DISCUS EXPERTS : What do you use for RO water?

[janky]

How do you prepare RO water for your tank changes? Any DIY setups? Recommended brands?

I'm turning up very little on craigslist, and most of the shopping results I've found on google are in the $200 range. Plus I'm a noob to all of this, so once they go outside of my basic biology knowledge and get all technical I'm pretty lost.

Advice?

 

[Mr. Green]

Not a Discus expert, but I have been looking into Saltwater for a long time and never got around it. RO will remove the majority of contaminates, minerals, and ions from water. DI or Deionized will polish it off and make it pure. If you need RO, the best thing you can do is purchase a unit off of the net. For what you would pay from a store or Pet shop, the purchase will pay off in the long run. One thing you can do is get a 30 or 50 gallon Rubbermaid trash can to store water. Make it up in the can and get a cheap power head to keep it circulated. Also, you can add a heater and it will ready to go when needed since you will have it made up and ready to go.

 

[janky]

That's actually a really good idea... I'd love to do that, but we are in an apartment with the tank in our living room and I'm sure my girlfriend would not be wild about having a giant barrel or garbage can for water reserve

The RO filters basically hook onto your faucet to clear out your tap water right? So just as you'd pour a glass to drink, you'd be using the same filtered water to do your water changes?

(sorry if this is really a dumb question, but like I said, I'm new... researching the best I can!)

 

[Mr. Green]

RO water is very slow to make as you will also have reject water. The reject water is the water will all the stuff that is filtered out. This water can be used to run a load of laundry or keep to water plants. You will need a storage bin even if it is smaller because most home RO's or the smaller ones you buy for aquariums make the water very slowly. Its not like turning on you tap thus the reason for the storage bin or bottles.

Just to break it down a little;

The RO will hook up to a sink or you can "Y" it off of a laundry tub or something like that. Water will flow through the filter and you will have you good RO water out of the end. You will also have another line that is the reject line. This water can go down the drain or be used for some misc. purpose such as watering plants of a load of laundry. You DO NOT want to use the reject for your tank.

 

[janky]

Gotcha. So it'd just be a bit of a time consuming process where i'd have to store some surplus water aside for the water changes ... but I could just route the reject line down the drain right? I suppose I could just use a couple of 5 gal buckets for the good water and just let the reject water run down the drain.

 

[Mr. D]

Im no discus expert.... 8months with mine is all

Great idea if you can keep an RO or RO/DI unit in your house but after it has been made you should use some additives....

"kent" makes a good line up of stuff for them... I've tried 2 or 3 other ones but kent seems to be best for me.... I would defiantly use "Kent RO Right" but I also use "Kent discus essential" for trace minerals found in their environment, and I also use "Kent black water expert" when my peat starts to get old.

RO is used on both reef and fresh setups but RO/DI is reef preferred.... The TDS (total dissolved solids) in RO is about 20 and RO/DI is 0 if the filters are working properly or not to old... But if you don't have a salt tank a power head isnt a necessity to stir up the water and if put in a discus tank can really stress them out b/c they like slower still water... Your filter is all the circulation you need unless you feel a bubbler is necessary

 

[janky]

Are there alternatives to using a RO/DI system? I know certain people have said they just treat the water with certain chemical additives and call it a day.

These fish are expensive and I'm a college student, so I wanna do it right if I'm going to be paying close to $100 for a fish, but I also don't have hundreds upon hundreds to throw at a professional grade set up! I would have to wait and piece things together or stalk craigslist

Just want to make sure they'll be happy in their new tank and not get sick/unhealthy. Cheapest set ups are preferred

 

[TheFishBoss97]

it might be cheaper to purchase from an LFS...idk about that, im 15, have discus, and a RO system for drinking water(not the faucet attached, a full blown independent separate system), but getting it from a LFS might be cheaper

thats just an option, don't know much other than that about RO systems except mine

and remember, don't use Ro over 75% as you are losing lots of minerals through that system

 

[laoski]

hey janky - you wouldnt need RO water if the discus you bought came from the same water parameter source. the discus breeder which i bought my discus told me that. the bred discus are used to the water in the area where they where raised. except, if your buying the wild caught ones, then you have to adjust to their water parameters.

he told me to do this trick:

once you buy a discus - dont let the fish bag hang on the aquarium (after you cycled it) to acclimate to the water temperature - instead - open the bag and pour water FROM the aquarium and leave it ten mins. then after 10 mins do the same process - until the bag is almost full. and leave it for about 30 mins. the fish to get used to the water parameters from your cycled aquarium then you can pour the fish into the aquarium itself.

topping water is easy - just buy a water conditioner and mix it with the bucket for the fresh water change.

the first stage will be horrific as the discus would hide/not eat, its always giving me nightmares when i buy new discus - i always think they would not survive the next day lol. you need time and patience for them - theyre arent like the other fish when you plop them into the aquarium would come out in the front almost immediately lol. AND LOOK OUT FOR THE BULLY in the group - it didnt gave me nightmares - it drove me insane lol.

 

[Teshi]

I've very recently started a discus tank. Couldn't have done it without this site and also forum.simplydiscus.com

 

[janky]

hey janky - you wouldnt need RO water if the discus you bought came from the same water parameter source. the discus breeder which i bought my discus told me that. the bred discus are used to the water in the area where they where raised. except, if your buying the wild caught ones, then you have to adjust to their water parameters.

he told me to do this trick:

once you buy a discus - dont let the fish bag hang on the aquarium (after you cycled it) to acclimate to the water temperature - instead - open the bag and pour water FROM the aquarium and leave it ten mins. then after 10 mins do the same process - until the bag is almost full. and leave it for about 30 mins. the fish to get used to the water parameters from your cycled aquarium then you can pour the fish into the aquarium itself.

topping water is easy - just buy a water conditioner and mix it with the bucket for the fresh water change.

the first stage will be horrific as the discus would hide/not eat, its always giving me nightmares when i buy new discus - i always think they would not survive the next day lol. you need time and patience for them - theyre arent like the other fish when you plop them into the aquarium would come out in the front almost immediately lol. AND LOOK OUT FOR THE BULLY in the group - it didnt gave me nightmares - it drove me insane lol.

Thanks! Yeah, I've also read that tank bred ones don't need the RO water as much. It seems like the water just needs to be conditioned well and kept over a short period of time (reserves?) ...I'm feeling more confident about that, and I found a local breeder, so I'll be sure to ask him 20 ?s as well when we go to check them out

 

[Mr. D]

You can use tap with prime but I don't risk it. I use 100% RO with the additives I told you about earlier... I also buy it from my fish store, I'm in college to and feel ur pain, lol

If you use tap I would make sure your discus are higher up in their tank bred generations just to be safe... Wild caught or 2nd gen discus may not fair as well as 7th gen discus in tap w/ prime

you could also buy your own RO unit that u just attach to the faucet without the plumbing for cheap compared to the bigger setups... It would save you in the long run but IMO I'd only use RO but it's ur tank and if ur confident in the conditioner then go for it