You can save a ton of money by just mixing 35% tap into your R/O. No R/O Right needed at all. Your fish will respond much better to having more water changes than minor changes in water parameters.
Willie
Hi all,
I have some decently hard water. Here are the basic lerameters:
Ph- 6.8-7.0 out of tap, 8.2-8.4 aged 48 hours
Gh - 36 drops on api test
Kh - 20 drops on api test
Tds - 550
Given my water I’ve been using 100% ro remineralizes from 40tds to 200tds with ro right. This leaves me with a ph of around 7.2, kh of 3 and gh of 0.
It was recently recommended to me to do a ro mix to keep some of the tap minerals in the water. I’ve played around with some mixes and even with a 20% tap mix I get a ph of 8.2-8.4 with a gh of 8 and kh is 6.
So my question to the hard water keepers is do you recommend keeping with the 100% and remineralized ro or do I use a blend of some sort at a higher ph. I know there are trade offs to both methods but am curious what has worked best for everyone.
Thanks for your help
You can save a ton of money by just mixing 35% tap into your R/O. No R/O Right needed at all. Your fish will respond much better to having more water changes than minor changes in water parameters.
Willie
At my age, everything is irritating.
Unless you're breeding I'd go with straight aged tap. The hard water won't bother the Discus at all.
Mama Bear
It depends on your water source. Water from surface. From surface water it will often go up because it's the excess O2 that gasses off. That's my understanding of if.
Mama Bear
I’m in Illinois so our groundwater has a ton of limestone in it. The annoying part is I’m less than 5 miles from Lake Michigan water which here has a stable ph of 7.6 and a tds around 175. If I ever set up a fish room I’m going to need to move.
Thank you all for the help. I’ll start mixing higher tap ratios with my changes until I get it to 100%. This will make water changes a lot easier. It’s preferred to use water before the softener not afterwards correct?
Never use water from a softener for Discus.
Mama Bear