PH

[dinnese]

I'm running pure R/O water in my newly established Discus tank. The R/O water tests at 6.5 however after having the tank set up for a week my PH is at 7.4 What raised the PH and how do I safely lower it and maintain it?

[mojosodope]

You can't use pure R/O water in a Discus tank or any tank for that mater.. it's rising because it has no buffering capacity. You either need to reconstitute the R/O water with trace elements or find a ratio of R/O water and tap water to achieve your desired level. Without trace elements you will end up with a lot of dead expensive fish.

[dinnese]

Would black water extract work?

[mojosodope]

I would use Kent R/O right, I've read mixed reviews on black water extract but are you trying to breed Discus? They usually adapt to a wide range of water parameters, you may not need to use R/O at all once your tap water is stable.

[dinnese]

Recommendations by the Supplier:
Discus need crystal clear,clean water.Weekly partial water changes will be necessary. We recommend pure R/O water with deionization.
Keep the PH around 6.5
Temperature should be around 84. Breeding Discus should be kept at 88 degrees.
Soft water is needed. We recommend Black Water Extract.
Discus need lots of oxygen, so keep an outside filter and inside aeration sponge filter. We also highly recommend a UV Sterilizer. Ideally we recommend 1-micron filtration

[dinnese]

Yes I am going to breed them eventually. Thats why I would like to maintain a PH of 6.5 My PH straight out of the Tap is 7.6

[mojosodope]

Did you buy wilds?, based on those requirements that is what is usually needed for keeping wild discus.

The temperature is right on, most people keep them 82-85 degrees, then raise them higher for treatment or breeding.

[dinnese]

No. They are not wild.

[mojosodope]

Okay just making sure, 7.6 is a great pH if that is after aging, I have had my Discus in a pH of 8.4 for half a year and never had any problems.

I recommend keeping them in a bare bottom tank with one or two breeding cones until you start noticing breeding behavior. In this tank use aged tap water, like I said 7.6 is a great pH and farm breed discus can acclimatize to a wide range of pH. It is unusual that the supplier specified 6.5 but it is the general misunderstanding that Discus require such a low pH. I am not sure if your supplier actually breeds them but if its a LFS that would explain the misunderstanding.

After they display the behavior I would then move the potential pair to a smaller tank which you can then use your Reconstituted R/O water if you wanted to achieve a higher hatch rate, but you can use your tap water just as fine. When breeding TDS becomes just as or more important that water hardness, so I would suggest getting a TDS meter and then using your R/O water or tap water as necessary.

[Cliff]

Recommendations by the Supplier:
Discus need crystal clear,clean water.Weekly partial water changes will be necessary. We recommend pure R/O water with deionization.

Pure water is completely stripped of all eliments needed to keep your pH stable

You need a addative to stablize the pH as already state above