Baffled

[KpT]

Hey everyone

Im really unsure of why my peat filtration is not working basically.

I have two corner filters connected to an air pump. The plastic boxes have a layer of peat granules on the bottom and synthetic wool on top, with the bubbles comming up through the bottoma nd out the top.

The KH of the aquarium ihas GOT to be VERY low becasue i dont add any minerals to my rainwater when i add it and i put peat in the water when i do water changes and the PH of it changes from 7 to 6 EASILY.

To be fair this is becasue i crush the peat and mix it in a long with liquid blackwater extract but you would of thought the filters would do something to change the PH??

ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED

Thanks

Sam

PS: I havnt ignored peoples advice on not adjusting PH i jsut dont think it would be a biotope of south american amazon basin without the PH being very low.

 

[KpT]

I think ill just crush peat in the aquarium itself and monitor what happens

Cheers

Sam

 

[Colin_T]

What is the actual question? Are you trying to find out why the peat in the filters doesn't lower the PH? If so it could be old peat. Peat will only drop the PH for a while, but eventually it stops doing anything. Then you need to replace it.

Rainwater is pure water, (with the exception of whatever it picks up from the air) and has no mineral content in it. This means there is no KH or GH in it and the PH can drop very quickly.
If you are running an Amazon biotope tank then depending on what fish you keep will determine whether you need rain water with no hardness, or water with some hardness. In general unless the fish come from way upstream of the Amazon River (and most don’t) they won't be in pure rainwater. And the further downstream you go the harder the water becomes. A lot of Amazonian fishes actually occur in water with a GH between 50-100ppm. In the wet season it drops, and in the dry season it goes up a bit.

 

[KpT]

INTERESTING

Id love to be able to jsut take a chunk of the amazon river out and put it in my room, cuz thats what im theoretically doing

Sam