Does TDS really matter

[KeonTheKing]

I live in los angeles and our water here is very hard. so hard that when you take a shower your skin feels dry. loL now im not sure but would i have to lower the TDS via distilled or RO water to get them to breed or is water hardness not a key factor ( note my discus were most probably raised in tap from LA)

[Eddie]

I live in los angeles and our water here is very hard. so hard that when you take a shower your skin feels dry. loL now im not sure but would i have to lower the TDS via distilled or RO water to get them to breed or is water hardness not a key factor ( note my discus were most probably raised in tap from LA)


Hard water is good for raising discus. Its when they get into breeding that softer water is prefered. Some beleive discus just do better in general in soft water but you'll find MANY more on here that are raising discus in hard water with amazing results. ;)

Eddie

[NunoDinis]

+1,

I increased my PH and GH so they stop with the spawn, and last time i checked they were laying with PH 7,6, and GHº 9...
May be it is true for wild discus, but i really do think that is possible to breed in hard waters.
I only had TMC Pro-discus mineral in the tap water, nothing more...

[kaceyo]

They will breed in hard water, but the eggs usually won't hatch out, or not many of them, as the shells get too tough.

[tdiscusman]

IMHO, soft water is preferred for breeding, however, for experienced or well formed pairs they will do just fine (have good hatch rate) in harder water (<= 15 DH) . Once the eggs are layed by the female the male have about 30 second to fertilize it before the shell harden. Experience/well formed pairs will have no problem while young pairs may have difficult complete the task within 30sec. Soft water would extend this time thus helping the young/inexperienced pairs to have better success.
I believe, this is the reason why many reported no problem with hatch rate in hard water and others are having difficulty.

Tony

[kaceyo]

My understanding is that not all hard water has the same minerals in it. You can have water from two different areas that each has a reading of 200ppm TDS. IF the mineral content of the water from one area is made up mostly of calcium you'll get a low hatch rate. If the water from the other area is primarily sodium based, you'll get a much higher hatch rate, even though they both read 200ppm TDS.
That's not to say that experience, or lack of it, doesn't also affect the hatch rate.