ro/well water mix

[Jason K.]

hey out their this is my first post, i'm new to the discus community currenty own three all juvies, the first two i purchased are very healthy and active, the third, i beleive to be a red snakeskin? has not eaten since i got him last week, i suspect he has ich since he is showing little salt looking granuales on parts of his body i have removed him from my community tank and am treating him in a 10 gallon.anyhow on another note i was wondering if anyone has expeince mixing ro water to well water, i have a well that produces very hard water gh around 250-300 guessing bucause their strip tests kh in the same range ph 8.4+, i've been using ro water from the store to get the levels within range community tank is corrently at gh 75-100 kh 80-120 ph 7.4-7.6 i have now purchased my own ro system and have been told to not use straight ro water that it should be mixed with the well water some have said 50-50- others 80-20 or more, can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Moon]

I have well water similar to yours. I use well water to grow out all my discus including new spawns. I use RO water for my breeders and Heckels. The breeders get RO just before spawning. When the eggs hatch and the fry go free swimming they get well water. I am trying to get Heckels to spawn that is the reason for soft water.
HTH

[Mr Wild]

I have learnt from experience that nothing lives long in ro water on its own, trace elements and minerals need to be present for the fish to utilise them to live a happy healthy life. PM avionics he is a wizz at this and really helped me out!!!

[Jason K.]

I have well water similar to yours. I use well water to grow out all my discus including new spawns. I use RO water for my breeders and Heckels. The breeders get RO just before spawning. When the eggs hatch and the fry go free swimming they get well water. I am trying to get Heckels to spawn that is the reason for soft water.
HTH

so are you saying that i should not mix the warter at all. the store near me in milwaukee, tells me i can't use straight well water from my area, if i were getting city water from lake michigan, which is treated would be another story?

[Chad Hughes]

I have learnt from experience that nothing lives long in ro water on its own, trace elements and minerals need to be present for the fish to utilise them to live a happy healthy life. PM avionics he is a wizz at this and really helped me out!!!

Hey Kath,

I just read this as well, so I'll reply here. Thanks for the reference though! ;)


hey out their this is my first post, i'm new to the discus community currenty own three all juvies, the first two i purchased are very healthy and active, the third, i beleive to be a red snakeskin? has not eaten since i got him last week, i suspect he has ich since he is showing little salt looking granuales on parts of his body i have removed him from my community tank and am treating him in a 10 gallon.anyhow on another note i was wondering if anyone has expeince mixing ro water to well water, i have a well that produces very hard water gh around 250-300 guessing bucause their strip tests kh in the same range ph 8.4+, i've been using ro water from the store to get the levels within range community tank is corrently at gh 75-100 kh 80-120 ph 7.4-7.6 i have now purchased my own ro system and have been told to not use straight ro water that it should be mixed with the well water some have said 50-50- others 80-20 or more, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Welcome to SD! I'm sure you'll love this site and find it to be a bottomless resource of information and support.

To answer your questions.....

Your Ich issue, as with most discus ailments, is likely stress related. It could be due to your water or other factors that cause the discus to feel uncomfortable. If your temperatures are not already close to 90 F, I'd make that the first move. Ich typically does very poorly at this temperature.

As for your water, I have hard water as well. I live in San Diego and our water has a KH of about 150 ppm and the GH is about 300 ppm with a TDS well above 600 ppm. If the breeder that you bought your discus from claims that they were raised in tap water, I would find out what their water perameters were. If their tap was soft and yours was hard it might be a bit for your new guy to adjust to. There may be other things that are unknown as well. Now that you have the RO unit, you need to play with the mixing to see what combination of tap/RO gets you the best tank water. I use a 120 gallon mixing barrel. I mix 10 gallons of tap to 110 gallons of RO. Your mix may be different. Something else that I like to do is filter the tap water through a carbon block filter prior to adding it to your RO water, just in case there is something in the tap that would contaminate the RO. That's just an extra security measure that I use but is not necessary. Your call.

So, what I do when I have an issues is correct the stuff that I know is not right first and see how that impacts things. You say that this little guy has Ich and you have him in a 10 gallon tank. I would add one tablespoon of aquarium salt to the tank and bring the temperature to 90. If you change any of the water, be sure to replace the salt that you took out. This should quickly get rid of the Ich. If you can, I would leave him in there for further observation even after the Ich is gone. There may be other issues that you don't see right now. If he loses the Ich and regains appetite and normal behavior, then he could be ready to return to the main tank. It's going to be a judgement call on your part.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes!

[Jason K.]

I have learnt from experience that nothing lives long in ro water on its own, trace elements and minerals need to be present for the fish to utilise them to live a happy healthy life. PM avionics he is a wizz at this and really helped me out!!!

thanks for your imput, maybe you can also tell me about your water changing regiment im currently changing the water daily 10 gallons in a 40 gallon tank, i now it's a small tank but so are the fish right now i'm still debating on which of my others i want to permently keep them in i have a 55 and a 75 gallon also which now house tanganican's in the 55 and malawi's in the 75 my guess is i will put the calvis' in the 40 and the discus' in the 55, but since im new to discus im not making any sudden decisions, if all goes well with these little guys the 75 is gonna be the tank. you also mentioned PM avcionics, is this a member? and may i contact him?

[Mr Wild]

Yes, he is a member and I see he has already commented, just ask more question Chad (avionics) is very kind and helpful.

[Mr Wild]

oops were you asking me about water changes?