Need advice for pH and to heat water for WC

[Newdiscuslover]

Hi guys ! I hope to get some advice from the fellow people here.
I’m using RO/DI water. My tap water pH is around 9.0 (!!!) and RO/DI drops to 8.2 but still high.
My tank is 40 gal bare bottom and I have a 40 gal tank as a sump, total water volume is 80 gal.
I started to use sulfur denitrator reactor to reduce nitrates and pH (this is from my experience from reef tanks) and pH goes to 7.6. Is 7.6 too high to juveniles discus ?
Another question: I have a 250 gal water storage tank that I fill with 80 gal of water for daily WC. I’m keeping two Eheim Jagger 300w heaters to make the water temperature around 87 degrees in the storage tank. Two heaters because my tanks and the storage tank, all stuff is in my cold garage. I guess my eletricity bill will increase a lot. So how do you guys keep large volume of water around 86 degrees for WC ?

[Ryan925]

You do not need to lower ph but need to make it stable. Also be sure to remineralize your RO

For your aging barrel you can get it up off the cold concrete and wrap it with insulation.

Though sulfur reactors are proven with results it will not be a substitute for water changes. It may actually be problematic if it is causing ph fluctuation.

How many juvies and what size are you planning? They will quickly outgrow a 40 so do you have plans for a larger tank?

[Newdiscuslover]

Tks for your reply. I got 12 juveis and they have around 3 inches now. I have another three 40 gal tanks, so I’m planning to keep four discus per tank (one fish per 10 gal). Make the water temp from my barrel stable is becoming a challange. About pH, even around 8.2 but stable is not dangerous for discus ?

[Willie]

Your tap water is okay for raising discus. You'll only need R/O when they're going to spawn, so don't worry about it now. Heat and aerate your water and make large water changes daily. Your discus will grow great!

Willie

[Adam S]

A cheap way to insulate the bottom of your barrels is a sheet of 2" thick Styrofoam with some plywoof on top. The sides can be wrapped with Reflextic, looks like bubble wrap made out of foil. It won't hurt your fish if you are off by a few degrees.

[Willie]

I used to condition my water in 55-gallon drums. Each one had an airstone and a 150-W heater. It'd take the drums 2 - 3 days to come up to temperature in the winter time in my basement. One day, I got up enough energy to put the drums onto 2 X 2's and wrapped with insulation. The drums warmed up to 84F overnight!

Now I condition water in aquarium tanks. They rest on 1" pink insulation sheets, tightly covered with insulation on top and are wrapped on three side walls with insulation.

Willie