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Some Where in the Rio Negro

i think your right. 48hrs into my peat in a bucket test.

12ltr of tap water
starting params
ph=7.2
kh=6
GH=14

48hrs in
ph 6.8
kh=3
gh=10

so they have come down but not by allot, not enough to really make any difference to anything.

I also found these teabags, might give them a try.

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the beaten up male checkerboard is still alive and starting to free swim a little, still very weak though so will keep him in the breeding container. Once he is back to health i may try and catch the agressive male, isolate him and put the other male in the tank, see what the female makes of him
 
Just out of interest, how much peat did you use? Was it loose garden peat, or the aquarium dried pellet type?
 
its loose Irish peat, i put it between two bits of filter floss in an internal filter, so not allot really. I was not sure how much i needed as i'm venturing into a topic i don't really understand as i've never really tried to lower my ph beyond the target desired when injecting CO2 for a planted tank.

this may well be a silly question but how long do botanicles last before you need to replenish them. my tank is full of them but 4 days after a water change and my tank is still gin clear.
 
i suppose predictably the beaten up male has died, i actually thought he was going to make it, just goes to show they can look like been on the mend, then just go down hill quickly.
 
not much of an update. Did a water change/tank clean up. moved some plants about.
For the water change i used the water i'd had been filtering with Peat. 4 days of this brought my ph down 6.2 kh down to 3, my gh down to 10ish (water in the bucket).
it was only 12 ltr so i did not really expect it to make a difference to my tank water and its not, so i think i just need up the volume per water change and make do it twice weekly to bring my tank water down a little. I may then start using RO + abit of tap water with my peat filtering as suggested. I have used the tea bags to tan the water, although the camera is not picking it up, it does look a lovely colour now.
substrate is starting to decompose now which is great, a couple more months and i'll have that mulm i'm looking for

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been a long time since an update but its getting on for 6 months and the tank has matured no end. water is now stable as kh of 3.0, PH of about 6.4 (i just can't get it lower). For this i use RO and water change every 3 weeks at about 25%, i run peat in an internal filter along with peat in a couple of filter bags in the bucket. Plants are slowly dying, don't think i have enough light nor nitrate in reality but plants are secondary anyway.

Fish are doing great (lost 2 tetra's and 1 pencil fish, i assume to aggression, no bodies found). Pencil fish show all the signs of breeding but i've never seen fry or eggs, anyway enjoy.
 

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to be honest i'm not sure, my water is a mystery to me. i do need to test my RO, maybe that's off. it could be something in the tank buffering but not sure what that would be.
i did start off with tap water until about 5 water changes ago. maybe there is still tap water in there although with my volume of water changes i would of expected that to of long gone.
 
Wookii said:
It’s probably from that then. The diminishing dilution effect means it takes a long time to get to zero.



What rocks and substrate do you have in the tank?
Click to expand...
don;t have any stones or rocks per say, wood, sticks from the woods and oak leaves, alder cones and other SA botanicals. in regards substrate, small amount of sand (can't remember the brand but its a amazonian type), crushed lava rock (in zip bags) to build up the back, mashed up oak leaves and then pond aqua soil used for lilies as its got allot of clay in it (all mixed together and then rinses and rinsed some more so).

I do see what you mean in regards fish Darrel, although i do like the different types, they all act differently and do add a splash of colour
 
tested my water change bucket tonight after having the water circulated for a few days. KH is 0, PH is lower than my test kits goes <6.4.
so i now know my RO water is good, this does imply either something is buffering the water in my tank or it is just a case of doing more water changes and waiting for the dilution effect.
 
jonnyuk said:
tested my water change bucket tonight after having the water circulated for a few days. KH is 0, PH is lower than my test kits goes <6.4.
so i now know my RO water is good, this does imply either something is buffering the water in my tank or it is just a case of doing more water changes and waiting for the dilution effect.
Click to expand...

Do you have a TDS meter? That’d be a far easier and more accurate way to test both your RO product water, and your tank water.
 
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