Ro vs carbon block filter

[Kirkl240]

I am thing about a drip system for my 135 gallon discus tank and using a carbon block filter. My tap water is ph 8.2 and tds is at 500. I am using a mix of ro and tap right now and not feasible to run a drip from ro system. My question is would my fish be better off to have a constant drip of tap water or 2-3 water changes a week with ro mix. How many gallons per day of drip is recommended. Tank is stalked with 5 medium discus, 5 small discus, 4 plecos 4-7 inches in size and no substrate with sump filter. Thanks for any feedback.

[DJW]

Having used both methods, continuous drip and regular water change, I would say that if you have great tap water then continuous drip is worth a try if you don't mind the bigger water bill, and as long as you run the extra water volume to make up for the mixing and diluting, and as long as you still vacuum every day.

Your water, at more than 500ppm of TDS, is pretty hard. There are exceptions but in general fish that are physiologically adapted to soft water don't do very well in water as hard as that. They can do better if you continue mixing tap & RO to get the TDS lower, especially if you keep the water clean.

It is possible to set up a continuous water change system that mixes RO, but it takes some doing. The effort & money might be better spent in setting up pumps and valves to make the water changes easy.

For some ideas, you should check out Paul's (afriend's) system:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?122470-Part-7-Water-Exchange

[Kirkl240]

Thank you for your post. I will look into making water changes easier

[easttech]

I am thing about a drip system for my 135 gallon discus tank and using a carbon block filter. My tap water is ph 8.2 and tds is at 500. I am using a mix of ro and tap right now and not feasible to run a drip from ro system. My question is would my fish be better off to have a constant drip of tap water or 2-3 water changes a week with ro mix. How many gallons per day of drip is recommended. Tank is stalked with 5 medium discus, 5 small discus, 4 plecos 4-7 inches in size and no substrate with sump filter. Thanks for any feedback.

Kirk, curious what your mix% of RO and Tap is? I assume your tap is well? What is your end result in terms of PH/KH/GH?

[Kirkl240]

I mix approximately 10 gallons of tap to 35 gallons of ro water. I have municipal water and borrowed a friends tds meter cause I wasn't sure if mine was accurate and it wasn't. Tap is about370 tds and after mix tds is at 100 and kh is a 1. One last question I took of di and I'm wondering if there is anything else I can put into di cartridge to help with filtering.