Peat filtration and hard water

[Craydaddy]

Hi guys, I have my 55G community finally going the way I want it. It's stocked with 14 rummynose(or false rummynose, not sure) tetras, 10 neons, 2 otos, a clown pleco, a mystery snail and three amanos. I've got a PH of 6.4 which the fish love but that water is haaaard. I was giving some thought to trying peat filtration to drop the hardness and maybe make the water a tiny bit more acidic. I'm trying to figure out if peat filtration is worth the effort or if I should spring for RO at each water change instead. Any of you have experience with peat filtration, ie. pros/cons, whether it's even worth it or not, etc. My tetras seem to like the tank but their rummy colour is abit weak, apparently due to the hardness. What do you guys htink?

[biggin]

Go with something that you can repeat...

Honestly, the hard water is not going to hurt you that much, think of it as over tinkering.

I would go almond leaves before peat.

[WRabbit]

I think all of my planted tanks do fine without peat. Lots of plants and driftwood seem to work here. So far I haven't had any complaints from the fish.

However, if I were trying to grow erios I would soften the water.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g329/jiang604/1a-1.png

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g329/jiang604/1b-1.png

Jim

[bcody21]

does hard water effect the color of the fish that much?

[Erniec]

Go with something that you can repeat...

Honestly, the hard water is not going to hurt you that much, think of it as over tinkering.

I would go almond leaves before peat.

Any lFS sell leaves?, I use peat pellets hate having to change out the bag in the filter. By repeat when would change out the leaves?

[biggin]

DNA has some... but it is generally best to just order them. There are a number of people on Aquabid selling them.

The leaves just kind of degrade and when they are gone, you replace them.

Any lFS sell leaves?, I use peat pellets hate having to change out the bag in the filter. By repeat when would change out the leaves?

[Craydaddy]

Do the leaves mess with your nitrates or anything like that? Reason I ask about softening the water is the colour. If it really isn't a big deal I won't mess with it, just wanted to know what I can do to make the rummynoses' colours pop.

[Dr. Awkward]

Do the leaves mess with your nitrates or anything like that? Reason I ask about softening the water is the colour. If it really isn't a big deal I won't mess with it, just wanted to know what I can do to make the rummynoses' colours pop.

Yes. Nitrosomonas bacteria growth is inhibited at a pH of 6.5. All nitrification stops at a pH of 6. Dropping the carbonate hardness too low will cause your pH to become unstable and it could drop even lower. If that happens your cycle will stall.

I would recommend you check your ammonium level. That could be the reason your fish have poor coloring.

[jlcoop277]

I use tap water treated with Prime in both my tanks and all of my fish's colors pop. I'd like to see pics of your set up.

[Stickzula]

You can't reduce the hardness by increasing the acidity. So peat or almond leaves won't help. R.O. would be your best option for reducing hardness. There are some articles on this, but I can't find them ATM

[Craydaddy]

Man, I'm really conflicted. I am thinking doing with water changes with ro water, but I don;t wanna mes up my PH, but at the same time I want the fish to be as colourful and comfortable as possible. My cycle is working great though, ammonia at zero, nitrites at zero. Nitrates were high but a couple water changes fixed it right up.
As an aside, I got the rummynose tetras from Fish Gallery, they're gorgeous and there definitely my favorite. The interesting thing is, with a bit of research, I found out that these fish actually aren't rummynose tetras but false rummynoses. When we got them, their colours were really dull but a day in our tank and they perked up really well. 6.4 PH did the trick guess

[Stickzula]

if I were to try softening my water I would start by buying a R.O. unit. In the end it will be less expensive than buying bottled ro. Then get a barrel and start working on you mix. Add 1g each of R.O. and tap water to the barrel, let that set with an air stone for a day and measure your parameters. The water doesn't need to have fish in it or be "cycled" in order to determine the pH, gH, kH, and conductivity. Then adjust the mix to get you to the parameters you are looking for. Once you find the ratio, you can repeat it for subsequent water changes meaning that you will have consistent parameters before and after the change. The only thing that should change significantly after a water change is the nitrAte. If you are injecting co2 then it becomes more complicated because saturated co2 affects pH. At any rate, you should be able to mix to get what you are looking for parameter wise.

Is it really necessary? Probably not. I wouldn't go through the hassle. From everything I've read on rummynose the coloration is affected by the water quality and not so much by pH and gH. I would attribute the better coloration to better environment(i.e. a more comfortable aquascape, and cleaner water) more than the 6.4 pH reading. who knows what the store tank's pH was? I will tell you that it was probably whatever the tap water is at that location. It was also probably high in dissolved organics and likely had high nitrAte levels. The latter two will come from over stocking and infrequent water changes which stores are notorious for. Who wants to increase overhead by doing more water changes or keeping more or larger tanks for fish that will only be there a couple days?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the fish are probably already looking as good as they are likely to ever look and for me it wouldn't be worth the money or hassle to try and adjust the water further.