Carbon and Peat

[Scott.R.C]

Hi all.

Got a 55 gallon set up with juvenile Green Terrors and 2 Gold Spot Plecos.

Ph is on the high side (nearly 8) water is supplied from a concrete rain water tank.

The question I have is can I add Peat to my power head to lower Ph and will the carbon I already have in it offset the tannins?

[Link2Hell]

Hi Scott

Welcome to ACE forums

what is the hardness reading for your water ?

8pH won't worry the Aq. rivulatus or the L001 pleco's but hardness

will tell you if it will lower without adding peat but just from the natural

tannins released from any timber in the tank

I would be more worried about tank size what does it measure

and what size are the fish ?

what filtration are you running

carbon should only be used to remove medications after treatment and

to remove tannins if you don't like the effect of tea coloured water and

if you feel there are some chemical impurities in the water

always change very few weeks and throw it away

carbon is an absorbant that has a parameter where once reached will leak

everything back into the tank

do you have any pics as depending on size you may be able to sex the

rivulatus, males have reticulated marking in the unpaired fins and the females

don't but they get a light coloured bar either side of the mid body spot

good choice on the L001 gold spot as they don't get as big as normal plecs

and gibbeceps

[Scott.R.C]

Sorry but I'm not sure on how to upload pictures from the hardrive on my computer. How do I go about doing that?