Water Quality For Discus

[RipSlider]

Ok,

Having done a lot of reading about 90% water changes every day, I'm having second thoughts about the whole discus thing.

Before I bin it compeletly, I wonder if I can ask a few questions?

1) When we talk about "Good Quality" water, how good is good exactly? I.e what levels of nitrite, nitrate etc are the maximum tolerated levels.

2) What happens in the case of poorer water quality? Is it a case of illness, stunted grown or death?

3) if RO water is used, then what type of minerals are used to top up th useful elements required? How much do these cost and where can they be obtained?

Many thanks

Steve

 

[kev_kb]

Don't worry, you don't need to be doing that!

1) 0 Ammonia & Nitrite with low Nitrates. Not sure on a level exactly, but two 25% water changes per week works for me. I've also done 1 25% change per week during busy times and didn't notice a difference in the fish. If you buy adult Discus then one change per week is probably ok, babies however would require more. Again I think its a lot better to buy adult Discus.

2) All 3 can/will happen, you don't want to go there!

3) Various companies sell them and you can buy them at your LFS. Kent do one called RO Right I think. You need these if you plan to use pure RO water. An alternative is to mix some tap water into the RO. Say you mixed it 50-50 you'd get around half the hardness of your normal tap water. My RO unit has a switch to bypass the RO membrane and only use the carbon and prefilters, so I mix this into the pure RO water. You'll need to experiment to find the percentages right for you though.

 

[MasterP]

I know that alot of discus owners do not do 90% water changes a day. Instead of doing weekly water changes you could try doing 5% to 10% water changes a day, which once in a routine would take very little time. Good Luck.

 

[RipSlider]

So is it the nitrates that cause the problem or some other chemical(s) that develop over tim in the water? Becuase if it is nitrates, then an anoxic filter would be able to gt rid of these.


I'm wondering if it would be better to have a constant low level dribble of water being removed and new water added, with some cunning dosing mechanism to get the salts in.

If a 50:50 mix of RO and Tap water is used, do the salts such as RO Right still need to be added?

Thanks

Steve

 

[kev_kb]

If a 50:50 mix of RO and Tap water is used, do the salts such as RO Right still need to be added?

No, everything you need is in the tap water. Of course theres a small chance you will have some chemicals you don't want in there, but I think the amount present would be small and nothing to really worry about. 1 or 2 water changes per week and a standard filter is really all that is required regardless if you use pure RO plus additives or RO plus tap water.

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi there,

Before you consider whether you have to use RO water or not, what are the pH, GH and KH of your tap water. Depending on where you are in the country, you may find that your tap water is at a suitable pH and hardness (slight acid to neutral pH and soft water would present your fish with no problems). If that's the case, then I would recommend using an HMA filter to remove the 'nasties' (and much cheaper to run than an RO unit).

If you go down the RO route, I can not support adding tap water back into your RO water to remineralise it. You've just spent time (and money) purifying your water, why do you want to contaminate it with tap water again (regardless of the contamination levels in the tap water, the whole point of using an RO unit is to remove them...).

My own discus stock tank gets a 25% water change daily/bi-daily (depends on the stock level), the show tank has a 30% change once per week (much lighter stocking).

Andrew

 

[annka5]

re: nitrates being the only bad thing... The other stuff that builds in the tank (as well as dropping pH and minerals being "used up") is also less than ideal, therefore a water change is the safest way to reduce these other nasties along with the nitrates.
Personally I just do the water changes to be on the safe side. A trickle water change system would be great, if you could rig one up I'd have thought this would be pretty much ideal. Will keep the parameters really stable and the water quality good.
As to water changes, I siphon the tank bottom every day (..well I try to...I manage doing it most days, realistically about 4 or 5 days a week) and change a further 25% on 2 of the siphon changes. This seems to be fine, I've not had any diseases with mine so far (had them 6 months) and they're growing well. I don't know if this is overkill, but I don't need to use RO water (tap water I have is soft and acidic with low phosphates and nitrates) so it isn't too painful. Takes same amount of time as doing the washing up really.
Get adult fish and you won't need to do as much as this though - little ones need really heavy feeding, so cleaner water. And if you understock the tank this also gives you a lot more leeway in terms of water changes.
As to realistic nitrate levels to aim at - I've heard loads of different views on this, from "zero" to 10 or 15 ppm of your tapwater reading.
They are well worth the hassle, IMO, although they can take a while to settle into a new tank and you need to be a bit careful as to what tankmates you add.