RO water/aged water......necessary?

[kim68048]

Hi!
I am researching your site trying to learn about keeping discus fish. I have a 55 gallon tank that I would like to set up for discus. My LFS told me I should use RO water that I can purchase from him. That would involve hauling a lot of heavy water.....not sure I want to do that. I am also reading here that I should age my water in a barrel. I don't know if I have the room for a large barrel in my small house. Quite honestly I'm getting a bit confused. Am I able to just treat my tap water for the chlorine and use it? The more I read on water the more confused I get and the more I wonder if discus fish are really an option for me. Thanks in advance for any help! :wave:

[ref0716]

Confusing issue for sure. I'll tell you what works for me. I have very soft well water that has a pH of 7.0 and no chlorine. I routinely change up to 80% simply by using a python to mix hot and cold faucets to the right temperature, and then directly to the tank. This is the routine for pairs, fry, juvies and display tank adults. I believe that lots of clean water is of great importance, and minor changes in pH receive way too much attention. Just my opinion. Hope this helps.
Richard

[xxbenjamminxx]

It all depends on the water you have to tell the truth. If you water is fairly clean and not wildy off whack with normal water you should be just fine for raising/growing out juvies and keeping adults. If on the other hand you have some hard water and your intentions are that of breeding then it is recommended to use RO/Tap mix to acheive a TDS of around 50 to 100.

On the other hand if you have bad water (known bacteria, not safe to drink, comes out like orange goop) then yes you will need to use clean water. As far as aging, if you have no or very little microbubbles when filling the tank and the PH doesnt fluctuate more then 0.5 of a point then your good to go right from the tap, on the other hand if you have lots of bubbles or your waters tests at 7.2 out of the tap and then tests like 8 after sitting out being aerated for 24hours then yes you need to age it before hand. I feel if you have the room you should age it no matter what your water is like to be safe but to each his own. Do some looking around in the water works subforum here and you be blessed with days upon days of reading about this subject.

[buddha1200]

I just run water out of tap[my tap is very stable at7.6]at the same tempurature and just declorinate the entire tank.
Never had a problem.

[gwrace]

We are on a private well and had unpredictable results when doing water changes. I lost several discus until we figured out what the problem was. We ended up installing an RO unit that is fed by our water softener. We use two rubbermaid water storage barrels to age the water. These have automatic float valves on them so the barrels autofill from the RO unit as the water is used. We then remineralize the RO water to whatever hardness and PH we want. The water comes out of the RO unit a consistent neutral PH but starts out rock hard and PH that is off the scale. We've had no fish losses since we made these changes.

[Poco]

Kim,

Welcome to SD!

First of all just check the water which is coming out of you tap for pH. Let it sit in a bowl for 24hrs with some aeration running through it. Now test for pH again if it has changed a lot then you might be needing a barrel to age the water. Barrels are not very expensive you can get 50/60 gallon for 30/40 bucks.

RO soft water is mostly used for breeding. Initially I don't think you will need it.

[walt3]

i do like buddha! been working for over 1 year and super simple. check water first and if it seems ok, dont over think it. have fun.

[Coffee1stLife2nd]

sorry to jump in,, so if you age water for over 24 hours do you still have to add prime or safe?

[Orange Crush]

sorry to jump in,, so if you age water for over 24 hours do you still have to add prime or safe?
Yes! The aging is to stablize the pH from the water containg CO2. After 24 hrs the CO2 has dissipated and the pH will remain stable then. Also aging eliminates the microbubbles.
Many water companies now use chloramines rather than chlorine because it stays in the water much long so it is more cost effective. Aging does not eliminate chloramines. So you still need to treat with water cond.
In fact I always thing you should treat with water cond to be safe. I use Prime

[MrYin]

im gonna suggest that you age your water in some rubbermaid trash cans or something like that. ive heard too many stories of cities running wierd chems through the water system to do clean outs and such. i know from experience that if you just so happen to do a wc that day they are running strong chems and dont age it could very likely be fatal for your fish....saltwater and freshwater. i would let that water age over night dude

[kim68048]

Thanks everyone for your replies!! So do I understand correctly that most suggest I should at least age the water? Just want to make sure I understand : ) I don't need R/O unless breeding (which I don't plan on).....my tap water should be OK if the pH is stable after 24 hours and if I age it.....

[brianyam]

From my experience, you don't need RO or age water. Tap water with Prime (water conditioner) is fine. Your PH won't change that much. Fish are fine with PH within a range, and stays stable. Your tap water will likely not drop from say 7.5 to 6, so no point of aging. Sometimes less is more. Much easier on your time as well. As long as your tank is cycled well, with good filteration, clean up the poo...you are good to go.

