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View Full Version : How to mix tap water with RO water for discus?



vek55531
10-22-2012, 03:15 PM
Where I live, the pH of the water is 7.2 and the hardness is like 400 ppm (I don't know what this is in dGH but it's a lot)..I'm thinking of getting an RO/DI filter so that I can keep discus. How much RO water should I mix with tap water to get the perfect water?
Also, I've heard that discus need a 20% water change daily, is this true?
Btw tank is 55 gallons, heavily planted (is that bad for discus?) and has a big branching piece of driftwood. It's been going for years so it has a well-established biological filtration - I'm probably gonna have to change all the water in it though since it's all hard tap water (but I have a canister filter with a good amount of ceramic beads which supposedly house the beneficial bacteria). And don't worry im not gonna get discus until i do a LOTTT more research first :)

shoveltrash
10-22-2012, 05:14 PM
imho Discus would be fine in your water. I'd KILL for tap water with a pH of 7.2!
(grumbles)

matt56
10-22-2012, 05:52 PM
Well to start your ph is totally fine. Is that after aging? To age simply take some water in a 5gallon bucket or so or glass, and let it sit out for 24 hours then check the ph again and compare it to your tap. If its different then you have to use aged water for your water changes and startup. My ph is 7.4 out of tap then it hits 8.3-8.4 after aging. Im keeping 9 discus in 8.4 liquid rock and they are doing great. No need for r/o water, i made the mistake of listening to a fish store and bought one. Wasted 200 bucks :(. Only time you should mess with ro water is when breeding imo. As for the water changes if you are getting juvies 4.5" or under then your going to need to do daily 40-50% w/c to get them to grow to the massive sizes they are capable of. If you are starting out with juveniles then i would reccomend just having a bare bottom 55 gallon tank with 6-8 discus. If you can afford it go with 4" fish for juvies, or if you dont want to to raise em spend about an extra 50 bucks per fish and you can get 5 inch fish and the maint is much less tasking. I can go into much more detail if you need help, but all this info and more can be found on the sitckies section of the beginners area. ;)

shoveltrash
10-22-2012, 06:06 PM
Throw an air stone in that bucket, will help w/detecting ph change ;).
And yes, read up here, there is an answer to almost any question If you do an advanced search.

Eddie
10-22-2012, 06:18 PM
Since the tank housed fish before, you may not want to add discus to it. Considering you are going to have a heavily planted/display tank, it would be wise to get fairly large fish. Large adult discus can be a little expensive and adding them to tank that had fish in it before, can be risky. If they fall ill, that would be a good amount money and butt pain to deal with as a first timer with discus.