R/O unit necesarry?

[AzDiscusGuy]

Hi everyone. I have two discus tanks : one with a couple cory's tetras and a 2 inch marlboro red, a 2 inch brilliant blue, a 5 1/2 inch pidgeon blood, and a 4 inch fineline snakeskin. In my second tank I have a pair of 6 inch Blue snakeskins. They are not proven but seem to have paired up so i moved them to their own 26 gallon. Do I really need an R/O system or will they absolutely not breed without one.Also is there anything else that I can do to help them along in the breeding process. BTW I have a uptrned flower pot for a egg laying spot. Can someone please help me out.

-Alex Winter

[Trapper]

Alex,
I can only relate my own experience and I bought a very nice 5 stage r/o DI unit and used it for months and ended up stopping it's use..I am lucky enough to have good water out of the tap, that needs very little attention...I found that by keeing a low TDS < total disolved solids>, and keeping my pH consistant, my fish < both angels and discus> will spawn continuosly. Water to me is the best cure for a majority of ills. Changing as much as you can, as often as you can. there are many opinions here in discus City, mine just works for me... I am sure you will get a lot of responses on this question.
Good luck,
Trapper

[fcdiscus]

Alex, What are your water parameters out of the tap? Frank

[saints27]

Alex
It really does depend on your water ,Where I am in Australia my tap water comes out at about 7.4pH , Gh 3 ,Kh 2. All I do is lower my pH .
I dont use R/O water and have no problems with spawning or hatching (allthough over the last couple of months with the festive season i was a bit slack in bringing my pH down)and i lost a fair few batches.

It works for me and as I said it depends on what your water is like.

Jamie

Alex, you dont need RO water for your discus to breed...Now getting the eggs to hatch is something all together different....Once you post your water conditions we can give you more info............


Randy

[AzDiscusGuy]

out of the tap I have a gH of 7 a kH of 9 and a pH of 7.6

I think You will need a little R/o mixed with tap!
HTH
TakeCare,
Cary Gld!

[Jeff]

If you want one talk with RandalB on the board he builds and sells RO units. I think he has some listed under buy/sell. :)

[dm]

Your tds comming out of the tap is over 600ppm. You will need to go at least 90% RO. At least I do to keep the tds below 100. hth