Has anyone tried tap water?

[MKD]

Hi,


I have this pair Blue Hi-body Cobalt Discus Breeding from Kenny, they're not proven pair but so far they lay eggs every week or 2. Someone here did in tap water , so i am trying before even try to mess around with RO water but no good. I looked at their tubs and they look different. That's a sign at least they're not the same. Please help me how to tell male/female. Also who did it in tap water, please give me some tips. I really appreciate it.


Thank you,

Tony


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkTQpS1YCe8

[Sean Buehrle]

Most people here do use just tap water unless their water is crap.

I used a tap n ro mix to get the tds down to 70.

Water here is not the best, kinda hard 225 tds and alot of nitrate .

Find your city water report, let everyone see it.


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[MKD]

Thank you for your reply

here you go
http://www.ci.garden-grove.ca.us/pdf/pw/gardengrove2011wqr.pdf
http://www.ci.garden-grove.ca.us/?q=pw/waterquality

[Sean Buehrle]

Your water is not bad, but I only look at the ph and hardness.

Ph is at near 8 and total hardness 590 which I consider high.
Everyone will tell ya ph is fine.

If you wanted softer water for breeding you could use an ro tap mix.

I'm sure more experienced people can break down your water for ya. Nothing to fret over.


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[hedut]

I use tap water my TDS 130 - 145. You could lower the water level like half tank and you should lower keep light on and see if hatches or not, from parent look they will be good parent:). Good luck and keep us update :)

[MKD]

I use tap water my TDS 130 - 145. You could lower the water level like half tank and you should lower keep light on and see if hatches or not, from parent look they will be good parent:). Good luck and keep us update :)

does it really help by lower the water and leave the light on? they are in the 25G and if i lower it by half, i am afraid they don't have much room and it creates fungus faster.


Your water is not bad, but I only look at the ph and hardness.

Ph is at near 8 and total hardness 590 which I consider high.
Everyone will tell ya ph is fine.

If you wanted softer water for breeding you could use an ro tap mix.

I'm sure more experienced people can break down your water for ya. Nothing to fret over.


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What is the ratio? 1:1 or 1:2?


Thank you guys for your replies,

Tony

[hedut]

it will help the fry to attach easier :) or may be someone has more experience in breeding will write more :)

[Sean Buehrle]

does it really help by lower the water and leave the light on? they are in the 25G and if i lower it by half, i am afraid they don't have much room and it creates fungus faster.



What is the ratio? 1:1 or 1:2?


Thank you guys for your replies,

Tony

You would need a tds meter to figure that out. It's pretty simple to do. I would just get the container/ trash can or barrel and fill it 4/5 the way with ro water and dump a gallon of water in mix and measure the tds.

Keep adding gallons and measure till you reach your target tds.

I think 70 is a good tds.

It's important to mark your barrel where the ro water line is at so you know when to stop filling it. You can even put a float valve in the barrel at that position so it's pretty foolproof.

That's what I do.


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[Discus Origins]

Total hardness of 590 is very high for breeding, most who have been successful are doing it in tap of under 200 TDS. I don't think you need to lower the water at this time, that's for when you've had spawns that hatched and the fry have a hard time finding the parents.

First thing for you is to find out if you have a fertile pair, hatched wigglers. So if I were you I would try some RO to decrease hardness to below 200. With your TDs almost at 600 I would do a 1:2 tap/RO and hopefully you'll get a little further along in the process. If the parents don't eat the eggs and they turn white in a couple days the eggs still arent being fertilized. Either young male or need to increase percentage of RO water and see what happens.

Good luck

[jimg]

the only reason to lower the water to 1/2 is when the fry are having a hard time finding the parents.
the higher the tds the lower the hatch rate for some not all. do not worry about the ph.
if you find only 1/3 or so of the eggs turn to wigglers, then you try ro water for better hatch rates, until they hatch then go back to tap.

[nc0gnet0]

100 bucks can get you an ro system that will get you enough water for one breeding tank no problem. Your chance of getting any significant success with your tap is pretty low. while others claim success with their tap water, that doesn't translate that your tap water will work. Mot likely your going to need a ratio of 10 parts RO to one part tap water to get your tds down below 80 ppm.

[MKD]

Ok I have an old filter that I can play with. Question, how often you replace those filters?

[jimg]

Ok I have an old filter that I can play with. Question, how often you replace those filters?
the membrane if sealed and never used might be ok but if it was in use then taken out of use you will need another. the 2 carbon filters and one sediment ( ome have one carbon) should be changed every few months depending on use. if they were used before I would get new ones too

[MKD]

thank you guys. I'm going replace filters for PureGen 5 stage RO system. From what i read, i can upgrade membrane to 150 GPD, does it worth to upgrade it?

[jimg]

it all depends on your water what you need. for the filters if you have well water then all you need is a sediment,carbon filter and the membrane. if you have municipal water(chlorinated) then go with sediment,2 carbons and membrane. imo there is no reason for di or any other filters for discus water.
the 150 per day depends on how much you will store or use. I know a 75gpd will give you lower tds than a 100 gpd but I'm not sure if that rule follows on 150 gpd. i use 2 75 gpd units

[roundfishross]

dont know this from first hand experience but I have read that the 150gpd membranes do not work as well

[Sean Buehrle]

I would go with the 150, the faster the better. Your going to be adding tap anyways.


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[MKD]

WOW!!! that's a lot of RO water, I brought TDS down to 108. As of this morning, they were about to spawn again. Hopefully they'll surprise me.

