RO + tap...what %??

[Tristanyyz]

I am paying more attention to my water.

Currently, my RO needs a new membrane so i'm getting about 20gallons, to my required 100.

As it stands, my GH is 161ppm, my KH is 125, and my PH is 7.4.

Before, when I knew nothing, opposed to next to nothing, I used 100% RO. My KH was 0...but my fish seemed the happiest in pure RO. I now understand that Pure RO is a NO, NO.

What I want to achieve in my main tank, is a water mixture near condusive to spawning conditions, so that I can see who might pair up, what possible future there would be with my current fish for breeding. I guess my ultimate question is...what should my parameters be, ideally, to create the aforementioned desired effect? Then I can experiement, and find the right mixture of RO + tap, to keep my KH up a bit, and my GH and PH down, as i know its too high.

What is your opinion?

[Carol_Roberts]

HI Tristany:
My discus pair up, lay eggs and fan them in water harder than yours (260 ppm, pH 7.8), but only a few eggs hatch.

50/50% RO tap should get you down to about 80 ppm and nice hatch rates without having to worry about pH crash.

How old are your discus?

[ronrca]

Carol,
I am curious! How do you calculate the hardness if mixing with tap? Can I assume that when mixing 50/50 that the hardness well be half of the tap?

[Tristanyyz]

Hi Carol,

My Nickname is Tristan, without the "y"...Makes me sound like Brittany or something...i'm a normal guy, who just happens to like tropical fish...ok?? :P...I am joking/kidding around with you...

I have 4 fish that would likely be old enough to spawn, to the best of my knowledge. They are all wilds so its impossible to tell how old for sure...Wilds grow slower in nature, so i am told. One Curipera is likely a young adult. My Novo Olinda (a female) was adult when i got her, but has grown considerably since she is in my tank, she has out grown my big Inanu (suspected male). My Inanu has a big heavy thick face, and big eyes, I suspect he might be old. Not too old to remember how to spawn, he does this thing where he tilts head to the ceiling and wiggles...i hope thats normal...i think its a guy thing tho...its why i suspect he is male...i catch him doing this in the early morning, when the lights are off, on the other side of the tank where the natural light starts making the tank glow.

Coincidentally, I did my first PP tank treatment with Jimmy's help yesterday, my fish were fine! It was difficult to administer the PP, as every time the fish saw me approach they would come right up to me. So i would quickly move on the other side of the tank, where there were no fish, and squirt in 10mls of solution...only to have the fish all swim over to the purple cloud and swim in it, to investigate!!!!

Back to topic...i figured about 50/50 would do it. They act very healthy right now, even with recent problem of Hex. However I notice they are a bit more jumpy and nervous than they were when my RO unit was functioning to capacity...I just ordered from Randal 2 new Membranes for half the cost of Big Al's...I could buy them from Randal and retail them here in Canada!

Regards,
Michael

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Tristan without the y ;)
Wilds are a different ball game. You should ask JimmyL or Dennis H what water parameters and pH they are using. You may need 80% RO so that your pH will drop easily.

Hi Ron:
Usually the RO water is close to zero tds so I figure it's simple to just figure half the tds of the source water . . .in reality if 50% of the water has a tds of 6 and 50% of the water has a tds of 200, then 206 divided by 2 = 103 tds. . . .close to the 100 guestimate . . . or you could measure it with your tds meter ;D

[Tristanyyz]

Jimmy is using regular Toronto tap water for his tanks, i asked him before. He uses RO im sure for breeding, but i dont think he breeds wilds yet, only domestic...but I will ask him.
Thank you Carol.

[Tristanyyz]

OH i forgot...

I dont mind doing 80% RO, what conditions should i look out for regarding Ph bounce?

Is there a Kh minimum I should be looking for? Is 80 too little?

[richgrenfell]

I have always use pure RO with discus. When I was breeding apistogrammas, I did the same, but only with wild fish. Never had any problems. That's not to say that it isn't risky in terms of Ph, i just made sure to keep an eye on it.

Rich

[Carol_Roberts]

Water parameters can vary widely from source to source. If you are on the same water system as Jimmy he will be able to answer your water questions much more acurately than I can.

As a general rule you should keep your GH between 50 - 100 for breeding domestics. Wilds may have different requirements.