[brianyam]

Frankly, if there is any chemicals or weird stuff in the water, aging won't do anything anyways. There is small amount of everything in water, including pain killers as people piss it all out. Don't worry.

Your fish are more likely going to die from something else, like a power outage than any chemicals in the water.

I'd recommend to start from tap water with Prime, and go from there.

[MrYin]

Frankly, if there is any chemicals or weird stuff in the water, aging won't do anything anyways. There is small amount of everything in water, including pain killers as people piss it all out. Don't worry.

Your fish are more likely going to die from something else, like a power outage than any chemicals in the water.

I'd recommend to start from tap water with Prime, and go from there.


the water in canada must be lovely. i cant even drink my tap without tasting chems. i age water 24 hours with prime and never had a loss from poor water quality. that 24 hours is long enough to stabilize the water and get the temp right. it makes a difference where i live.

[MrYin]

Thanks everyone for your replies!! So do I understand correctly that most suggest I should at least age the water? Just want to make sure I understand : ) I don't need R/O unless breeding (which I don't plan on).....my tap water should be OK if the pH is stable after 24 hours and if I age it.....

water container of some sort, heater, and air stone with prime. cant go wrong with it

[Orange Crush]

From my experience, you don't need RO or age water. Tap water with Prime (water conditioner) is fine. Your PH won't change that much. Fish are fine with PH within a range, and stays stable. Your tap water will likely not drop from say 7.5 to 6, so no point of aging. Sometimes less is more. Much easier on your time as well. As long as your tank is cycled well, with good filteration, clean up the poo...you are good to go.
There is more reasons to age water then pH stability.

[brianyam]

You can taste chemicals? You can control temp using your tap.aging won't take out chemicals.

[brianyam]

Orange crush....I know ur worried about micro bubbles....but in my experience there is no need to worry. I use to have a 300g tank. I know guys with 1000g tanks. No one ages water it is not practical. Trust me, if there was prime 30 Years ago no one would be talking about aging now. By product of the 1970/1980s. I have a friend who works for an aquarium in Japan, they don't age water.

By a power generator, your fish will likely die from a power outage than micro bubbles from the water change.

[MrYin]

You can taste chemicals? You can control temp using your tap.aging won't take out chemicals.

Aging is deifanetly a preference and I'm gonna stick with it. Doesn't hurt to take that extra precaution

[Orange Crush]

Aging is deifanetly a preference and I'm gonna stick with it. Doesn't hurt to take that extra precaution
+1

[warblad79]

Aging water + Prime is more safer method so I'll stick with it. I notice that straight tap are stressing my fish.

[kim68048]

Thanks everyone! So I now have a container that will work for aging water. I ordered a heater & Prime and will aerate. Getting excited : )

[MrYin]

I bought a submersible pump from tractor supply that speeds up my wc greatly. It was about $100 but so worth it

[Eddie]

Thanks everyone! So I now have a container that will work for aging water. I ordered a heater & Prime and will aerate. Getting excited : )

Next time get Safe instead or Prime, its the concentrated powder form of Prime and a small container will last a lifetime, depending on your water change requirements. :)

And yeah, definitely age. You'll find many people try to avoid it, its a tried and true method of success. An argument we can go over and over.

[MrYin]

I'll have to try Safe. I've been usin prime since I started keeping discus. I've been very successful with prime but i go through it so fast

[MrYin]

Next time get Safe instead or Prime, its the concentrated powder form of Prime and a small container will last a lifetime, depending on your water change requirements. :)

And yeah, definitely age. You'll find many people try to avoid it, its a tried and true method of success. An argument we can go over and over.

Who makes safe? I'm running outta prime and it's time to buy

[TURQ64]

Seachem makes both of them

[MrYin]

Thanks I'll look into it

[boscobear]

My Discus tell me what is best. I use to fill my 100 gallon reservoir with tap, check for temperature, treat with prime, test parameters, and use a transfer pump to fill the syphoned aquarium. Discus would suck water through their mouth rapidly after a WC. Then I started aging the water for a few days, and treating, warming, and testing. The discus have no respiration distress at all now after a WC. I changed to this water aging method nearly a year ago. Fish are happy as all hell.

[Kal-El]

I use my spare 65 gallon tank as well as a 32 gallon Rubbermaid heavy duty trash bin to age water for my 75 gallon main tank and 30 gallon Juvie tank. Never had any issue with water PH and my fish are always happy. I recommend aging your water and priming it.

[shoveltrash]

heck, I age my RO water! I reconstitute with RO Right......at first I wondered why the tank pH was high, and the RO water was low (what was going on????). then aged the RO water and realized that there must be dissolved CO2, which caused the change. fish are much happier now!!!!

[kim68048]

Thanks everyone : )