# How to remove peat tea color from water



## kadoxu (14 Nov 2016)

Hi everyone!

I added a thin layer of peat to my external filter in order to reduce the water's PH slightly. Is there a way to remove the tea color from the water without removing the effects of the peat?

I have Activated Carbon for the filter, but I believe it shouldn't be used with peat. Any suggestions?

Thanks!


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## dw1305 (14 Nov 2016)

Hi all,





kadoxu said:


> Is there a way to remove the tea color from the water without removing the effects of the peat?


Not really the humic compounds, that cause the tinting, are the compounds you want.

This paper is by Christian Steinberg, who has done a lot of work on humic substances <"Dissolved humic substances – ecological driving forces from the individual to the ecosystem level?">.

Colin Dunlop references his book in <"All the leaves are brown">.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (14 Nov 2016)

Filtering over peat can stain pretty heavily, only thing helping are water changes and a lot of glass cleaning. If you use wood in the tank, than it could be even more.. In my case a bit to much with my 5 kilo mopani in 110 litre tank volume.. Also the Kh and pH altering effect was neglectable, as i do 25% water change anyway weekly made filtering over peat not much sense to me only a extra questionable expense...

Tho Humic substances are realy something you want to have, at all coast, fortunately it is for free.. So you can keep the coloring at bay without filtering peat and still have humic substances.. I did put some peat pellets, the same as fert tabs into the substrate around the rooting plants. And add alder cones, oak leaves etc. into th etank to get my humic share and still my water is slightly yellow.. This is because of the Mopani, depending on the wood and or quality but it still can be pretty clear after a year.. In my high tech i have a lot of Opuwa wood, which is much harder and isn't leaching that much and done by now. This tank is much less yellow and also get, leaves and alder cones etc.


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## Nelson (14 Nov 2016)

kadoxu said:


> Is there a way to remove the tea color from the water without removing the effects of the peat?


No....
You'll have to join the blackwater gang .


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## kadoxu (15 Nov 2016)

Nelson said:


> No....
> You'll have to join the blackwater gang .


The Blackwater Pirates would be a great gang name! 

I guess I'll just have to leave it then... I used about 250g of peat in the filter and the PH dropped from 8.4 to 7.6 when CO2 is off. KH also dropped from 16 to 10, and I haven't tested GH yet, but I'm loving the results and the critters seem to love it as well.

I'm moving home next month and hope to start using rainwater, so I won't be part of the blackwater gang for too long.


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## zozo (15 Nov 2016)

You've 250g peat in the filter on a 19 litre tank? That's a massive amount of peat.. I tried 100g on a 110 litre and i had tea colored water within days and a week later still no pH or kH drop.. Tho regarding the product description (JBL 600g on 200 litre should drop kH 5-7°) so in my calculation it should have droped at least 1° but it didn't.. Already have a relative low kH (<10) so actualy i do not realy want it to drop to much. Since it was just an experiment to see how effective it would be on the pH, which it wasn't at all for me, i decided to leave the peat out it was only staining the water like crazy. Tank is doing great without it too..

Good to read it works for you like that.


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## kadoxu (15 Nov 2016)

zozo said:


> You've 250g peat in the filter on a 19 litre tank? That's a massive amount of peat.. I tried 100g on a 110 litre and i had tea colored water within days and a week later still no pH or kH drop.. Tho regarding the product description (JBL 600g on 200 litre should drop kH 5-7°) so in my calculation it should have droped at least 1° but it didn't.. Already have a relative low kH (<10) so actualy i do not realy want it to drop to much. Since it was just an experiment to see how effective it would be on the pH, which it wasn't at all for me, i decided to leave the peat out it was only staining the water like crazy. Tank is doing great without it too..
> 
> Good to read it works for you like that.


Sorry... not 250g, 0.25L...  I bought a 1L pack and used a bit less than 1/4... I don't know how much it weights! 

It was just enough to make a thin layer of peat in the filter.


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## kadoxu (15 Nov 2016)

I think 1L weights a bit more than 450g (dry), so I probably used around 100g or maybe less. I do have a EHEIM Classic 250 working in that tank...


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## kadoxu (15 Nov 2016)

Some people (and Seachem) say that Seachem Purigen "will remove color bodies and is often used to clear tannin colored water." and can be used with peat... 

Has someone tried it? I'm torn between letting it be or trying some Purigen to see how it works...


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## Costa (15 Nov 2016)

Yes, running zeolite with peat will help reduce the water coloration to an absolute minimum. I only got some debris from the peat that escaped the stocking it was in.


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## zozo (15 Nov 2016)

I did and it works pretty good, but it is relatively expensive and not ever lasting, it seems to lose capacity after every cleaning job and stops working at around 4 to 5 times cleaning. Depending on how dirty your water is, my bag of purigen was about coffee brown after 2 to 3 weeks because of the wood leaching so much. Considering cost effect, i rather do extra water changes instead of keep spending money on purigen. To expensive imho. In my case not using peat, the wood will finaly be done leaching so much, but with added and periodicaly changing peat you need a constant supply of both. The stated lifetime by Seachem itself is obviously very relative, they say 1 bag for 500 litres p 6 months. This bag didn't last this long in my 110 litre..

I'm still using chunks Zeolite in the filter, has simular properties and seems to add some minerals to the water as well which seem to be benefitial for shrimps and fish.. It also can be regenerated and as far as i know indefenitely with the use of washing it in salt water after 3 months of use (50g NaCl / L).. Which imo is safer than the bleach which needs to used for cleaning purigen. Next to that it is way cheaper..


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## kadoxu (22 Nov 2016)

Well, I tried a small layer of Purigen and it did wonders overnight.
I don't think I ever had such clear water in my tank! And the peat is still working as usual.


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