Discus Tank On Rain Water?

[sub.42]

Hiya.

Just a quickie for all you Discus people out there. Could I run my tank with Discus on rain water? I have a monster filtration unit for filtering it, using four 10" filter units. Seems ok to me, or am I going to need an RO unit full stop? I just stand the thought of having to arrange to collect RO from one of my sites once a week! The tank is presently running on rainwater with a GH 1 degree. All of this is aside from the obvious need to collect RO if theres no rain

sub.

 

[annka5]

Well, the only problem would be if the rainwater is picking up atmospheric pollutants as it falls. It is a bit of a risk, really.
Is your tap water really that bad? If it has lowish nitrate and phosphate, and isn't too hard or alkanline, it would almost certainly be fine so long as you weren't breeding them. There seem to be plenty of people who keep discus in pH 7.5 water with success.
You could buy an RO unit rather than the RO water, which would be cheaper and less hassle.

 

[kev_kb]

Some people use it after running it through carbon, but I wouldn't risk it. An RO unit is money well spent IMO.

 

[jarmado]

i simply use filtered and treated tap water for my discus.
full stop.

 

[annka5]

ooh, should've added, I use tap water for mine (treated obviously) but am spoilt with soft, acid water with nitrates too low for my test kit to measure....

 

[sub.42]

Thanks all,

I think thaf if I pass the water through four 10" cartridges, then it will be ok. I have done some fishing(!) around today at work, and the general concensus is that it should be ok. Maybe adding a DI cartridge aswell will make it all OK. Going fish hunting tommorow afternoon!

Thanks. Sub.

 

[mkdodd]

i`ll add my two penneth .... for what its worth.... i`ve have 3 beautifull discus bobbing around in my tank and have been for over 3 years now, i keep them in milton keynes tap water (which i treat) and i`ve had no problems whatsoever! i bought them from a fish shop that had them in a 50/50 mix of tap and r/o.
as long as the fish you buy are healthy and hardy enough they should be absolutly fine.

 

[kev_kb]

i`ll add my two penneth .... for what its worth.... i`ve have 3 beautifull discus bobbing around in my tank and have been for over 3 years now

Then your lucky, groups of less than 5 normally cause problems, of course there are exceptions to every rule I guess. I wouldn't move a discus from 50/50 tap/ro to pure tap though, you would need to spend a lot of time doing it and they do best in soft water after all. I hope if there are people thinking of keeping Discus reading this post they do a lot of research into water parameters for Discus.

 

[mkdodd]

i appreciate what you`re saying and yes, discus fish do require specific conditions but what i always find when you research into keeping them (which i did a great deal of) there seems to be this "mystique" surrounding them, not to mention a great deal of snobbery!.

 

[KageBunshin]

Are you planning on breeding them? or just keeping them as pets?

My best experience with discus is a clean and Consitistent source of water. Do not try to add a bunch of chemicals to get that lucky 6.8.... If you do, you have to get exactly that number everytime. For me, I have slowly weaned my discus to accept my aged tap water of about 7.3 PH. I do weekly bi-weekly water changes with consistent Ph staying at 7.2 for a year now, and the discus are thriving. You hear ppl say discus has to have that lucky 6.8 Ph, but they can live up to as a high as 7.8 if you keep the water consistent. Consitentcy is the key in discus keeping.

Rain water quality depends on where you live... But unless you live in a tropical rainforest area... you are not going to get enough water to do the amount of the water changes your discus needs. Discus require very clean water, and water changes once every month is not going to cut it.

 

[bobby.tee]

I WOULD HAVE TO AGREE I HAVE TWO DISCUS IN A SOUTH AMERICAN TANK THAT HAS REGULAR WATER CHANGES AND THEY ARE FINE.MINE ARE YOUNG AND FROM TAIL TO HEAD ARE ABOUT 3 AND HALF INCHES.HAVE NO IDEA OF SEX THOUGH DONT KNOW HOW WITH THESE GUYS.

 

[kev_kb]

HAVE NO IDEA OF SEX THOUGH DONT KNOW HOW WITH THESE GUYS.

You wait for them to breed... then you'll know!