of references regarding adding peat in a filter to drop the ph, etc. and I was wondering if you used peat in the tank, do you also "pretreat/filter with peat" the make up water? I was considering going the peat route to reduce the overall hardness and was wondering how stable the tank would be if "plain mixed RO/Well" water was used for the weekly 10% water changes, or if the water should have peat run through it prior to adding it to the tank?

Thanks in advance,

Tracy

 

[farm41]

I use peat with my blackwater fish to lower the Ph. I use a 32 gallon garbage can and put about 10" of peat in the bottom, then fill with water and aerate. I just strain it and add to the change water, amount depending on what Ph I want.

But, your cacs shouldn't need peat. What is your Ph and Kh in the tank with your mixed RO/tap?

 

[Moreta]

But, your cacs shouldn't need peat. What is your Ph and Kh in the tank with your mixed RO/tap?

When I picked the cacs as a species for this "new" tank I hadn't tested my well water in ages. I remember checking it years ago when I bought the house and gagging then-ran right out and got a softener system. I do marine tanks and use RO. I thought my untreated well water should do just fine as the cacs seem to be more tolerant of the higher dissolved solids I knew were in the well water.

How hard is my well water??? I even bought new reagents for my seifert (sp) test kits thinking this can't be right.... straight out of the well GH 225, KH 125 (or 8dh) Ph 8.5 and a lovely phosphate content of .5 I figured the plants would take care of that problem at least. I've even re-tested with a cheapo Hagen kit I bought just because I couldn't believe it with similar results.

Mixed 3-1 RO to tap brings the ph to 7.5, gh to 170+. The RO itself is nicely neutral and shows <50 gh. Haven't tried any higher dilutions of RO to well water yet-I was trying to keep it simple. I thought peat would moderate my concrete, uh well water.

Using water that has been through the softener is obviously not good, so my options are either part RO/Well or all RO.

Probably should just bite the bullet and use the RO water, eh? Its not like I don't have it lying around, LOL.

Thanks again for your help,
Tracy

 

[Randall]

Hard Well Water

Dear Tracy,

Matt and I agree on this one. Your cacatuoides shouldn't need peat conditioned water. It sounds to me like your 3:1 ratio of RO to well water is a good mix for cacatuoides. Why don't you just go ahead, keep it simple and do it?!

Good luck!

Randall Kohn