To Soft of Water?

S

Sly_Marbo

Say Hello To My Little Friend
Dec 31, 2005
71
0
0
Escanaba, Michigan
Hey all, first post!

Anyway, I have a 75 gallon tank which is in the preperation stage. I plan on keeping discus and other Amazon type/soft water fish in it. I have been thinking alot about how I would like to have it set up. I'm currently bidding on a RO system on ebay.
Here is the process my water will be going through.
1.RO into a holding container (55 gallon drum?)
2.Add lost mineral's through this product or similar http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4111&N=2004+112995
3.Transfer water into tank
4.Water filters through 2 Emperor 400 filters (400gph) which have peat moss as a media
5.I have quite a few peices of bogwood/driftwood/naturally softening water objects.

So my overall question here is with all of these water softening methods, will my water get to dangerously soft levels?
 
I would leave the peat out.
Put the RO water let it stabilize with the additives, Test the PH,GH,KH, and adjust if needed.If it's not soft enough then add the peat.
 
First off, what is the pH of your water once aged for 24 hours?? Dont even think about buying an R/O just yet...if your pH isnt insanely high or low, you most likely wont need an R/O unit. Discus will do just fine in regular tap water at almost ANY pH level...high or low. I keep mine in a pH of 7.4-7.6 (depening on the season of the year) and a hardness of well over 250ppm. I know people who keep them in liquid rock type water only good for africans...the 8.2pH sky high GH type water...the discus do perfectly fine. The ONLY reason you would need to lower the hardness and pH is if you are trying to breed them. In that case, you would want a pH in the mid to low 6's and a hardness of about 2-3. Other than that, tap water works great!

-Ryan
 
Good thing I did a few hours worth of reading on this forum and simply discus, a RO system is overkill, Ph of 7.2:) I still am considering using peat, I like the look of darker water. I have heard that it is difficult to use peat, is this true?
 
Sly_Marbo said:
Good thing I did a few hours worth of reading on this forum and simply discus, a RO system is overkill, Ph of 7.2:) I still am considering using peat, I like the look of darker water. I have heard that it is difficult to use peat, is this true?
Click to expand...

It is more messy than anything...it is better and easier to just use a huge piece of drift wood as that will release tannins, which will color the water a tea color...which is what you're after I assume. Plus, depending on how hard your water is, peat doesnt last long. The harder the water is, the shorter time span the peat will last. IMO, it is better to skip the peat as sometimes it can be more trouble than what its worth.

-Ryan
 
Ok, so that officially rules out peat. Do all kinds of driftwood release tannins into the water? I have a few peices of malasian driftwood and they contain tannins, but how about wood from Lake Superior?
 
Most driftwood only releases tannins at first. It will leach out and stop pretty quickly in most cases. IME (very limited) Harder wood tends to release less tannins than softer wood. So depending on what type of wood you pick up on lake superior it will probably leach less than bogwood might.
Dave
 
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