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Thread: water quality in Dallas, Texas

  1. #1
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    Default water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Wanting to see what everyone thinks of the quality of water in Dallas Texas. I tried to search and didn't see anyone who had posted and or commented about Dallas water.

    From what I can gather it is better than not. I am thinking about going from RO (bought from fish store) to tap water.

    Thanks!

    https://dallascityhall.com/departmen...QR2021_eng.pdf

  2. #2
    Silver Member Willie's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    John Nicholson, who used to post here, raised tons of discus and fry right outside of Dallas. No R/O. Just conditioned water and 100% daily water changes.
    At my age, everything is irritating.

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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    I bought my discus from a breeder, Dallas Discus, in Garland Texas, which is neighboring city and I know they only use tap water. I believe his name is John so probably same person?

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    Silver Member Willie's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Could be. You should just ask him for advice.
    At my age, everything is irritating.

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    Registered Member pastry's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Man, John drove me nuts at first, but then ended up loving him. Learned some good stuff off of him. If I were within reasonable driving distance, I'd totally track him down!
    -Elliot

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    Registered Member smsimcik's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    I lived and worked in Dallas for 32 years before retiring to Waco. I successfully raised and bred discus, angelfish, cories, and a few other supposedly soft water fish in Dallas tap water with no problem. The pair in my avatar was raised from babies to breeding adults in Dallas tap water. Dallas water was usually in the 130ppm TDS range and around 6.8ph out of the tap and stayed pretty stable even without aging. I never had to use R.O. water to breed my discus. I bred both German and Asian in plain tap water. I might have had larger spawns if I had used some R.O. water, but I still had plenty of babies.

    I made several trips out to see John Nicholsons' fish house. He lived in Caddo Mills which is about 45 mins northeast of Dallas. He was not on Dallas water. I think he said the water in Caddo Mills was some type of treated well water. It was not as good as Dallas water. I know for a fact he had to use 50/50 R.O. water for his breeders. He used the waste from his R.O. system to do water changes on his fry tanks. John sold his place in Caddo Mills along with all his fish and moved to his family farm property in Fruitvale Texas about 5 years ago. Fruitvale is even further from Dallas than Caddo Mills. He had to build a house for his family before he could even think about rebuilding another fish house. As far as I know, he still hasn't rebuilt a new fish house. I haven't talked to him in a while so I may be wrong. If you want to try and contact him, he has a Facebook page and he posts occasionally on the Simply Discus Facebook page.

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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    It was a different person named John.

    I did hear back from him and he "ages" his tap water (Garland, Texas) in a barrel with aeration for a few days and that is it; no chemicals used. He has some wonderful discus at good prices. Dozens of tanks so he knows what he is doing and so the water quality is working for him just fine.

  8. #8
    Registered Member 0Dgreen's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Haven't kept discus in a couple years, But, when I did a couple years back (I've been in Dallas about 7yrs now). I would age my tap....I would say in the spring/summer months you could get away with not aging the water (at least with Adult discus). But, in the winter, I would highly recommend aging.
    Mike

  9. #9
    Registered Member 0Dgreen's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Also, I have a nice water storage solution (you can kind of see a shot of it in this thread http://http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?132955-0D-s-Discus-Startup-Contest-Thread/page3 It's been in storage since getting away from discus...if your interested let me know.

    -Cheers!-
    Mike

  10. #10
    Registered Member GeauxDiscus's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Quote Originally Posted by Prickly Pete View Post
    It was a different person named John.

    I did hear back from him and he "ages" his tap water (Garland, Texas) in a barrel with aeration for a few days and that is it; no chemicals used. He has some wonderful discus at good prices. Dozens of tanks so he knows what he is doing and so the water quality is working for him just fine.
    Yeah, definitely a different guy. John in Garland is a super nice old Asian guy, and John in Caddo is a cranky old red-neck. (But also super nice - LOL!) I live in Frisco and lived in and kept discus in Carrollton for a long time, and haven't had any problems. The water is super hard, but as long as you don't tinker with it too much and keep it stable, they'll be fine. However, I would definitely use Prime, because depending on exactly where you live they may use chloramines and not regular chlorine, and chloramines won't dissipate.
    -Shane

    Discus do it bare bottom.

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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Quote Originally Posted by GeauxDiscus View Post
    Yeah, definitely a different guy. John in Garland is a super nice old Asian guy, and John in Caddo is a cranky old red-neck. (But also super nice - LOL!) I live in Frisco and lived in and kept discus in Carrollton for a long time, and haven't had any problems. The water is super hard, but as long as you don't tinker with it too much and keep it stable, they'll be fine. However, I would definitely use Prime, because depending on exactly where you live they may use chloramines and not regular chlorine, and chloramines won't dissipate.
    Yes, sounded like a different person for sure based upon comments.

    John in Garland is such a nice guy. Being in his fish "garage" is amazing! Takes me about half an hour to pick out discus because I just enjoy looking at them!

    Figure something like Prime can't hurt so will probably use that as well.

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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Is it the big cylinder shaped thing to right in one of the pics?

    Would be too big for my needs and space where I will store store/age my water. I just have a 55 gallon so I think all I will need is about 30ish gallons in terms of a storage vessel. Might just do a 29 gallon tank for convivence.

  13. #13
    Registered Member smsimcik's Avatar
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    Default Re: water quality in Dallas, Texas

    Quote Originally Posted by Prickly Pete View Post
    Is it the big cylinder shaped thing to right in one of the pics?

    Would be too big for my needs and space where I will store store/age my water. I just have a 55 gallon so I think all I will need is about 30ish gallons in terms of a storage vessel. Might just do a 29 gallon tank for convivence.
    Aging water is never a bad idea but just for the record, I never aged my Dallas water. I used it straight out of the tap just being careful to match the temperature. I never had any problems, even doing large water changes. I did get microbubbles in the winter time, but even that didn't seem to cause any real problems. I just didn't have room for any large storage tank.

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