Well Water issues

Hello, I am brand new here and just getting started with Discus.
We have a well and it does not produce high quality water (we don’t drink it)
Nitrate levels are usually around 20 straight from the tap. It’s frustrating doing water changes on our other tanks (mostly African cichlids) knowing that I’m putting that amount of nitrates right back in the tank.
We have a r/o filter that we want to use to help purify the water for water changes.
I’ve read several other posts here regarding how to prepare r/o water before using it for water changes.
Would I be better off trying to mix some tap water in with the r/o water or adding some type of buffer?? to give our fish the best water possible?
We have a heavily planted tank with co2 we want to try using for discus.
Our tap ph is around 7.0
Thanks for any advice
Joshua

I think I will try a mix of 3 parts r/o water to 1 part tap water and see how that works.

Hi Josh and welcome to SimplyDiscus. What's the TDS of your well water?
Pat

Hi Pat, I have a TDS meter coming in the mail tomorrow. I’ll update the results as soon as I test. Sorry for the noob question. Lots to learn

No need to be sorry for a noob question. We’ve all been there and ....... welcome to here. Mixing RO w well water would be the ticket. I would, however, suggest you buy the test kits for GH, KH, Nitrite, and NH3 ammonia as long as you’re getting started. Sounds like you already have a test kit for Nitrates and PH since you stated your PH is around 7.0 and your Nitrates are at 20. If not, add a PH test and NO3 test. Knowing your total water (well and RO) perimeters would be ideal for exact mixing purposes. Any of the above listed factors will affect your water + or -. It’s good you’re planning ahead of getting fish. May as well start off w a good water environment. Keep us posted.

My TDS tester came today and I was more than a bit discouraged seeing it read 474 straight from my tap. Also, I picked up a digital pH meter and tested my tap water at 7.8.

I tested some reverse osmosis water from the same tap and it read 41 TDS and a pH of 7.0.

I’ll follow up with mixing the ro water with tap water at a 50/50 ratio and see what those parameters are.

Does this seem like a logical way to go about this??

Thanks again for any advice

Also tested kh of tapwater at 10

50/50 mix or ro and tap water results:
Kh 6
Ph 7.59
TDS 284

75% ro with 25% tap results:
Kh 4
Ph 7.31
TDS 184

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joshua Boring

50/50 mix or ro and tap water results:
Kh 6
Ph 7.59
TDS 284

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Hi Josh, Start with the 50/50 mix and see how it works. Also since you are new to discus start with adults in a planted tank. If you do some research on keeping discus in a planted tank you will find it is a balancing act between the discus and the planted tank. It is not an easy place to start with discus and adults will be more forgiving.
Pat