tap water or not tap water

[Roger]

hi there i have just joined i have had fish for some time now but have allways been afraid of keeping discus tell me do they have to be kept in r.o. water or will tapwater do i have been told by one fish shop that they could be in tap water however the water is hard here (south of england) any advice would help i am not able to lift barrelsof ro water so tap water would be great no lifting :lol:

[BigFoot]

How hard is your kh and gh?


I have had water with a kh of 5.59 degress and gh of 8.95 and a ph of 8.0. So far so good here fish are eating well.

[wickedglass]

don't expect them to have viable broods in water like that though.

boiling the water can help with the hardness and so can peat-tea to some extend.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6477

here's a discussion on peat.
If your water has a lot of dissolved minerals/metals in it, it can be detrimental for your fish. Discus kept in water too alkaline and hard may often get holes in their heads, too, like the discus at the front on the 6th image on the following page ...
http://members.iinet.net.au/~ninjacows/Stuff/mattzilla/
although the discus is healthy and in beautiful condition, these are unsightly ... and not to be confused with hole-in-the-head disease.

if you post your water values here, people can get a better idea of how to help you.

[sharn]

ive had a friend who got normal sized spawns with healthy fish in a ph of 8 and they lived in that water for years healthily, i think its more of a stability thing than anything but obviously providing conditions as close to nature as you can will be beneficial. if your water params arent at extremes you will probably be fine with aged tap water water. just my opinion :)

[BigFoot]

Wickedglass.


I never mentioned anything about spawning them in that water only suggesting that they will live fine in that water. I hope this clarifies.

[FishLover]

I used to use peat and I switched to Discus Buffer just few days ago.

I will highly recommend Discus Buffer if you have hard water. It lowers the PH and stays there. You will not have the PH swings. Peat take too long to treat the water and it also kind of stain the water.

The only thing you need to watch is that if you have a planted tank, you want to make sure the alge is not out of control. An UV unit should take care of that.

[Cliffeh]

Roger I am in South London and get away with just HMA filtered tap although I leave it to stand and heat it before putting in although I have heard of some drip fed systems.

Some details on what the parameters of your tap water are would help.

There are a few specialist breeders such as devotedly discus in your neck of the woods that will have a good handle on local conditions. I don't think I should post links so will pm you.

Cheers

Cliffe.