Hard water help

[Patrick4802]

Hi all,
I have some decently hard water. Here are the basic lerameters:
Ph- 6.8-7.0 out of tap, 8.2-8.4 aged 48 hours
Gh - 36 drops on api test
Kh - 20 drops on api test
Tds - 550

Given my water I’ve been using 100% ro remineralizes from 40tds to 200tds with ro right. This leaves me with a ph of around 7.2, kh of 3 and gh of 0.

It was recently recommended to me to do a ro mix to keep some of the tap minerals in the water. I’ve played around with some mixes and even with a 20% tap mix I get a ph of 8.2-8.4 with a gh of 8 and kh is 6.

So my question to the hard water keepers is do you recommend keeping with the 100% and remineralized ro or do I use a blend of some sort at a higher ph. I know there are trade offs to both methods but am curious what has worked best for everyone.
Thanks for your help

[Willie]

You can save a ton of money by just mixing 35% tap into your R/O. No R/O Right needed at all. Your fish will respond much better to having more water changes than minor changes in water parameters.

Willie

[LizStreithorst]

Unless you're breeding I'd go with straight aged tap. The hard water won't bother the Discus at all.

[Oxboy]

Unless you're breeding I'd go with straight aged tap. The hard water won't bother the Discus at all.

Yep. I got my pancakes in liquid rock too, Patrick and it's fine. Upside is no breeding aggression. :)

I thought pH goes down with aging, not up?

[LizStreithorst]

It depends on your water source. Water from surface. From surface water it will often go up because it's the excess O2 that gasses off. That's my understanding of if.

[Patrick4802]

I’m in Illinois so our groundwater has a ton of limestone in it. The annoying part is I’m less than 5 miles from Lake Michigan water which here has a stable ph of 7.6 and a tds around 175. If I ever set up a fish room I’m going to need to move.

Thank you all for the help. I’ll start mixing higher tap ratios with my changes until I get it to 100%. This will make water changes a lot easier. It’s preferred to use water before the softener not afterwards correct?

[LizStreithorst]

Never use water from a softener for Discus.