Water

[ai823]

So my tap water is around 8 ph and tds of 320. I have a brs 7 stage 200 gpd ro/di unit with all new filters membranes and resin. I’ve been doing it as a 75/25 ro to tap water but my ph is unchanged for the most part. my tds is down to 90-100 but my ph is 7.9-8 still. I’m assuming I need to get my ph down a little bit, I was hoping the ro setup would help with that but it doesn’t seem to. What is a good starting point to shoot for on water specs and what’s my best way to get there? Any help would be appreciated.

[jeep]

Are you trying to breed your discus? If not, your regular tap water should be fine for both raising fry and maintaining adults. My ph is about the same and my TDS is 480. I only use RO when they are spawning...

RO water should produce neutral ph of 7 after aging, but it's very unstable and can easily crash. You are trying to lower ph and TDS while maintaining enough TDS to keep ph stabile, which again is great for spawning, but not really needed for discus. If your ph is still very high, have you tried checking it after 24 hours or after aging it? All water under pressure contains compressed gasses that make ph fluctuate. Aging will give you the correct value.

Discus do fine in hard water, although wilds may require softer water or may tank some time to adjust. Never chase ph. Discus require stabile ph, not low ph...

[ai823]

Yes I’m trying to breed them I have my display tank with just normal tap water been just using ro for the breeding tanks this is the setup I got started. I have a 125 gallon storage tank with a heater and Airstone and even after a few days it’s still 7.9ph and 100 tds with the 25% tap water mixed back in

[jeep]

Since your mixing your water, your ph sounds about right. The tap water you're using is buffering the ph to a semi-stabile 7.9.

I would dump the DI. It's not needed and is a waste of money to replace the resins. If the water starts smelling like sulfer or rotten eggs, the resin is exhausted. And, if you're not doing it already you can just use the RO waste water instead of using more straight tap water. I moved the carbon block over one stage and added an extra sediment filter so it's sediment>sediment>carbon. You will probably have to re-route the lines on the DI stage to be used as a supply housing and not production.

[LizStreithorst]

Wow, everything that Brian said is totally right. I dumped my DI and replaced it with another sediment filter and later added another carbon filter, as well.

Your set up is nice. I hope you have a ton of grow out space. One thing I noticed in the pic is that the surface of the water looks very still. Did you turn off anything that makes surface agitation off for the picture?

[ai823]

This is my ro setup and I also run the tap water I mix in threw a sediment filter then a carbon filter. I would use the waste water but I don’t know where to store it I’m short on room. Do you think my ph would be okay at 7.9? Or is that to high. Could I simply unhook my di portion of my setup? Excuse the mess of wires and lines I’m still getting everything setup so it’s kinda jumbled around a bit

[LizStreithorst]

Yes, take the DI out. Since you will only need RO for breeding there is no reason to make a whole batch of it all the time. When you see your pairs getting in the mood change the tap water they are in to RO. That way you won't have to be changing cartridges all the time and sending a lot of perfectly good drinking quality "waste water" down the drain.

[ai823]

I have it set up so my sump returns to the top tanks then drains to the middle then back to the sump. I have the return faced straight down so there isn’t a lot of surface agitation. Do my water specs look okay for breeding? Should I lower my mix ratio to more ro water? I’ve put alot of work into my setup just want to make sure I’m giving them everything and every chance they need to spawn.. 2 of my three pairs have been sizing up the pvc and doing weird shivers like a wave down there body

[jeep]

Always remember - You want stabile ph not low ph. Never chase it! 7.9 is just fine unless you're raising/breeding wilds.

Do I see 2 pre-filters down low? That's nice and, if so, will drastically prolong the life of your membrane. I plan on doing the same thing during my remodel. I'm frugal when it comes to discus expenses and I cut everything possible. Using tap or waste water is optional because they are 99% identical. RO wastes 2-3 gallons of water for every gallon produced, so the waste water I can't store gets pumped outside for the landscaping and garden. Water in my area is on the rise so why double up on costs between discus and garden?

Yes, if it were me I would just disconnect the DI stage. Yours will be easy since it's a separate unit. And, you can either build it into an additional RO unit down the road. Do I also see 2 membranes on the RO unit? If so you should be producing 200gpd, which means up to 600gpd waste. I use my RO unit for drinking water as well so I'm adding a remineralization cartridge to reconstitute drinking water. It will be placed in-line after the production line with a diverter valve that leads to drinking water pressure tank. If that sounds interesting to you, you could also use the DI stage as a remineralization stage by using re-fillable mineral cartridges.

[ai823]

Yes it’s a 200 gpd with 2 membranes.. I’ve been filling my storage tank 75 gallons ro then to 100 with tap. Doing 50 gallon water change every other day right now. Now you got me thinking, is the waste water that close to normal tap water? My 420 display tank is set up with a overflow in the sump I could just run the wastewater line to it and let it run threw it for a water change when I’m running the ro just so it’s not a complete waste. The two lower filters are running to my display tank..they are plumbed in after a mixing valve so the water is 84f so I ended up having to plumb the ro in to the cold side pre filters.

[jeep]

Take readings on your tap water and waste water and you'll find they are nearly identical and perfectly fine for all other fish. The main difference is tap hasn't been run through a carbon block. Saving waste water can be tricky. Since the flow is 3x the production water you can easily misjudge it or forget and have an overflow. I use 55g drums for storage, 1 for RO and 2 for waste (which is used for regular discus and grow outs). Liz has an awesome setup with large storage containers stacked on top of each other, but we aren't all lucky enough to have the space she has. My overflow of waste water is either automatically diverted outside or I just stop making RO when it's full. It's a manual process that I hope to at least make semi- automated soon. The logistics are up to you to determine what is best for your setup.

But I can tell you this, if you're serious about breeding discus then you'll want a lot more storage than you do now, lol...

[jeep]

And, you only need RO water during the actual spawning. After mine spawn I immediately switch them over to straight tap or waste...

[ai823]

A lot more water storage? How much do you think I would need? I have a couple 55 gal barrels I just don’t know where I could put them inside

[jeep]

Discus fry require very clean water and 4-6 feeding per day in order to avoid stunting and culling. I change 80% daily and sometimes 80% 2x day...

[LizStreithorst]

You need surface agitation because it results in more O2 in the water.