Thinking about using blackwater extract

[Josh Q]

I've seen a few arcticles here and there about using blackwater extract and have found that Kent has what seems to be the best product. ANy of you guys/girls have any experience? I have kinda hard water here and figured that with the angels and gouramis, ect that will be in a few of the tanks I'm setting up it would be good to use some of this stuff (especially if I try to use the angels to spawn). Any thoughts would be great.
-Josh

 

[CFC]

Imo using blackwater tonic is a waste of time as you have to keep adding it when you do water changes,if you are looking at using it to try and soften your water then you would be better off using peat in your filter,you can use filter peat from the fish shop or get it from a garden centre (if its the latter then you must make sure it is 100% pure peat with no added chemicals).

 

[Josh Q]

I've actually tried to go with the peat and I can't seem to get it to help. I have a penguin biowheel 170 and there isn't a lot of space to put media in there. I put a cup of peat in some woman's nylons and tied the end and stuck it right where the water flows through it and it didn't seem to do anything. Am I not doing something to/with the peat for it to work?
-Josh

 

[CFC]

How big is the tank?To be honest a cup full probably wasn't enough to make any difference,i use peat in a seperate small external canister filter set on its lowest setting.It will take several weeks for there to be any noticable changes and remember to keep water changes small,it is better to change 5% twice a week than 10% once a week so the peat dosn't get swamped by fresh hard water