"Rapid" Water Aging

[SMB2]

Ok, just to complete some of the above questions, I redid the ageing barrel with the pond pump and followed it hourly. The PH went from 7.0 (tap) to 7.7 in 6hours. By 8 hours it was 7.9. I turned off the pump and the PH fell to 7.6 and it has not changed for the last several hours. So the water probably does get super saturated with O2.
BTW I leave the top off the barrel which also allows for maximum exchange.
If you try it let me know your results.

[discus6628]

My tap water would measure around 7.4. Then after 24 hours filled into the tank it would be around 8.2. It is good swing on the PH. So far fish are doing fine over 2 months. I do daily WC 50% on 100g and sump as the filtration under my stand. The tank is in living room so I have no luxury on putting barrel in the living room. May be I can consider pickup a 30g and put it under the stand. Question here would 30g (aged water) mix with 20g (not age water) use to fill up 50g into 100g, would it ready help and make the big different for discus? I would think it may. Just want to throw out this question before I start implement it.

[SMB2]

In general, for an established tank, Discus will tolerate a temporary upswing in PH compared to a drop in PH. But an upswing does have an effect om the toxicity of ammonia. Ammonia comes in two forms Ammonium (NH4+) which isn't toxic and ammonia (NH3) which is toxic. Both pH and water temperature affect how much of the toxic form of ammonia is present in your water. Higher pH and higher temp result in a higher proportion of the total ammonia being present in its toxic form (NH3). pH has the largest effect on ammonia toxicity. So if you have low pH and low temps, higher total ammonia can be present without it being as toxic as at higher pH and temps. A sudden upswing in PH can risk ammonia toxicity.

Bottom line, it is best to have no swings at all. Perhaps the question to ask is whether or not a daily aged 30gal WC is better than a mixed 50gal WC. Not sure I know the answer. You could age 18 gal in the 30 and add 12 gal tap (if I did my math right) to test it and measure the PH and see how close it is to the tank. At this proportion you would have your answer for the 50 gal mix.
Secondly as the tank becomes more established you might consider if fewer WC are needed.
In that senario you could do two aged 30 gal WC in one day twice a week (if the high agitation works for you).
A PH meter makes all this playing around a whole lot easier.

[discus6628]

I did 50% daily WC on 100g because I am still growing the frys. May be down the line I could just do 30% change which is about 30g as the same plan of getting 30g fit under stand for ageing water. Will keep this plan in mind. In term of ammonia, my reading is always 0 along with nitrite. But my nitrate always at 10ppms even when i have daily WC. This is something i don't figure out.

[SMB2]

But my nitrate always at 10ppms even when i have daily WC. This is something i don't figure out.

Check the Nitrates in your tap water. May be part of the reason. My tap is always 5-10 ppm.
If your tap Nitrates are 0 then if you want 0 for your tank, I guess larger volume WC.

I know nothing about raising young discus, other than what I read here. Feeding and watering seem to be the gold standard!

[discus6628]

Agree.. this is my first frys given by good friend to me to test the water on starting with discus. So far they are doing. I think it has to be left over food from the feed. I did cut back but still want to leave some extra food for them to ensure they have enough to eat beside sterbai and cardinal helping them at the same time. since I vacuum and wc daily, i guess i am ok. but not sure why ammonia and nitrite at zero but not nitrate. I will test nitrate again right out from the tap tonight to proof the test.

[aalbina]

Thanks Stan - this is great information. I currently have two airstones in my food grade 65 gallon aging barrel along with a heater. I'm on well water and run the water through an HMA filter before going into the aging barrel. It's good to know that greater agitation can speed up the race to equilibrium! There have been times when I needed more water but thought had to wait 24hours. I'll run some experiments myself and see if this holds true for me as well. I'll just go from two airstones to a powerhead and see how the ph reacts.

Thanks for this!

Adam

[SMB2]

Adam, please post your results here. Maybe PH at the start, 6/12/24 hrs. If you do see a PH change at 6 hrs, turn the pump off and see if it holds.
Hope it works for you.

[dirtyplants]

I have problems with RO systems the waste of water is hard for me to swallow. So I take a 55 gallon with wheels, clamp a large plant basket onto it. Fill the basket with high grade charcoal in large filter bag place egg crate cut to size in/on top of basket. Make hole to stabilize and place end of hose from tap. Turn on cold water and let the container fill forcing the water through the charcoal. When filled I turn off facet, and plug in a cheap pond pump with hose attached, run the end of the hose into the basket. I force the 55 gallon water to recirculate over and over again for a couple of hours this eliminates heavy metals, chlorine and chloramine. Then I take the hose (which was running through the charcoal) and place into a micron filter bag also clamped inside of the 55 gallon. I run that for an hour or so. Takes care of most of heavy to medium particles. I use air and do agitate water, pH will rise after this depending on how much co2 was injected by WWD. pH hmmm I have found most pH units recently of dubious qualities. All seem to read differently and am currently asking people who live and use pH meters in my state to test tap water directly from tap record it along with the instrument they used for measurement. I compare this to what the city says the pH is when released by their water department. Mineral deposits and evaporation of co2 will raise the general hardness of water by the time it reaches tap. I am at war with my city water department, :{ . Are you sure you pH unit is accurate?

[musicmarn1]

I'm still wary to use the ro unit I bought, so I'm going to try your aging filter technique! Joe gargus's book has something similar, with thaw addition of polyester filter blanket and peat if I remover it right. Been wanting to filter the water with high grade carbon before it goes into the aquarium, so ill start with this, thanks!

I have problems with RO systems the waste of water is hard for me to swallow. So I take a 55 gallon with wheels, clamp a large plant basket onto it. Fill the basket with high grade charcoal in large filter bag place egg crate cut to size in/on top of basket. Make hole to stabilize and place end of hose from tap. Turn on cold water and let the container fill forcing the water through the charcoal. When filled I turn off facet, and plug in a cheap pond pump with hose attached, run the end of the hose into the basket. I force the 55 gallon water to recirculate over and over again for a couple of hours this eliminates heavy metals, chlorine and chloramine. Then I take the hose (which was running through the charcoal) and place into a micron filter bag also clamped inside of the 55 gallon. I run that for an hour or so. Takes care of most of heavy to medium particles. I use air and do agitate water, pH will rise after this depending on how much co2 was injected by WWD. pH hmmm I have found most pH units recently of dubious qualities. All seem to read differently and am currently asking people who live and use pH meters in my state to test tap water directly from tap record it along with the instrument they used for measurement. I compare this to what the city says the pH is when released by their water department. Mineral deposits and evaporation of co2 will raise the general hardness of water by the time it reaches tap. I am at war with my city water department, :{ . Are you sure you pH unit is accurate?