Sourcing Peat Moss

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a very cheap source of peat for aquarium use.

My lfs sells it at £6 for a tiny bag and i am thinking that is certainly not as expensive as that.

Thanks

Chris

 

[SuperColey1]

Any Garden Centre that sells the major brands (whole range). I know there is a gardening product by J Arthur Bowers that is pure moss peat.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

Why use peat? Im sorry but Im going to have to get on my soap box for a min. Why would you want to rip open one of the greatest natural landscapes just to lower the ph of your tank? Get an RO unit or use a water softening pillow instead. Sorry, I'll get down now.

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Just clarify the peat thing environmentally wise. (I understand your statement Sam)

There is a lot of 'debate' about cutting up peat bogs and there are very tight restrictions on the process.

Each peat bog can only have the top 2ft taken away. This bog can then not be touched for 12 years.

This is one reason why the main development in composts over recent years are peat free composts which use the greenwaste (from your garden recycle bin) and shred it into a peat like substance in appearance and then composted over 13 weeks in urea before being useable for composts.

I would agree with Sam though. It is much safer and easier to get fish for your water rather than try to alter your parameters because it can be very hard to keep the same parameters.

I think unless your water is ridiculously unusable (i.e. wouldn't be drinkable) then your fish tend to adapt to their conditions and you shouldn't really need to tamper with the parameters at all.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

I wont ruin this thread, but 2ft of peat takes 100's of not 1000's of years to develop, you also loose all the plant life and other wildlife that lives on the top, it would in effect kill in the whole ecosystem.. Leaving it for 12 years after aint gonna do much? Whats the point of that?

Sorry I dont want to create a massive debate about it, thats for a different day

I guess what makes it worse for me personally is that there are alternatives, if there was no choice then I could understand it.

Sam

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

OK, dont kinda know what got into peoples heads here but My water is fine and i intended to actually use the Peat as a part in one of my substrate mixes. I have no need to soften the water as the RO already does it for me.

 

[SuperColey1]

I would just use a normal bag of compost (peat free if preferred) as your mix but beware it will be like ADA AS in that you will not be able to put livestock in the tank until the ammonia has gone (3 weeks or so )

Sam
I'm not defending the use of peat or cutting it up. I was just saying that there are tight limitations and the companies 'harvesting' the peat have to stick to them. As per most manufacturers they only tend to go 'green' if the market is there or if it looks good.

I tend to use peat free because it is cheaper (in general) due to the expense of peat.

Andy

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

The Peat is kind of the most important part. It is rather pointless to use Peat free compost. Still i will report my findings and let everyone know the results.

 

[Themuleous]

Sorry people seems Ive started something that really didnt need starting.

Chris - sorry I made an assumption. Out of interest why peat in particular rather than other substrate?

Andy - fair enough

Sorry again didnt mean to sound annoyed if thats how I came across

Sam

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Thats ok, I admit it does seem a little odd but when you mix in peat with an inert substrate, play sand for example and a few other bits and bobs it seems to make an exceptional nutricious and light substrate which still allows a retention of the roots with excellent growth. I came across the use of peat in a rather old aquarium book, this was when peat was used and the recommended way to soften water, it also indicated that peat has a high ionic exchange and nutrient retention.

Therefore I have started to mix up different batches of this stuff and am testing it with crypts to see what conclusions i can draw. I will be posting the results next week.

Edit The results will be on the spread of the roots and general growth


Chris

 

[SuperColey1]

On a similar route I have used Leonardite as per Tom Barrs recommendation. I haven't mixed it though just added a 1 cm layer underneath a nutritious substrate and then sand on top.

Leonardite is even older than peat (apparently) and also a source of carbon! (It is also known as brown coal)

I buy it cheap from NTLabs here:

http/www.ntlabs.co.uk/product_details.php?product_id=141

Andy