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Re: Wild Discus Tech Notes 1... Heckels...The basics and More....
Hey Mellisa
I don't think you are over thinking, just the opposite. Everyone's water is different and understanding what changes we make with water is the most important part in keeping these guys happy,especially wilds with soft water.
The ph of your ro should be lower than the ph of your hard tap water and will lower the tank ph somewhat when you add it while lowering the tank tds. At some point the gh and kh will also go down then the ph of the tank can slowly drop over time by itself. An inexpensive ph pen to monitor the tank water is a good investment. Keeping a log seems anal but allows you to find the tds you want and how much ro water changes is required to keep everything fairly stable and the fish happy.
My tap tds is 65 ms and ph 6.5 and stays stable for a few days then ph slowly starts going down. Crushed coral defeats the purpose trying to keep a low tds for me. In a lightly stocked tank my tds may only increase to about 80 ms but the ph can slowly drop to 4.5 to 5.0 in about a week. A large water change to bring the tank water from ph 4.5 to ph 6.5 is fine with the discus. With soft water the ph is what drives my water changes rather than tds. I have tanks with 50 - 100 juvenile growouts, heavy stocking and feeding the ph will drop faster and water changes are required more often. I've never seen a ph crash with water 30 - 100 ms and kh < 1 but it does have to be monitored. If I leave for a week or two I will just throw a handful of crushed coral in each tank and everything is fine and remove it when I get home.
Sorry for the long winded post but hope something here helps. I'm sure you will become comfortable doing this in no time.
Anxious to see new pics of the babies.
Bill
Hey Mellisa
I don't think you are over thinking, just the opposite. Everyone's water is different and understanding what changes we make with water is the most important part in keeping these guys happy,especially wilds with soft water.
The ph of your ro should be lower than the ph of your hard tap water and will lower the tank ph somewhat when you add it while lowering the tank tds. At some point the gh and kh will also go down then the ph of the tank can slowly drop over time by itself. An inexpensive ph pen to monitor the tank water is a good investment. Keeping a log seems anal but allows you to find the tds you want and how much ro water changes is required to keep everything fairly stable and the fish happy.
My tap tds is 65 ms and ph 6.5 and stays stable for a few days then ph slowly starts going down. Crushed coral defeats the purpose trying to keep a low tds for me. In a lightly stocked tank my tds may only increase to about 80 ms but the ph can slowly drop to 4.5 to 5.0 in about a week. A large water change to bring the tank water from ph 4.5 to ph 6.5 is fine with the discus. With soft water the ph is what drives my water changes rather than tds. I have tanks with 50 - 100 juvenile growouts, heavy stocking and feeding the ph will drop faster and water changes are required more often. I've never seen a ph crash with water 30 - 100 ms and kh < 1 but it does have to be monitored. If I leave for a week or two I will just throw a handful of crushed coral in each tank and everything is fine and remove it when I get home.
Sorry for the long winded post but hope something here helps. I'm sure you will become comfortable doing this in no time.
Anxious to see new pics of the babies.
Bill
Melissa
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