Water quality

[npaul65]

I am new to discus keeping. I want to know do i need to use r/o water and in what ratio with the tap water. If no use of r/o then how do i control phosphate, nitrate and heavy metals in water.

thanks

[BrendanJ23]

Hi Paul and welcome to SD!
You're in the right place. Please make yourself familiar with the beginners section.

The short answer is no, you don't need to use R/O water, BUT this will depend on what your tap water parameters are like. If you can test them and post them here, we will be able to advise further.

[npaul65]

Hi Paul and welcome to SD!
You're in the right place. Please make yourself familiar with the beginners section.

The short answer is no, you don't need to use R/O water, BUT this will depend on what your tap water parameters are like. If you can test them and post them here, we will be able to advise further.

Hey Brendan thanks for the advice. Right now I am trying to grasp everything as much as possible . When i will be ready to plunge the dive I surely will post my tap water parameters here.

thanks

[peewee1]

Hey Brendan thanks for the advice. Right now I am trying to grasp everything as much as possible . When i will be ready to plunge the dive I surely will post my tap water parameters here.

thanks

A good idea to test the tap water if you are going to use tap water. I still don't know what an RO is or does after keeping Discus for years. Here is how simple it is for me. Once a day I siphon about 5% from the tank into a bucket. Dump the water, refill the bucket with tap water, test the temperature of that water with my finger, add the Prime, and then pour that water into the tank. The fish see this as a feeding opportunity and come flying to the spot where the new water came in. I think this water change takes me about 5 minutes so I do it during commercial break from my favorite Fox TV news program.

[npaul65]

A good idea to test the tap water if you are going to use tap water. I still don't know what an RO is or does after keeping Discus for years. Here is how simple it is for me. Once a day I siphon about 5% from the tank into a bucket. Dump the water, refill the bucket with tap water, test the temperature of that water with my finger, add the Prime, and then pour that water into the tank. The fish see this as a feeding opportunity and come flying to the spot where the new water came in. I think this water change takes me about 5 minutes so I do it during commercial break from my favorite Fox TV news program.

Hey Branden thanks for the reply. R/O unit is reverse osmosis unit to make pure water, reef hobbyist or saltwater people use it to make water suitable for their tank.
However I like your idea and I will start with that.

thanks

Paul

[ericthemantis]

how do i control phosphate, nitrate and heavy metals in water.

Do you have phosphate, nitrate, and heavy metals in your tap water that you are trying to control? If you are on municipal water, there should be a water quality report you can check to see what is in your tap water. If you are on a well, or want a more specific report for your home, you can get your water tested.

Don't do the Home Depot "free" water test. We tried that a few years ago and all they tell you is "you have bad water, you need one of our water treatment systems to make it suitable for drinking" and tried to schedule an in-home visit with a salesperson. They don't give you any real results for free, just a 3rd party marketing ploy.

[peewee1]

Hey Branden thanks for the reply. R/O unit is reverse osmosis unit to make pure water, reef hobbyist or saltwater people use it to make water suitable for their tank.
However I like your idea and I will start with that.

thanks

Paul

Paul, I have kept Discus going back to living in two different cities which have two different water systems. I knew that when I bought my fish they have lived in at least three different water chemistries. The breeder in Asia, the wholesaler, and then me. None of those water balances are the same and yet the fish seem to quickly adapt to them all. It turned out that my tap water is acceptable for my fish to thrive in. Above all the water changing is upmost important. My fish seem to do okay with around 100% per week spread out over 7 days. I suspect that I horrify others with this approach but I too am the guy who is not afraid to bend the 1 fish to 10 gallons rule and go with 1 fish to 5 gallons or 1 fish to 7 gallons. This seems to work for me, but maybe not someone else. Water change, lots of good filtration, and good aeration along with the right foods. Don't forget Prime which I mix first with the new water before I add the water to the tank.

[Iminit]

Peewee1 all you do is a 5%water change? Or did you mean 50%?

Paul do you keep fish now? Or are Discus your first attempt into fishkeeping? As to your tap you may have to contact your provider to see what’s in it. Also your lfs should know. If your water is not well water it probably only needs to be aged. I use an under counter water filter to filter my tap water. It removes chlorine,some minerals and heavy metals. With an api test kit you can test your tap water.

