PH and Temperature Help...

[Gnopvp]

Hi, I am new to taking care of my discus which I stared 3 weeks ago. I'm concern about the ph and the right temperature it needs to make them stay happy. I been reading other sites and talked to a few people and they said that discus prefer to have acidic water around 6.8 and below. I'm thinking it's better to have a stable ph even tho it's at alkaline 7.5 or higher. Is it better higher? How does higher ph affect it? Good or bad? The other thing is I'm not sure what is a good temperature for my discus. I have it at around 88-90 degree F. Is that good?

[RyanH]

Hey Gnopvp,

Welcome to Simply! Discus needing acidic water is a common misconception... I would not be concerned with a pH that is in the alkaline range. Your Discus will do fine. What is important is pH stability.

88-90 degrees may be a bit warm for healthy Discus. I would drop the temperature to around 85 degrees. Higher temps raise the metabolism of your fish. This is nice when you are trying to get them to eat for the first time. Higher temps can also be effective in fighting disease.

Feel free to post anytime you have questions!

hth!

-Ryan

[Howie_W]

I been reading other sites and talked to a few people and they said that discus prefer to have acidic water around 6.8 and below. I'm thinking it's better to have a stable ph


Hi Gnopvp,

Stable is good...you'll find many people keep thier fish in water straight from the tap. Wild Discus come form extremely acidic waters, however changing your water to match this is unnecessary. What you do want is good clean water. On average, most people like the 82-86 degree range for their fish.


Howie

[Smokey]

Howdy Gnopvp: welcome to S/D.

Remember - below pH 6.6 - the biological bacteria may cease to exsist!!!

Stable water is what discus like... not jumping all-over-the-place.

Could you post your tap water numbers??
pH / KH / GH.
[ if you do not have a hardness test kit - purchase on. They are inexpensive and give you the whole story of your water.].

Smokey