[MKD]

No luck last time. I think they will spawn today or tomorrow. So I did 100% wc with ro water only and tds around 26ppm. I'll switch back to tap water later. Hopefully I'll get better chance. Do you add any conditioner/additives to 100% ro water?

[judy]

I might be just lucky-- but I have always used nothing but tap and have 3 mated pairs (sold a fourth pair) that spawn regularly. The babies do fine, too.

[x2h]

i use tap water too and my pair spawns regularly too (every 5 days almost never missed it). I wish they could slow down though. pH stability is more important than the pH value itself, that's what I heard. if you use RO water only it has no buffering capability and the pH will swing a lot.

[MKD]

you 2 are so lucky about to breed in tap water. As you can see my city water report, it's hard close to 500tds.

[MKD]

Question guy: within 24 hrs before hatch, are eggs still clear orange or dull? Mine first weed clear and over night they look kinda dull but none turn white yet. Do you think the male did not his job?

[judy]

if it is within 24 hours of the estimated hatch time, and the eggs have not gone white, the male did his part.

[x2h]

you 2 are so lucky about to breed in tap water. As you can see my city water report, it's hard close to 500tds.

that's hard water indeed. guess i am lucky to have soft water. i know ppl mix hard water like that with RO to lower the tds within 100. my tds is around 80-120, and pH = 5.8 and stable.

[MKD]

if it is within 24 hours of the estimated hatch time, and the eggs have not gone white, the male did his part.
I thought white eggs are not good. If you said is right, I still have hope for this batch because the are dull and be white within today.



that's hard water indeed. guess i am lucky to have soft water. i know ppl mix hard water like that with RO to lower the tds within 100. my tds is around 80-120, and pH = 5.8 and stable.
My current tds is 26 and I have not tested ph.

[judy]

no, you misunderstood me: if the eggs are white, they are NOT good.

[x2h]

My current tds is 26 and I have not tested ph.

I would think that may not hold pH steadily. you might want to test your pH at different times of the day to find out. at least once in the morning and once at evening.

[Jennie]

maybe was me..High body cobalt and scorp cross..Got no tips on the colorado water..it's some of the best..out of tap, it's around 7.4 but does drop to abt 6.7 in 24 hours. the only thing I can say, which gets them to lay is I have to do a 90% water change at a temp of abt 85 degree, then feed them bloodworms right after wc..gets them going every time and within an hour, they're spawning on the cones. Otherwise I've noticed they aren't interested in anything at all.. It's not yet working with the wilds tho

[MKD]

Alright just an update: got home and checked those eggs, there are few white ones between 10-20. Per time line hatch sticky, i should see black eyes tomorrow night.

[nc0gnet0]

The one thing that drives me crazy is how the term "tap" water is used. To a novice one might suspect that all tap water is consistent which is far from the case. Now, I am not doubting that many users do indeed have success using "THIER" tap water I just wish they would also post the parameters of the water they are having success with, and not just PH, which has very little to do with successful hatch rates.

Something more along the lines of "My tap water comes out of the spicket at a KH of 3.2 and a TDS of 120ppm" and I have great success breeding is infinately more usefull then just saying "I have great success breeding discus in tap water" which is virtually useless unless the interested party is on the same water supply.

Rick

[Discus Origins]

+1 well said Rick

[MKD]

Well today will be 3rd day from laying eggs and still not hatch yet. as of today morning it's more than 60hrs, 'cause they laid eggs sometime in the middle of Tuesday. I saw eggs when i got home on Tuesday. I checked those eggs this morning, some are white and some still orange. How come they still not hatch yet? how long are those eggs good for?

[Altum Nut]

Hello Tony,

Not sure if it was mentioned in previous posts but the temperature plays a big role in hatch time.
86-88F would have possibly hatched them by now. You may see some wigglers tonight.
Good luck with them,

...Ralph

[MKD]

I'll raise temp on next batch.

Good to know and thank you Ralph

[nc0gnet0]

No need to raise temp. I keep mine at 28.2 C (roughly 82-83f) and all mine hatch at 48-52 hours like clockwork. Chances are you got two females or a male that is shooting blanks. You should see a dark spot develope on the fertile eggs. If they are just a consistant orange with no such spot, then they are not fertilized.

Rick

[MKD]

Oh well just a hand full left , just 50%wc and see next batch. They lay very often like 8 days.

[MKD]

What's up with those 2? They used to spawn often every 8-10 days , they haven't spawned for about a month. They fought so I added a third discus in about a week. I think, it breaks them up. I'm thinking to move them back to main tank. What do you suggest?

[misoo83]

I had one pair in breeding tank and he was to stressed and i put them back in community tank and now that two discus are not pair anymore , male discus fight and female discus runs away from him and no more pair behavior ... before i try to put them in breeding tank they had as pair over 30 spawns together in community aquarium :(

I have another pair in breeding tank and they spawn every 8-10 days and they eat fry from last spawn (fry 8 days old) ,that's because in nature small spawn will have low chance to survive.


I think that what your discus pair is not spawns means that they have ended one spawning cycles and after few months (in my case about one and half month) they will start spawn again .My discus pair spawned 16 times in row and i think that was that spawning cycle.


My tap water is ph 8.3 and TDS 320 ppm in that water i had maximum 2 small discus fry because water was to hard. and now in breeding tank i have this parameters ph is 8.3 and TDS is now about 180 ppm and i had maximum 10 small fry i must lower water hardness to 50-100 ppm and then hope more fry :p

[Darrell Ward]

I don't have any breeders at the moment, but I've had good success in the past using plain well water, with a PH of 6, and KH very low, off the chart.