Ph buffer kh up down gh up down....discus trace

[zach5187]

If I use straight ro which is where my water is most ideal except tds which is at 1ppm with my bed resin in.
The first picture is with my bed resin installed
97034
Tds was at 1
This picture is straight from my tap tds is 610tds
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Last is out of my ro with no bed resin.
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None of this water has been aged or heated.

Any helps appreciated I'd like to make it as simple as possible without adding all the extra buffers and chemicals. Tia for all the help

[zach5187]

97037
Sorry this is rite out my tap

[Dudley Eirich]

You have some high TDS. If you are trying to breed discus, I would recommend mixing about 1 part normal tap water (TDS 610) to 9 parts RO water to give you a TDS of about 60 something. That way you have some minerals to keep the discus healthy and it will help to stabilize your pH. Pure RO has very little buffering capacity so allows big pH swings. If you are simply keeping adult discus or growing out juvies, you might want to use a lower ratio, say something like 1 part tap water and 2 parts RO to give you a TDS of about 200 something. My tap water is about 240 ppm and my grow-outs (nearly adults now) are doing great. That will save a bit on RO water and will give you a very stable pH.

[zach5187]

So on a 20 gallon tank 13 gallons ro and 7 tap? I'm just breeding and raising fry is the goal

[DJW]

Do you see the little symbol above the "17" in the second and third picture? It looks like μS. The last picture that shows '610' is too blurry but can you verify that when you test the tap water it has a '610' with either a 'ppm' or a 'μS' above it? I just have a hunch here.

[Dudley Eirich]

So on a 20 gallon tank 13 gallons ro and 7 tap? I'm just breeding and raising fry is the goal

For breeding you would use 2 gallons of tap and 18 gallons of RO. For raising fry you could probably use even a 50:50 mix of RO and tap or go straight tap if they are tolerating it well.

[zach5187]

They all have us

[DJW]

You should be able to switch the meter to TDS. If your μS is 610 that would be conductivity and your TDS will be about half that, or 305 ppm.

[zach5187]

Well damn good thing I asked..