thinking of discus but have hard water

[dropem555]

ive been thinking of changing my tropical tank to a discus tank i have a 55gallon with black gravel a 350 bio wheel filter a 300 watt heater glass lids but but my gh is about 180ppm and ph is between 7-7.5 my nitrites and nitrates are always 0 i was worried about the gh will discus adapt and survive or is that to hard if so how should i lower it to the proper hardness

[Kaz]

Discus are fairly finicky so I do not think thy will adapt.

I do not, however know a safe way to lower PH and water hardness.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Discus are fairly finicky so I do not think thy will adapt.

This is certainly true of wild Discus, but certainly not of captive bred Discus. Most captive bred Discus will do just fine in that water. I know of people who keep Discus in water that has a pH of 7.8, and not only are they doing fine, they are thriving and breeding all the time. They key to getting them to adapt is a slow acclimation. Using the drip acclimation method is best for this.

[DemonShark]

You can use certain peat mosses to lower the pH and also to lower the hardness, you just place the peat moss simply with the filter. Best way to boost nit's is to get a bio wheel, or another pro bacterial medium growth, in the lab we use a special water agar but the bio wheel would do the same. Also certain chemicals are available to add the other basics, you should be able to change your water, but it'll be expensive, perhaps if you do what we do at the lab is get a reverse osmosis unit with a softener and start up from there adding chemicals to create your equilibrium, its usually cheaper working your way upwards.

[kennedpa]

When I used to keep and breed Discus I neva got hung about PH... My tank back then remained at neutral PH and I neva had probs. If you plan to have Heckles then that a differant story and ball game.