[peewee1]

Peewee1 all you do is a 5%water change? Or did you mean 50%?

Paul do you keep fish now? Or are Discus your first attempt into fishkeeping? As to your tap you may have to contact your provider to see what’s in it. Also your lfs should know. If your water is not well water it probably only needs to be aged. I use an under counter water filter to filter my tap water. It removes chlorine,some minerals and heavy metals. With an api test kit you can test your tap water.

Thanks, Tom, I missed a 1. Fifteen percent per day works out to about 100% per week.

[npaul65]

Hi

before that I was in reef keeping so I have fairly good idea of water parameters. The only thing I was wondering people who keep discus does not use R/O unit to make pure warer.

thanks

Paul

[bluelagoon]

Thanks, Tom, I missed a 1. Fifteen percent per day works out to about 100% per week.

How do you equate that? You well never get a 100% WC in a week. Not when 85% is dirty water. It will never happen. I need to see the math first to believe that. You have been lucky if that is all the water you change.

[bluelagoon]

Hi

before that I was in reef keeping so I have fairly good idea of water parameters. The only thing I was wondering people who keep discus does not use R/O unit to make pure warer.

thanks

Paul

Some folks need RO water especially if they live near a farm which might contain nitrates or if your water is too hard and you want to breed. Would be two examples. Not the same as a SW tank; I've had a SW set and I see why you asked. Most use a mix of RO and tap. RO you need to add back minerals.

[Saguaro]

How do you equate that? You well never get a 100% WC in a week. Not when 85% is dirty water. It will never happen. I need to see the math first to believe that. You have been lucky if that is all the water you change.

Let me bud in
Lets say he has a 100g tank, and changes 15% a day for a week, thats 7x15=105 (round up to 100%). So his fish get 100g of fresh water in a week. Or you can change 100% once a week and again give the fish 100g of fresh water in a week. I get what you mean and are trying to say but you have too keep the same parameters in mind=ammount of fresh water being added to a tank in a week, and not percentage of waste water removed compared to the prevoius day. Sorry, its hard for me to explain it in english but his example is right. I would also argue that the way he does it is actually much better for the fish since he removes waste on a daily basis (automatically lover pollution) and its less of a shock for the fish because the paramaters hardly change

[peewee1]

Let me bud in
Lets say he has a 100g tank, and changes 15% a day for a week, thats 7x15=105 (round up to 100%). So his fish get 100g of fresh water in a week. Or you can change 100% once a week and again give the fish 100g of fresh water in a week. I get what you mean and are trying to say but you have too keep the same parameters in mind=amount of fresh water being added to a tank in a week, and not percentage of waste water removed compared to the prevoius day. Sorry, its hard for me to explain it in english but his example is right. I would also argue that the way he does it is actually much better for the fish since he removes waste on a daily basis (automatically lover pollution) and its less of a shock for the fish because the parameters hardly change

The percents, be they 15% or 50%, are the same percents of change. A 50% change daily is also a mixture of old and new water so in Blue's question a 50% change is not truly 50% either. My 15% is 15% change of old/new water whereas someone else may change 50% of old/new water. And, yes, the smaller yet consistent change is less noticed by the fish which in turn would place them under less stress during each daily change.

[dspeers]

It does not immediately intuitively make sense but in fact your max concentration of a given contaminant is the same for any given period of time if the total volume of water is the same regardless of frequency. For lower interval volumes and higher frequency the area under the curve is higher as the lowest and highest levels of a given contaminant approach equal values, and in fact are equal in a continuous drip system. For instance if you change 50% every 5 days and your daily production of whatever is 0.5x/liter, your max steady state concentration will always be slightly less than 5x/liter and minimum just after water change will be slightly less than 2.5. This reaches stability in about 10 weeks. If you change 10% every day your max concentration will again be slightly < 5, but your minimum slightly < 4.5. I can e-mail you the XL SS if you want to check the math. I did this as I am planning on using the apex system to do auto water changes and the max flow of that system is 1.3 gal/hour, on a 150 gal tank limits me to 20%/d run continuously. Also the calculation is: Max concentration=daily production x water change interval in # of days x 1/fraction of water changed (e.g. 50%=0.50). Note that as frequency goes up, the values of both good and bad things both come closer together, so pH, ORP, TDS gH, kH etc. also are more stable.