Discus in the Eastern Cape

I understand the difficulties in adding chemicals etc. and agree RO is the way to go. Just wanted to know what you guys thought of the article.

 

sorry laure... didnt even realise

 

i would use citric acid... works great

 

Hi Laure, i would steer clear of using acid for adjusting ph, why dont you take a sample of water, test ph, earate over night and then retest. If it is in the +/-7 range you will be fine, you are looking at providing the fish with stable conditions and not providing idealistic conditions, if that makes any sense to you ?

 

no worries
read it, if you want to, and post your thoughts/comments

 

Exactly what I thought. Pool acid? Hmmm. But it seems his fish are still alive a couple of months later. I'd still also rather avoid strong acids like hydrochloric acid.

Aggitating the water with an air stone releases the CO2 gasses, in theory making the water more acidic, from what I've read on all sites talking about planted discus tanks and CO2 injection.

Unless I am totally missing something, and it is entirely possible :bigsmile:, how can aerating the water lower the ph? I am not challenging your theory, just wanting to understand it.

 

If you have a a drum in which you mature the water before you use then acid is not a problem... just dont use it directly in the tank where the fish are kept

 

if you council adds a carbinate to the water you oxydize it out of the water and then the PH should drop to the PH that it was before it went into the water works.... which is the case here in CPT

 

henk what is the hardness levels of CPT area tap water +/- ?

 

I phoned the local municipality in PE. You know they wanna charge me R35 for information on the water parameters and what they put in etc.? Unbelievable. We drink the stuff. Shouldn't it be free public knowledge? I have the right to know what goes in the stuff I pay for anyway every month! Products on shop shelves are required to indicate what is in there. What makes the municipality so special? Oh yeah, never mind, I know...

 

:bigsmile:

 

Thank you all for the advice. I don't want to get in the middle of an argument. I just wanted to know who breeds discus in my area.

 

Hi Laure

If your water is hard and alkaline I would suggest you use RO water to soften the water to more acceptable levels.

The way to do this would be to mix the RO water with your tap water to get the desired hardness levels. For instance if your tapwater is sitting at 12 degrees hardness and you want to get it down to 6 degrees you would mix 50% tap water with 50% RO water.

Just remember that the Reverse Osmosis process wastes a lot of water.

 

I know that CO2 also decreases the pH and constant CO2 injection results in a consistent lower pH. Then, of course, plants would benefit and the increase in oxygen production through the plants will benefit the fish. CO2 injectors are also expensive, but has anybody on this forum read this:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/co2-narten.html

Who is keen to try it? I don't have a planted tank, but would love to see somebody try it and report back. Perhaps somebody wants to start a new thread and give this a go and preiodically report back with some pics too.

 

Hi Laure

The DIY CO2 method works well in small tanks, but it becomes a bit of a hassle.

Please just remember that the bigger problem in keeping discus is not just the pH, but also the carbonate and total hardness of the water. CO2 will drop the pH but will not lower the hardness of the water.

 

I have tried the yeast method, and it seems to work well, but i removed it as my discus didnt seem to fond of the extra CO2

 

Singularity, did you find the plants did not produce enough O2 for the fish, or did you find the Co2 production from the yeast was too much? I guess with an uncontrolled method such as the DIY CO2 injector, one needs to be careful and also frequently test the levels until a working standard is achieved. Even then a level test every couple of weeks would be required just to be sure no other factors started incluencing the equilibrium.

 

yes i think it was because of a bit to much, i had no way of controlling the amount of CO2 entering the tank, you could always just try liquid supliments

http://www.seachem.com/Products/Planted.html

 

I am not really interested in keeping plants. I want to inject CO2 as an inexpensive way of keeping a stable low pH.

What I would do is get an electronic pH meter and daily monitor this meter. Then hook up the Co2 and regulate the flow until the pH comes down to 6.8, which is where I want it for my main display tank. The see if it can remain there for a while. With the yeast method, it will eventually run out and the meter will show a pH climb. At this point, it is time to replace the yeast mix with a fresh one. Of course, I would do this in a "lab" environment with no live fish to start off until I know the drill. I would also add an airstone or something to mimic gas exchanges that occur naturally in tanks.

I know the fully automated CO2 systems hook up to a pH meter and if the pH changes it regulates the amount of CO2. Manual CO2 systems require the fishkeeper to check the pH or CO2 level daily and make adjustments accordingly.

There is also a number of sources on the web with the pH/kH/CO2 tables that show the relationship between these. Ideal scenario is pH=6.8 or 6.9, kH=4 and CO2=15

 

i have no idea of the levels but i do know its VERY soft...