[bartian]

I mainly use peat (in small amounts) for covering the glass tank floor. It looks a lot better than sand or gravel. You are completely right to say that’s kind of hypocritical! It’s better not to use peat when not strictly necessary.
For bringing down pH I prefer beach and oak leaves, which I also use as soil. To my experience, when I put in a layer of leaves and pour RO water in, pH doesn’t drop quick enough to prevent decomposition of the leaves. To start at a good pH I use small amounts of phosphoric acid to bring the pH to around 4, after which the leaves will keep it low.