It is quite clear that we cannot protest against the destruction of the peat swamps in south-east Asia and use peat in great quantities ourselves.
I have stopped using peat nearly at all. You could adjust the pH by phosphoric acid by using a few drops only and add the missing humine substances by leaves from beeches and oaks, alder-cones and Catappia-leaves.
The pH is not a value of ist own, but a means to suppress germs and unwanted bacteria. You can breed every species at higher pH (if it’s not exceeding 7.0, for the fish’s organism is adapted to a low pH) if you are able to keep the milieu germ-free. But it is nearly impossible to do so. So you have to lower the pH. It is of secondary importance by what means.
With plants it is quite different a story. There you need CO2; phosphoric acid is quite a different thing. But we speak about fish that are adapted to water with germ-concentrations as little as possible. Here you don’t need peat. Nature uses peat. In the aquarium you can dispose of it if there are reasons of the conservation of the peat swamps and bogs and moors to do so. And there are.
So Michael is quite on the right track, and Bartians advice is a good advice.