Peat Filtering And Hatchetfish

[ac106]

I recently added 3 Silver (or maybe Common) and 3 Marbeled Hatchetfish to my 35g tank. I was reading about them in an aquarium book I had and it noted they need the water to be filtered through peat.

Is this necessary? Will this have an adverse effect on my other fish? (see sig)

Anyone use peat as a filter agent?

Thanks!

AC

 

[The-Wolf]

adding peat to the filter will introduce humic acids to the water, thus lowering the gH and pH.
it can be really effective when used in conjuntion with bogwood and a blackwater extract.
all of these will turn your water a slight brown colour, lowering the light levels somewhat and this should be taken into account when considering plants.

 

[BigC]

I would just use Blackwater Extract.
Regards
BigC

 

[ac106]

I guess my question is:

Do I *need* to filter through peat or use blackwater exact? What does the peat do to the hatchets that is so beneficial? I do not care if they breed, I just want them to be healthy. Will they thrive in a tank filtered normally?

I would prefer not to have dark brownish water in my tank so I would prefer to avoid using the peat if possible.

 

[The-Wolf]

the peat, as I have already stated, will lower the gH and pH.
this will be a great benifit to the hatchets.

 

[fishing4exotics]

Using peatmoss and bogwood will effectively be the same as adding "Blackwater Extract". So, I would go without the "Blackwater Extract". Save your money for more bogwood

 

[chrismr]

All my fish, including my hatchets seem much happier (i.e. more active, etc) since I have started using peat in my filter.Blackwater extract seemed to make no difference to the fish or the water for me.