Thinking out of the box

[ybnormal]

This may be a very simple, or a very complicated question, but in laymans terms, when we do water changes, exactly what are we removing, and what are we replacing?

It somehow makes sense to me that a filter system can be had to recycle the water to exactly what is needed.

[ronrca]

Well, the first thing about doing water changes is that the nitrate build up from the bio cycle is being removed/diluted. A very important aspect when keeping discus. You also tend to vacuum up any feces and food on the bottom of the tank. ;)

[ybnormal]

Thanks for responding Ron. I'm stuck on the idea that the reason we do things is because that's what we're told, and then simply become used to.

If we can turn water from the ocean into drinking water, we should be able to recycle our discus water. Anyway, it makes sense to me. :)

So nitrates? To remove the feces doesn't take massive changes. Anything else present that we must get rid of?

[ronrca]

I'm stuck on the idea that the reason we do things is because that's what we're told, and then simply become used to.
Well, yes! That is because those that tell us to have the experience to back it up. However, those experiences were back a while back and technology in the fish industry has really improve tremendously. The bottom line still remains though, water changes remove nitrates and so far there is no technology to 'recycle' this. There are other methods however like plants that suck up nitrates.

Talking about wc's and discus, we do need to be a little more specific as to what age of discus. Fry require very low or next to no nitrates, adults can tolerate a little more therefore young discus will require more water changes. ;) ;D

Another consideration is clean fresh water is benefical no matter what species of fish you talk about. I view it similar to being stuck in a room with no windows and a sealed door. After a while the air will become stuffy and stale. Since fish require water to breath and live in water (and we spend money and energy), why be cheap on wc's! Just my thoughts!

[RyanH]

It is also thought that fish release pheromones into the water that regulate their growth rates. When we do water changes, these are diluted and, in theory, allow the fish to grow larger than they would if these large water changes were not done. Again, much more important for juveniles than adults.

In addition, these fish come from very clean rivers and lakes in the amazon basin where the water they live in is constantly being replaced by clean, fresh water from upstream and rain. I believe that the closer we can duplicate their natural habitat the better their overall health will be in the long run.

JMHO
-Ryan

[ybnormal]

This is great info. Another question then? Wouldn't distilled water be the purist you could get? Would distilled water be ideal for discus?

[RyanH]

I believe water that is purified using Reverse Osmosis is just about the purest water human beings are capable of producing.

Maybe Randalb will chime in on this one. He is the water expert...

[Carol_Roberts]

Discus need minerals to grow. Another problem with pure RO or distilled water is the lack of buffer (hardness or minerals) allowing the pH to crash.

Clean water is different than distilled water. Clean water still has minerals, but does not have fungus, bacteria, disolved food, feces, etc. that are floating around in your aquarium.

Your filters convert ammonia and nitrIte, but do nothing to remove fungus spores, viruses, parasites, etc. Removing 50% of the water removes 50% of the stuff in the water column.

[RandalB]

Carol Beats me to it again...

RandalB

[ybnormal]

Very Interesting and thanks all.

I'm doing the water changes now on my single discus tank. I'm realizing that as I add more tanks, the work may be more than I want to do. But, Cest la vie.

Side note: I do business with a company that discharged a lot of water into a river in PA. There was some very nasty stuff in that discharge. Primarily Zinc Chloride. The EPA rightly made them treat the water before returning it to the river. There was no technology at the time to remove Zinc Chloride. However, they succeeded in an evaporating process which allowed them to return potable water to the source. A side benefit was they then were able to reuse the zinc chloride.

I'm going to ask some of the engineers there to consider this subject. Where there's a will..... :)