Conditions for discus

[brewmaster15]

Willie

I've raised water in 100% R/O for 5 - 7 years without adding minerals. Not only did they grow, but the pairs spawned frequently

Liz,

I've used 100% RO myself years ago. My fish did just fine, same as Willie's.

Your experiences with only RO are not mine. I have never been happy with the growth and development of fry in. Straight RO.. I have always had the best growth in my tap water. I'm not the Amazon here and can't do 100% RO Water changes daily. I won't put my well through that if it's not needed. Tap water I can easily do 100%... And it works beautifully. I really don't know why anyone would want to raise fry in 100% RO? What's the benefit?

No idea why your 100% RO worked so well for you except maybe it's a volume water change/ trace mineral thing.. But I can tell you 100% for sure its not been my experiences..

Straight RO for me= poor growth and development compared to tap. Been the case as long as I have bred and raised discus. Go figure.

[bluelagoon]

I think it would work on large frequent (daily 75 -100%) WC's. Only a few will do that. Not much buffer in RO water to deal with the metabolized ions/waste that lower ph.

[Willie]

I think it would work on large frequent (daily 75 -100%) WC's. Only a few will do that. Not much buffer in RO water to deal with the metabolized ions/waste that lower ph.

Agree that large frequent water changes are needed. In my cases, it was 100% weekly. A pH crash is possible if people overload their tanks, but I never measured any pH drop in a week. My fish were constantly spawning. Fry were raised in straight tap water.

[brewmaster15]

Agree that large frequent water changes are needed. In my cases, it was 100% weekly. A pH crash is possible if people overload their tanks, but I never measured any pH drop in a week. My fish were constantly spawning. Fry were raised in straight tap water.

Willie that makes more sense to me.. I keep my pairs in anywhere from 100. Percent RO to 80% RO 20 % tap. With no issues.. But when not breeding back to tap they go.

[Willie]

I totally agree that fry do better in tap water - even in hard water. I can't explain why, but they do. In hard water, fry grow taller and develop color faster. As a scientist, it's hard to explain how ions in the water would materially affect mineral status for fry reared on beefheart. But it seems to...

There's a back story of how I went to 100% R/O. One day, the water utility dug up the main pipe in front of my house. When they replaced the pipe, all h*ll broke loose. My fish were dying after water changes. I lost breeding pairs, fry tanks, growouts, everything. I put in on-line pre-filters which clogged very quickly. Apparently, the water utility adds alum to seal new piping. So I was forced to go to 100% R/O. And to my surprise, the fish did fine - in fact, they thrived.

Like everyone else, I started using R/O Right. But you go through that stuff quickly when you're raising discus. So I tasted it. Guess what - it was just salt, sodium chloride. There was a hint of bitterness, so some calcium chloride. There's probably magnesium chloride also. Of course, R/O Right has no ingredient statement. When I stopped using R/O Right, there was no noticeable change in the discus.

Then they spawned - which was a big problem because I didn't have enough R/O capacity to make daily water changes for the fry. So my friend in the suburbs raised all my fry for me. His water was hard AF and the fry did much better than the few I didn't send over. My fry was raised on beefheart and the ones he raised were fed exclusively flake food. You would think beefheart would deliver more calcium than hard water, but I don't know...

[brewmaster15]

I totally agree that fry do better in tap water - even in hard water. I can't explain why, but they do. In hard water, fry grow taller and develop color faster. As a scientist, it's hard to explain how ions in the water would materially affect mineral status for fry reared on beefheart. But it seems to...

There's a back story of how I went to 100% R/O. One day, the water utility dug up the main pipe in front of my house. When they replaced the pipe, all h*ll broke loose. My fish were dying after water changes. I lost breeding pairs, fry tanks, growouts, everything. I put in on-line pre-filters which clogged very quickly. Apparently, the water utility adds alum to seal new piping. So I was forced to go to 100% R/O. And to my surprise, the fish did fine - in fact, they thrived.

Like everyone else, I started using R/O Right. But you go through that stuff quickly when you're raising discus. So I tasted it. Guess what - it was just salt, sodium chloride. There was a hint of bitterness, so some calcium chloride. There's probably magnesium chloride also. Of course, R/O Right has no ingredient statement. When I stopped using R/O Right, there was no noticeable change in the discus.

Then they spawned - which was a big problem because I didn't have enough R/O capacity to make daily water changes for the fry. So my friend in the suburbs raised all my fry for me. His water was hard AF and the fry did much better than the few I didn't send over. My fry was raised on beefheart and the ones he raised were fed exclusively flake food. You would think beefheart would deliver more calcium than hard water, but I don't know...

Willie thanks for the back story. Sad it happened. Alot if our members have Dealt with bad losses after road work.

I will try and dig up the research papers I have on mineral uptake by the gills of fresh water fish particularly calcium. It was something I had alot of Interest in for a while and I went down a bunch of rabbit holes researching it.