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Nadine
Age: 42
Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 26
Location: Germany
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Employment and construction of a peat cannon
In aquaristics for many South American and also Asian fish soft and acidic water is needed. There are several ways of making your normal tap water softer. The most common methods are reverse osmosis controller (ROC) and full demineralizer (FD). Each of these methods has pros and cons on which I won't go into detail. There is sufficient information in the net.
One of the simplest and also most inexpensive methods is to soften the water by the use of peat. Peat can be used as a filtering medium or just in the filter outlet (an alternative are peat-filled stockings) in the basin. You can also pre-treat the changing water with peat, then you avoid having a peat-filled stocking in your tank.
In addition to its pH-lowering characteristics peat also has the advantage of having anti-fungal qualities, which is particularly important with fish larvae, spawn and open wounds on fish.
Peat adds a yellowish tint to the water, which makes the colors of the fish appear brighter.
However, the disadvantage of peat is that it will be exhausted has to be and renewed after a certain time. The exhaustion degree depends on the quality of the peat. In zoo shops one can buy peat granulates for this purpose, which however gets quite expensive over time. I use bundle peat (150 l = 8.49 euro) from my local home depot store's garden department. It is important that the peat does not contain fertilizing additives. It's best to test the peat's suitability before use by drop tests (pH, KH, GH, PO4).
It can be difficult to fit a peat net (or stocking) into a small basin or in the usually already small-dimensioned filter. In order to save space, I have built a peat cannon. The underlying principle is very simple. Fill peat into a plastic pipe, and the water will slowly seep through. Water that underwent this treatment will have a KH of 1 or less, depending upon your peat's quality. The GH is also lowered substantially. The pH will be at around 4.5 - 5.
Therefore I had a good look at peat cannons people already used and modified them somewhat regarding their use and function. Sufficient water should be supplied and at the same time, the thing ought to be easy to stow away when not in use. Moreover, I wanted it to be free-standing.
 
Peat cannon at work and about to be stowed away
I used the following materials:
Wooden board (35 x 25 x 1.5 cm)
1 x 1 m plastic wastewater pipe (approx. 3 €)
1 x pipe cover (approx. 2 €)
2 x metal elbows (approx. 3 €)
Screws
Filter cotton
Filter mat
Fly netting (not imperative)
Except for the wastewater pipe and its cover I had everything in my workshop.
First I sawed a hole with the outside diameter of the thinner part of the wastewater pipe. Subsequently, proceeding from this hole I sawed the outside diameter of the thicker part. Thus I got a wooden ring which I can slip over the thinner side.
Subsequently, I bolted the angles to each other and, with the help of a bench vice, I bent the ends in such a way that I could attach them to the board as shown in the following picture.
Thus I can insert the pipe into the apparatus from above and fix it by means of the wood ring; this ensures an even passage of the water through the peat.
Now I bored holes into the pipe cover, so that it looks like a sieve.
In order to avoid that peat components get into the treated water first I lined the cover with fly netting and, after that, put some filter cotton in.
Now put the cover on the plastic pipe and fill up with peat from the other side.
Finally, cut the filter mat into shape and put it on top of the peat. This will prevent the peat from floating.
In the following image, you can see the difference between peat water and distilled water:
Published with friendly permission of Remo Wiechert
Further information at: http://www.remowiechert.de/torfkanone.html |
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