Hard Water!!

[doug]

I was wondering what experience any of you have in keeping discus in hard water vs soft water??? My discus are kept in fairly soft water due to a water softener in our home due to us living in the country and having well water which is fairly hard. When I do water changes, I mix soft and hard water straight from our well. I have heard of someone in my region that has excellent discus and they are kept in water directly from a well and the water is very hard! I do understand that they are not likely to breed in these conditions.
Thanks for any help!
Best Regards
Doug

[April]

hi. ok i have extremely soft water...but i have heard to grow out....alot do grow out in hard water. the trick is to keep things stable. why dont you try it...gradually mix less and less and see how it goes. then just use straight well water.
but wait for more answers from hard water users.
::)
let us know though. andif someone is doing it successfully in your area.then why not?

[Ryan]

I have hard well water. TDS reading is about 225 - 250ppm. pH is around 7.6 - 7.8. My fish are colorful, active, and eat like pigs. I have seen the tell-tale signs of breeding (chasing, nipping, jaw-locking, shimmying, tubes lowered) but no actual eggs yet. I assume that if I were to drop the hardness or pH a little, and maybe add some cooler water, they'd probably go crazy.

However, for raising and keeping, I don't think hard water is necessarily a terribly bad thing. Some people say that they fair better in soft water because this is the condition that discus are found in throughout the Amazon, but I use what works for me. If it ain't broke, I won't fix it. So for now they are staying in hard water :)

Ryan

[Denny]

do you know the parameters of your water like p.h and tds?

what i woud do is get a 32 g rubbermaid garbage container and fill it up with straight well water. check the p.h., then add an airstone or pump to provide turbulance for 24 hrs. also put a heater in there. after 24 hrs check the ph again and see if there is a difference. normally there will be dissolved co2 in the well water that forms carbonic acid under pressure. the acid lowers the p.h. then when you stir the water for the 24 hrs the co2 is gassed off and the ph rises. sometimes there is a big difference and if you are adding water at 7.0 out of your tap into ph 8.5 aged tank water, you can make it really tough on the fish. using the barrel helps stabilize the water and also can keep you from running out the well or not having enough hot water.

as far as softeners go, the tds reading will more than likely go up when you pass the water through the softener, but gh and kh will go down.p.h may not be any different and if this is your situation i would bypass the softener. if you plan to use r/o then go through the softener as the r/o can remove sodiom ions easier than the magnesium ions.


denny

[doug]

Many thanks to all of you for the input. My PH readings are always 8.5 and never change no matter what I do! Water softness is about a reading of 100 to 125 and this is accomplished by mixing water softener water with water (very hard) directly from my well!
Regards
Doug

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Hi all, Doug, my water passes thru a softener using sodium. TDS is over 850ppm due to the sodium, & ph is 5.5-5.9, gh & kh <2. Am using 100% reconstituted r/o water & they're doing well. My reasoning is that when the sodium is exchanged the calcium & magnesium are taken out & these are necessary for growth, so must put them back in.
As Denny says, gh & kh are actually too low before adding. I collect the water in the 35g Rubbermaid, heat aerate & reconstitute it. It's tough to get the gh & kh up to 6.The presoftening helps the membrane life.
I have thought 'bout the water before the softener, but its very rusty (iron) & probably full of very nasty metals etc. so I'm chicken to try that again. When I added the tap (after softener with all that sodium) previously, it worsened the conditions & I lost quite a few fish, & now that reconstituted r/o water is working, I'm going with it. JMO Dottie :P :P

[Denny]

i am not sure if this applies in yhis case, but i had the same readings as you for months and thought that my water was exactly like yours reads. i had 3 different tetratest kits and all read high 8's except when i tested straight r/o, when it then read 5.0then in sept at a home imp. show at the local mall, i brought a sample to the guy i bought my softener from and he tested it with his digital meter and to my suprise it read 7.2. then he had a kit that tested chlorine and p.h. for swimming pools and that also tested out at 7.2 so he let me keep that kit.something to think about, but it may not apply in your case.


denny

[Cowboy]

My GH is 14+, KH 12.5 and pH 7.5. This is straight from the well. Started with 2" discus in May, there are now some that are almost 6". I haven't noticed any problems. I ran a continuous drip and fed very heavy (6-8x per day).
HTH Todd

[korbi_doc]

:balloon: :balloon: Todd, you are SO lucky. Those params are fantastic, right out of tap!!!!! So much less work & worry. I fed my babies like that & did not get that growth, although I'm real happy with them. Where r u? Dottie :o :o

[Cowboy]

Gee, thanks. I was always under the impression that this was fairly hard water. Northeast Iowa. Dairy country. (Cowboy....as in I'm a dairy farmer). Now, bare in mind, I was bragging up the largest ones. I do have a couple of underachievers that would only make 4" if stretched good.

[arpanlib]

hi,
i in india am keeping the discus in water paras after r/o are :

hardness 1500 ppm
ph. 7.6
nitrates 0 ppm
nitites less than 0.3

this water is also from the well. and the discus are just doing fine.

hope this helps. i have posted pics in the photo gallery, maybe you wanna look at their condition. will post more pictures soon.

arpanlib

[Denny]

cowboy, what town do you live in?


denny

[Cowboy]

Waukon