good day MFK,
first of all i apologize if this is not in the right section but i've been looking thru the stickies for an answer and i can't quite find one...
for the last week or so i've been researching about discus and ideal water conditions. i got a freshwater master test kit from API last week and tested my water... i ended up with the following results 7.4 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. now i've read that discus thrive in softer lower pH waters so i also bought a gh & kh test kit... i tested my water today i ended up with a result of 10 dKH or 179 ppm. i tested my tap water (which is what i use for my tanks and my water changes) and came up with the same results. i'm wanting to alter my pH so that it is more on the 6.5 to 7 range, i know i have to do this slowly to prevent stress and harm to the fish. now, theres a few ways to do this but what i'm looking at is either #1 chemically changing the pH with commercial products- but as this can cause wild swings in pH i really do not want to do this or #2 water changes with ro/di water... i'm loooking more towards option #2 and using peat moss to further lower pH
so with that long intro to my situation here are my questions to you guys:
i live in an apartment so i don't really want to install anything permanent or mess with their water pipes (so that's a no to the r/o system) i'm looking at the api deionizer... from what i've read depending on your tap water, you can run through filters pretty quickly. i do my water changes about twice a week 20 gallons at a time. do you think this is an efficient way to obtain DI water? (as stated above my tap water has TDS of 179ppm)
what exactly is the difference of DI and RO water? (if someone could point me out to a thread i'd be happy to read it)
is this all worth doing to lower the pH by 1 point and will my fish really benefit from it?
my tank is 135 gallons i believe its 72x18x24 currently have 6 discus in there and its VERY lightly planted. currently have Co2 injection and a rena canister filter (i can't remember the filter capacity right now but i know its over filtering my tank) have 3 small pieces of driftwood in there and just regular ol' rocks for substrate. temp normally runs around 84 F
thanks in advance guys, and sorry if these questions have been answered in the past... i just couldnt find those old threads i guess...
first of all i apologize if this is not in the right section but i've been looking thru the stickies for an answer and i can't quite find one...
for the last week or so i've been researching about discus and ideal water conditions. i got a freshwater master test kit from API last week and tested my water... i ended up with the following results 7.4 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. now i've read that discus thrive in softer lower pH waters so i also bought a gh & kh test kit... i tested my water today i ended up with a result of 10 dKH or 179 ppm. i tested my tap water (which is what i use for my tanks and my water changes) and came up with the same results. i'm wanting to alter my pH so that it is more on the 6.5 to 7 range, i know i have to do this slowly to prevent stress and harm to the fish. now, theres a few ways to do this but what i'm looking at is either #1 chemically changing the pH with commercial products- but as this can cause wild swings in pH i really do not want to do this or #2 water changes with ro/di water... i'm loooking more towards option #2 and using peat moss to further lower pH
so with that long intro to my situation here are my questions to you guys:
i live in an apartment so i don't really want to install anything permanent or mess with their water pipes (so that's a no to the r/o system) i'm looking at the api deionizer... from what i've read depending on your tap water, you can run through filters pretty quickly. i do my water changes about twice a week 20 gallons at a time. do you think this is an efficient way to obtain DI water? (as stated above my tap water has TDS of 179ppm)
what exactly is the difference of DI and RO water? (if someone could point me out to a thread i'd be happy to read it)
is this all worth doing to lower the pH by 1 point and will my fish really benefit from it?
my tank is 135 gallons i believe its 72x18x24 currently have 6 discus in there and its VERY lightly planted. currently have Co2 injection and a rena canister filter (i can't remember the filter capacity right now but i know its over filtering my tank) have 3 small pieces of driftwood in there and just regular ol' rocks for substrate. temp normally runs around 84 F
thanks in advance guys, and sorry if these questions have been answered in the past... i just couldnt find those old threads i guess...
