Water Changes - pre-processing water, Question as I am new to discus

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well!

Intro

I have been within this hobby for over 10 years but this is my first discus tank. I have salt tanks excluding my 1 planted tank that I would like to add Discus.

My Tank

90 Gallons US Display Tank
30 Gallons US Sump
Danner Mag Drive pump at head height 5' turn 1050 Gal per hour measured by Flow Probe
Co2 pressurized system
-- Contemplating power heads

Prelude

Salt Process: Right now for my salt tanks, I am processing the water 24hrs before to match the PH.

How this applies: Out of tap my water is 7.5 PH and the rest point within the tank is 6.5 PH and thus we have a significant drop.

Question

When talking to the breeder, they are recommending weekly 75% water changes but since my Sump storage capacity is 30 G and my tank level is high for lighting I am literally going to be changing the water 90G of water a week! I cannot think of a way to pre-process the water of this magnitude.

Thoughts? - Am I taking a real risk with Discus?

[nwehrman]

90 gallons of water is just two 55 gallon barrels (tie them together and it's 110 gallons available.) Not that hard to manage. That's what I started with.

Some people use large brute trash cans...with wheels.


Nicole

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[tim_s]

You must imagine I sit droolling in Home Depot as the wheels turn LOL

Yes! I know I can double the Brute bins -- I just do not have this space being I have built the tank into the wall!, I can plumb a brute bin into the system through the closet but I cannot get 2 bins side by side.

Before I went through this craziness I just wanted to make sure the process of storing water was required.

[aquaworks1]

I'm a little confused,you don't really need to store water before adding it to your tank,just get a Python Water Changer and use it to refill your Aquarium.Just add Chlorine neutralizer to the Tank before you refill it with water from the Sink.Your PH is a little high but your discus will do well even with a high PH.The only reason you really need to lower the PH is for breeding,and then you would just get a Reverse Osmosis unit.I think you'll be ok with Tap Water.

[Kal-El]

90 gallons of water is just two 55 gallon barrels (tie them together and it's 110 gallons available.) Not that hard to manage. That's what I started with.

Some people use large brute trash cans...with wheels.


Nicole

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I use the 95 gallon brute trash cans. Works great and easy to clean when needed.

[cjr8420]

ur planted tank substrate is very dirty thats why ur ph is low in the tank. aging water will not lower ur ph so u will still have different ph after aging.do what u want but any tank dirty enough to drop the ph is not the best idea for discus read the stickies in the beginner section and go from there.best of luck

[strawberryblonde]

Ok, I'll toss in my thoughts on the water changes, even though I'm not an expert on pH. =)

1) If you are planning to grow out young discus, you'll want to change water more often than once a week. That WC schedule is for adults, and even then, I change more often.

2) For grow outs, plan to change water daily and yup, it's a LOT of water to change that often, but with a good system it goes fairly quickly.

3) Just to be safe, if I was you I'd recheck the pH drop after 24 hours of aging. If it truly does drop 1 full point after 24 hours then you'll want to age the water prior to the WC and here's where it's going to get fun. LOL

4) If you're growing out young discus in a tank that large, just ignore the 30g sump when you figure out the WC. Just drain your tank to the 1/4 mark, then refill and you'll be fine. In your case that would be about 65-70 gallons per daily change.

5) Soooo, to make it easier on you, buy a 55g brute and set it up in your closet for aging the majority of your water, then top off the water change with 15-20 gallons of tap water during the change. The way I see it, that small volume of tap water isn't going to significantly impact the overall pH of the water. (20 gallons out of a total of 120 gallons when you include the sump water)

You'll just need the brute, aeration and heating equipment, the pump to move the water, and a python for adding the tap water after you've added the aged water.

Once they are adults (6+ inches and 18 months old) you can reduce the number of water changes to 2-3 times per week. =)