water quality

[benn2311]

Hi guys
As my previous post i am getting 2 Abacaxi Heckles to go in my 125gal tank.Temp is 30c ,Ph teady 7.5 and i do 25% daily water changes with a 50% weekly change.Daily feeding regime is fbw ,Hikari Discus Bio-Gold,Sera granured with constant supply of floating plants.Here is my tap water report from my supplier.

Water quality report
Substance Typical value UK/European limit Unit
Calcium 15.9 - mg Ca/l
Magnesium 2.2 - mg Mg/l
Residual chlorine - free 0.2 - mg/l Cl2
Residual chlorine - total 0.2 - mg/l Cl2
Coliforms 0.0 0 no/100ml
E-coli 0.0 0 no/100ml
Aluminium 14.4 200 µg Al/l
Colour 1.1 20 mg/l Pt/Co Scale
Conductivity 300.1 2500 µS/cm
Fluoride 0.1 1.5 mg F/l
pH (Hydrogen Ion Conc.) 7.7 6.5 - 10.0 pH Units
Iron 23.3 200 µg Fe/l
Manganese 2.2 50 µg Mn/l
Nitrate 3.4 50 mg NO3/l
Nitrite 0.0 50 mg NO2/l
Sodium 12.3 200 mg Na/l
Turbidity 0.1 4 NTU
Copper 0.0 2 mg Cu/l
Lead 0.6 25 µg Pb/l

My question is ,are there any parameters that i should be worried about for keeping them when doing water changes straight from the tap.All other inhabitant's arewell and thriving with my current regime.

[rowedder]

Hi Ben,
IMO I would keep with your daily routine. Once you start messing with water parameters they are always different than the day prior which will stress all of your fish out. Just keep doing what you are doing if all is well. I have tried to experiment with my water as well and in the end my heckles didn't appreciate anything I tried to do. They got dark and decided to hide. I was trying to lower my pH to the recommended 5.0 range using RO water but all that did was really clear my water up in the tank which is a good thing but the discus hated me for it. I went back to half RO water to half tap water and it's working great. All of my wilds got there beautiful colors back, the chasing around of eachother started up again nicely AND they started coming to the front of the tank when they got hungry. They also did there foraging for food between feedings like they should be doing. Everything in my 150 is great! It's all due to staying in a routine. I do a 30-40% water change everyday. There are a couple pictures and I think some video footage on Andy & I's website of the wilds, check it out.

www.backyarddiscusllc.com

Good luck with your wilds!!! Gimme a shout if you need any advice.

[bavaria36]

I have 11 Heckels in a 120 gallon and I use 50/50 RO water mix. I change 40% every day and do not mess with the water parameters. I just check that the water in the aging barrel has the basic parameters I expect for PH, TDS and Temp just before I carry out the WC.


The TDS out of the tap is pretty high ( around 300 ppm ) as is the PH ( around 7.5) but the fish seem to be doing just fine. They are always at the front of the tank, feed well and do not look stressed at all.

It may be beneficial to have lower TDS and PH but I think that it is more important to simply have stable parameters and to perform many WC's.

Aaron

[Eddie]

I have 2 Heckels in my tank, along with 6 hybrids and they love life, even think they are pairing up. Their colors are really coming out! I use pure tap water, and the PH is around 6.8-7.0. I don't even worry about the rest.

Eddie

[benn2311]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the reply's.I am of the same thinking that water quality is the paramount priority for the fish.Although perfect natural water conditions would be great to produce the ph isn't at the extreme of malawi keeping and the fish i have are doing well in my conditions.I just dont want to start messing about with additives and the possibility of making mistakes therein.