22 replies to this topic

[Scat]

Hi,

Im thinking ahead for the best way to achieve the desirable water quality for my discus down the track. I keep hearing ro units are the way to go and am considering buying a decent one with my tax return.

Ive been looking at some seachem ro units which the cheapest one does 140lts a day. THis would be plenty for my needs but need to decide on how to store the ro water ie icm, large container from bunnings ect.

Also at this stage will be storing the water outside on my patio and am trying to work out a better way to get the water inside to my tanks without having to bucket it, maybe a long hose attached to a pump to pump the water into the tanks ?

I would like to hear from people on here who are using ro units, what their expeirences are and what they think would be a good solution for my questions.

Thanks in advance

Craig

[Boof86]

get a drum from here http://www.megarock.com.au/drums/ they are quite cheap he is in bibra lake and put in the drum a small 25$ pond pump with a long hose, i have a friend does it this way with no fuss. he has a garden nozzle on the end so he can turn it off at the tank then walk instead of run out to turn the pump off
good luck!

[4x4xfar]

Hey Scat,

Great Idea using the RO for your Discus, I too use an RO Unit but for my drinking water not my fish and have never thought of using it for fish because of the obvious slow output of the unit.

You can buy RO Units from ebay quite cheap, I bought mine for $300 and it's been going strong for over 2 years now. It has a 10Lt Stainless Steel Tank for water storage and this is pressurized by the mains water pressure, and when you want a drink you have a faucet installed on your sink.
I know this is too small for the water that you want to store, but why not buy a Water Tank you typically see in the 4WD and Caravan industry, these often have an in built pump and hose setup, alternatively you can get a standard Plastic Chemical Barrell (unused) hooked up to a hose/powerhead setup.

Also, RO Units are extremely Wastefull with up to 50% of water used going down the drain, what I do is run the Outlet into my Washing Machine so I can use the otherwise wasted reject water to wash my clothes.

[dazzabozza]

Gday

I've been wanting the same so I'm not adding excess phosphates to my planted and reef tanks (from tap water). I'm leaning more toward collecting rainwater into a large storage tank. Advantage is a large volume of water readily avail. without having to wait for the RO process. The tanks cost similar to RO units too.

Not sure of the disadvantages though......

Dazza

[keleherr]

i use R/O water for some of my planted tanks with the addition of peat. i got a unit off ebay for $100 + postage. it pushes about 10L/h so its more then enough.
i have mine in the laundry and just put a bucket in there when im doing a water change. as mentioned there is alot of wast water, however on the upside you can use this for your rifties they love it.
hth james

[Scat]

Thanks guys

I think id need around 200lts per week at this stage( not 100% sure yet though ).

Have also been reading up about the pro`s and cons of rainwater to which one thing which can occur sometimes that ph crashes can occur sometime with using rainwater as the kh is too low to keep the ph at a stable level, people have been getting around this by adding a small pouch of crushed coral to their canister filter to which the crushed coral release`s a slow amount of carbonate and they are also adding prime which will lock any stray nasties from your roof (NO2 and urea from bird droppings, excess zinc from guttering etc).

Also apparently different ro units produce different ratios of waste water from 1:4 to 1:1 what do your guys ro units do ?

So still weighing up the options atm

Cheers
Craig

[kuhni]

Try psifilters.com.au , I hear only good things!!!

[Scat]

Thanks kuhni,

My hope is with all this tinkering around with the water conditions that this will trigger alot more of my corys to spawn also !

I do like the idea of a ro unit !

Cheers
Craig

[bradfitzy]

I too have been considering a ro unit but have not yet done any reaserch.
How often do you guys need to change the filters on them ???
Are the replacement filters expensive??

Brad.

