Help with R/O water

[scruffy89801]

I have been reading a ton of posts on water quality and things on PH shock. I understand I do not have to use R/O water but I am. I treat my water with Kent's RO right. I recently read the PH shock is not as important as GH/KH. I check my TDS in my discus tank is around 300 and my water for my water change is 60 after adding RO right. My GH/KH is very low in my new water while the water in discus tank is quite high. Is this normal or what should I do. Please help. I love my discus and do not want to loose them. They are my babies:confused:

[rickztahone]

Ah, I see you found the water works section. First, let me ask you, have you tested your tap water? If so, what are your parameters? Are you interested in breeding?

[scruffy89801]

I tested my tap water TDS 420 KH 179 my GH was off the scale. I am using API test kit it stops at 12 drops it took 15 to get the reading 12 drops is 214. They are young but I would like to bread them at some time

[rickztahone]

your tds certainly is up there. I probably would recommend to keep the RO. The reason I asked if you would be breeding is because most people can simply use tap water to raise discus and only switch to RO when ready to breed. I believe you may be one of the ones that needs an RO unit though. With that being said, I've never had an RO unit and wouldn't know what numbers to aim for. I will bump this up for you and hopefully someone else can tell you what to aim for.

[scruffy89801]

Thanks for trying to help

[John_Nicholson]

Have you tried your fish with your tap water? I use ro mix for my breeders and ro waste water for my growouts. While your water seems pretty hard unless you are breeding I bet it would be fine for your fish.

-john

[scruffy89801]

Where should my gh/kg be at? I do a 25% water change about every 3 days. Is the difference between my tank water and my water I am using to big of a difference to cause a problem? The discus seem to be doing fine after I do the water change. If it is an issue is it something I would see immediately or is it a long term thing? How would I determine how much tap water to add to my RO water? Sorry for sounding like a dummy.

[rickztahone]

Where should my gh/kg be at? I do a 25% water change about every 3 days. Is the difference between my tank water and my water I am using to big of a difference to cause a problem? The discus seem to be doing fine after I do the water change. If it is an issue is it something I would see immediately or is it a long term thing? How would I determine how much tap water to add to my RO water? Sorry for sounding like a dummy.

25% WC in 3 days isn't much really. Many here are doing daily water changes of 50% or more on grow out discus. With adults you can go longer without doing water changes but still have to do them.

[scruffy89801]

So do you think I am ok with what I am doing or should I do something else? My discus are about the size of a silver dollar

[John_Nicholson]

I would ditch the ro for now and just do large daily water changes with aged water.

-john

[scruffy89801]

The problem is I only have storage of 20 gallons to age the water so I would be unable to do it every day. Wouldn't going over to tap water shock them?

[rickztahone]

The problem is I only have storage of 20 gallons to age the water so I would be unable to do it every day. Wouldn't going over to tap water shock them?

Do you happen to know if your pH has a swing or is it stable after 24hrs?

[scruffy89801]

I am not sure. I do use straight tap water in my 40 gal. which I have angels in it and I don't see a problem with them. I don't age my water for them but I do understand discus are more sensitive to it than angels are

[rickztahone]

If you do not have a huge pH swing in your water then you should be fine with straight tap water. I'd test that first.

[scruffy89801]

Do a ph test now and let is set for 24 hrs and test it again?

[scruffy89801]

Also if I go to tap water what do I treat the water with? I use API tap water conditioner and Fluval biological enhancer for my angels.

[rickztahone]

Yes, test today, test tomorrow at same time and see if it's the same. For water conditioner, but some prime powder called SAFE. best bang for buck

[scruffy89801]

So yesterday PH was 8.0 today 8.6. TDS 554 yesterday 454 today

[scruffy89801]

I did test my water. The PH was 8.0 and TDS 554. After 24hrs PH was at 8.6 and TDS 454

[limige]

Tds shouldn't change. Curious why yours did.

Ive been working with a pair of discus and angels. I have such high calcium I had to go to full RO with RO right to get eggs to hatch. Ive had my ph bouncing around and the discus have been fine. Talking ph between 6 dropping to 5. Now my angels have been skittish and not laying eggs.

So I purchased some nuetralizer and discus buffer. I add some of each and now I have a stable 6.1 and my angels immediately put down eggs.

I would suggest aging your water but I suspect they will be fine even if you don't. I think keeping the nitrates down is more important.

My grow outs use straight well. I am having issues with calcium build up on the tank walls.

[scruffy89801]

What neutralizer do you use? I assume you are using it with R/O water.

[limige]

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/DiscusBuffer.html

[scruffy89801]

Thanks for all the help. I am now still using R/O water and R/O right but I am now adding Kent pH stable and proper pH 7.0. I have tested the pH and is at 7.0 my Gh and Kh both are at 70. How does those numbers sound?