R/O water

[nomad]

Hello.
can anyone please tell me the ratio of R/O water and aged water for my discus?
My R/O is at 3 TDS and my tap water is 140 TDS. straight R/O is Not good?

[pcsb23]

If you wish to use RO water then I'd start with a ratio of 50/50.

Reason I said "IF" is because I don't think you may need RO. A TDS of around 140 is fine for most discus, many even breed in this hardness of water. Only reason to be using RO is if the source water has something in it that cannot be removed with ageing or water conditioner such as very high nitrates or phosphates. If that is the case then using aged tap to re mineralise is counter productive, re-min salts would be better. Hope that makes sense, btw I use only re-mineralised RO water for all my discus (and Altums).

Welcome on board too.

[nomad]

thanx for the info, I just cant age enough water to keep up. I just bought 2 75gal tanks, 2 55gal tanks, and 6 29gal tanks. I only have room for 1 55 gallon water barrel. I have been doing 25% tap and 75% R/O. I was hoping that was fine. my R/O unit puts out 200 gpd and is quick and easy. I will look into how to re-mineralise my R/O water.

Link to my set up. real tight on room.

s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p532/nomadsdiscus

[nomad]

I forgot to add, My town is doing major work on the water mains. My street is torn up for 1 mile due to them replacing main pipes.

[BobDaniel]

Nomad, you may want to run all your water through a bed of activated carbon if you use any tap water during the construction period.

[nomad]

Nomad, you may want to run all your water through a bed of activated carbon if you use any tap water during the construction period.

I lost 25 jumbo piranha's around 20 years ago. I did a water change before work, All dead when I got home. water mains were being replaced at the time in that town. scary thing is i used that water to make coffie that morning. plus who knows how many other people did drink it. that one hurt, raised them all from fry out one single lost. to loosing them all at once like that.

[BobDaniel]

A lot of times the water company will say they meet EPA requirements for people. It concerns me what might be "Okay" for people kills fish. I will argue from an environmental standpoint the regulations need to be reevaluated and perhaps tightened. Sometimes toxicity doesn't manifest itself for many years.

[shoveltrash]

I had to laugh, because if I could get away with NOT using RO, I would. I'd LOVE to have tap TDS of 140!!!!
<wistful sigh>

I lost 25 jumbo piranha's around 20 years ago.

that is a nightmare scenario, wow. I guess you never know, with water companies.

as it is, with my cr@p well water, I use only remineralized RO - and aim for TDS slightly lower than your tap LOL. good luck & welcome to SD!

[nomad]

Thanx for the info. I decided to go re-mineralised RO.
2 reasons,
1. I can produce R/O water faster then ageing it.
2. Major construction on the pipes in my town at this time.

Thanx again

[shoveltrash]

nomad - of note, I age my RO water......there must be dissolved CO2 bubbles in it, because there is a significant pH change pre & post ageing/aerating. you may not have this issue, but do test your pH . after age/aeration my RO water is 7.0. before, it is at least a point lower!
keep us updated!

[nomad]

nomad - of note, I age my RO water......there must be dissolved CO2 bubbles in it, because there is a significant pH change pre & post ageing/aerating. you may not have this issue, but do test your pH . after age/aeration my RO water is 7.0. before, it is at least a point lower!
keep us updated!

Thanx for the heads up on that. yea my R/O only gets around 6 hours ageing. I do have heavy aeration going on. wow I hope 6 hours of it is enough. I will update after i test pre and post ageing. thank you for pointing that out.

[nomad]

nomad - of note, I age my RO water......there must be dissolved CO2 bubbles in it, because there is a significant pH change pre & post ageing/aerating. you may not have this issue, but do test your pH . after age/aeration my RO water is 7.0. before, it is at least a point lower!
keep us updated!

Shoveltrash. Thanx for your help man. Heres what I got going, Im now useing a product called (Kent R/O right) to remineralise my R/O water. Its giving me a stable PH of 6.4

[shoveltrash]

sounds good! I too use RO Right. however I haven't test pH in months & months - I simply test TDS, which imho is a more accurate assessment. breeders keep their TDS low, but I keep mine 100-120.