# advice on peat moss



## GypsyV

So back at the end of last year I set up my 30g tank with 1" peat moss from lowes, 1" play sand and some gravel on top. Since then I have added plants, replaced dead ones and added new ones. It has low light, HOB with gravel for the bacteria, a heater keeping the water in the 70's. I have had tetras, otos, ghost shrimp sakura shrimp at different times. At some point all of the fish and shrimp have died. In the beginning I had a huge ammonia problem, it read of the chart, that killed my all but 3 fish, tetras. I worked on the ammonia, doing water changes, lightly vacumming, and adding ammonia remover tabs. It took awhile but on my tests the ammonia was almost gone. I bought a few otos and shrimp, they died. My 3 tetras plus a new one developed white cottony fungus on their gills, fins, eyes, and mouths, and died before I could treat them. So I took my water to petsmart, and I had high ammonia, and now low ph which wasn't an issue before, ph was always great.

So, now that i have 0 fish what should I do? what could be causing this? Should I keep my substrate? what do you need to do with peat moss in an aquarium? 

Basically I need to decide once and for all if I am going to redo everything before i get my fish.

Thanks


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## susankat

Peat moss when used in a tank should only be a light dusting or it causes problems. Which I think is what your experiencing.


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## jrman83

I think peat has its place, but to me it would depend on the species I planned to keep and not in my tank without a purpose. If your water is already soft, I can see where peat could potentially make the issues worse or get to a point where the water is too soft. Water that is too soft has a difficulty holding a steady ph. What is your ph out of your tap compared to your tank?

Is it possible you may have peat that has had ferts added?


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## navigator black

I have put peat in tanks, and would say that as aquarists go, I am a heavy user of peat. I go through a small bale a year of it. 

I am extremely careful to buy untreated peat with no fertilizers added. That is easy to find.

I would never use it as you have, under sand. It isn't an inert substrate. It removes minerals from the water and drops the pH, very quickly. With fresh peat in 20 gallons of well buffered tap, I could drop water hardness by 80ppm and pH 7.4 to pH 6.2 in a couple of hours, when it was fresh (first three months in water).After that, it begins to decompose, and the troubles you are seeing appear. I change it regularly. 
In a worst case scenario, you will have fungus, soft water loving oodinium parasites and nasty smells as it breaks down. I always use peat outside the aquarium to treat water, but then transfer the treated water to the tanks for blackwater species. I would not have it in the tank. If I were you, I would redo my substrate, and chalk it up to a mistake to learn from...


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## FishFlow

navigator black said:


> I am extrelmely careful to buy untreated peat with no fertilizers added. That is easy to find.


I agree. It has to be the right kind of peat. Most of the stuff you see at the lhs in small bags are not straight untreated peat. 

I could not find any untreated peat in my area.


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## susankat

Untreated bales can be gotten at home depot and lowes but as said in navigators post, best used outside of the aquarium.


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## GypsyV

Ok I am redoing it lol. I really thought the substrate done like that would have been permanant, it has been long enough for it to start decomposing. I will test the tap and see what its ph is and do my tank and see what the actual number is. My tap is hard water. I will recheck my peat and see if it says if anything is added.

Thanks for the advice. Now off to petsmart to by plant substrate to mix with my sand and gravel


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## navigator black

This thread brings one important thing into focus. I would have said any peat would do, as I have never encountered treated peat here, outside of really expensive little bags that are very obvious. But I live within a few hours' drive of massive peat bogs.
Fishflow sees more treated peat - it shows we have to be careful about generalizing from local availability, etc. We live in so many different places. I wouldn't have done anyone a favour if I had told them just to run out and buy any peat, as I would here!


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## jrman83

The softening effect and its effect on ph dwindle with time just like a piece of driftwood would. It does provide a very good medium for root travel though. Diana Walstad wrote a book titled "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" and she explicitly says to never use peat in your substrate. The reason is it starts to decompose and can start to give off gas that can kill.


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