I've been researching ways to lower the ph of my water when I get my new tank set up for angelfish. One article suggested using peat in the filter. Does anyone here use peat? I would love to hear how well it works and any experiences you've had using it.

I have never personally used it but we have done that at work with our discus tank and it works well. Be prepared that it will tint the water a brownish color, like tea. I achieved the same effect with soft Malaysian driftwood (also had this in the discus tank) on my own South American tetra tank and it looked awesome! You could also experiment with that if you want.

Our tapwater here is extremely hard and I found that just adding the wood alone was not enough to bring the pH below 7.5. You may consider eventually switching to RO (reverse osmosis) water if it is still not low enough. Usually the pH of RO is neutral to below neutral.

Thank you for the info! I had debated using driftwood and still may decide to go with it. I'm just afraid it won't be enough to lower the ph like you said.

What exactly is RO water? Is this a type of water that you can buy, or is it something you run the water through on the tank? I'm clueless!

RO is just reverse osmosis, deionized water–basically just bottled water like you buy to drink. Around here we have those big Glacier machines at supermarkets and on corners and you just take a jug to fill up. Its been kind of a hassle with a 30 gallon–I could only imagine havng a bigger tank! I bought a couple of 5 gallon jugs and just keep them on hand for top offs and water changes.

You could also buy Kents Blackwater Extract. It is basically just the same thing. I know a lot of people use that for angel/discus tanks. At the time it was just easier for me to do RO.

i used RO and Bogwood aswell for a 6.5ph tank and had no problems, you guys drink RO water ?

LOL I do because our tapwater tastes awful! Highly chlorinated. Now I have a water purifier on my fridge so I drink that water but I think its still similar to RO.