[Scat]

Not sure myself Brad but am looking into it more , hopefully someone who is using a ro unit for their tanks atm can help us out

Craig

[4x4xfar]

The Filters do last a while, but it depends on how much water and its quality that your pumping through them. Using the RO for tanks is going to use a hell of a lot more water per year than what would be used if you were just drinking it.
Some Manufacturers claim their Filters will last up to 3 years, others 1 year. And that would all depend on the quality of water thats going in the Unit, because my water out of the tap in the Pilbara is already put through a Reverse Osmosis at the dam my water quality is pretty good to begin with, so my filters would probably last a lot longer than water from other places.

Filter Cartridges can cost from 30 bucks for all 3 (if 3 stage) or up to 75 dollars for one, depends on the quality you want.

There is alot to choose from and it all comes down to doing your research.

[TATTOO]

www.psifilters.com.au

I have ordered from peter, great service and if you join www.masa.asn.au you get further discount

[Brett]

Hi Craig,

Well I am going to play Devil's advocate and ask why you want softer water.

Most Perth water is reasonably soft to start with ... not too sure about Safety Bay

Most Discus commercially bred are aclimatised to "normal" water and don't require the extreme softness of Amazon waters

Stability of water parameters is more important than absolute values

RO units produce pure water that then needs to be mixed with either salts or "normal" water, before it is safe for fish.

Cheers

Brett

[Scat]

Hi Brett

Im brand new at testing gh ect, as ive kept malawi`s and didnt feel it nessacary, but with all the reading ive been doing on discus , everything points to softwater to success with discus !

My gh was around 120 which said on the box that this was moderately hard ?

Thats my reasoning anyway

Cheers
Craig

[fourdapostle]

Hey Craig me again.
Water is of concern with Discus and i am harvesting rain water into rain water tank then into a 200lt tank heating and pumping straight to fish tank.
I have tried the tap water and using a dechlorinating solution, ok but time consuming

Been doing this now for a couple of months and so much easier again it depends how many tanks you have and the size of the rain water tank.
I will be using bore water in the summer months mixed with both rain and tap, will let you know how i get on
A friend of mine did use ro units with his discus, he gave up with it and now pumps from the mains and treat water, and he also is a breeder.

[Scat]

Thanks fourdapostle

Am toying with this idea myself, with 2 200lt drums and treating the water,airating and heating it also. Am thinking of adding peatmoss into the drums as well( in stockings ).

Lots of ideas but and thinking your way is probably the most effective and less labour intensive

Anyone else want to share their methods with discus ?

Thanks
Craig

[Brett]

Hello Craig,

I presume the units you are measuring in is ppm (parts per million).

0 - 4 dH, 0 - 70 ppm : very soft
4 - 8 dH, 70 - 140 ppm : soft

This is from The Krib, an old but reliable website.

Scheme water in Bull Creek has a gH of 70-80ppm, so it does seem to be a bit harder down your way, but still not particularly hard.

I doubt you would need to soften your water to keep healthy Discus, but you may need to if you want to successfully breed them.
This is only for the spawning though, as the discus fry grow better in harder water.


Cheers

Brett

[Scat]

Hi Brett

Mate im still a newb at this gh, kh testing and working out water hardness atm

From my test kit, i have calculated the gh as per the instructions and the i think that figure (100) is this equasion ? (mg/L CaCO3) milligrams per liter combined with calcium carbonate ?

Do i need to test my KH and combine these to convert the readings to ppm ?

Thanks
Craig

[Cicolid]

Hi Craig,


How to convert your kH/gH reading from ppm to degrees (or degrees to ppm)?

KH or GH readings in parts per million (ppm) can be converted to degrees by dividing them by 17.86. For example, if your KH tests as 120 ppm, this means your KH is 6.7 degrees.


To convert gH/kH to ppm just multiply by 17.86.

Col

[Brett]

Hello again Craig,


These units can be confusing.

mg/litre and ppm (parts per million) are the same. So as expected your test kit measures in these units.

So gH of 120 ppm (or mg/l) is soft - medium hardness. Remembering that gH is the measure of Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) ions in the water.
If you want to convert to dH (degrees hardness) then you divide by 17.8 (as Col said)

kH (carbonate hardness / alkalinity) is completely seperate, but uses the same units.

Cheers

Brett