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it's a fact that discus need acidic water of ph 6 to 7 and soft water quality.

most use Reverse osmosis to do this. some use morena extract and ph minus formulas.

Question: Peat filtration is recommended to soften and lower PH of water. do you leave it in the filter forever. or just for certain amount of time like say two weeks then take it out.

It's hard to keep a discus fish but with the right water quality and filtration its very easy.

will PEAT help? thnx and how long will it stay in the water. thnx

Hi... not sure on how long to keep it in, guessing that you would have to make regular checks on pararimeters, daily or every other day, most discus keepers keep a very close watch on thier tanks..
Alot of discus you can by in stores now a days are a little easier to keep. Its the wild caught ones, check with your LFS to see where they get them from..local suppier?..
any LFS will be more than happy ( if they know what there doing) to give you water para. they keep them in and the suppiers..
Like all fish kept..water quality is everything, dicus is just more work..and keeping it stable....hope this helps.

thanks!!! worth lots of help.
another thing. know anything about blue rams?

Hi,
To be able to even attempt a guess as to the impact
of adding peat moss to your tank, you would have to
post the current pH, KH, and GH readings of your tank.
You don't say how large a quantity of water you are
trying to modify - 20 gallons or 200 gallons.

Adding Peat Moss to the tank will, generally, lower your
pH toward the 6's. How much of an effect depends upon
where your water is when you start, how much you add,
its quality, and what the KH of your water is.

By adding the moss, it leaches organic acids into the
water which of course results in the pH dropping toward
the 6's for a reading. If your KH is a 3 or higher, the
chances are that the carbonate in the water will neutralize
the acids and you could see no result unless, of course
you overload the system with moss.
If your KH is really low, around 1, then a small amount
of moss can make a large change as the water cannot
neutralize the leaching acid.

Some folks use a small filter bag to house a handful or
two and place it in the filter output. Others back a filter
with it and have the output of the primary filter run into
the input of the peat moss loaded filter, and then
the water is returned to the tank. Others use the peat
moss as a layer within the tank (not, for discus, a
particularly good idea).

How long it lasts (another variable) depends upon its
quality and how you pass the water through it. It is
usually a good idea to keep it contained in a close mesh
bag or in a filter so that the pieces don't find their
way into the tank to add to the detritus, or foul the tank.

For Discus, Personally, I'd use RO water mixed with regular
tap water for the tank.

Hope this helps...

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

frank i agree with you, but not so much on the RO water..depends like i had mentioned what type of discus you are keeping.. I know of many now and are doing fine without RO..growing rate is fabulous..its a bit of work to get the water stable..gh,kh, ph..LFS have most products for discus keeping..and much needed patience for a month or so BEFORE adding fish..Driftwood also will be ideal for discus, the tannings from it add a bit of a light tea colour..and helps with ph.
One thing I did forget to mention..when useing peat..and lowering your PH you want to make sure you dont set your tank into a mini cycle..
Discus are not as hard to keep as from sometime ago..
just make sure you do know what your getting yourself into..its time consuming to keep it just right..water changes would be done every fews day no longer..
sue

Hi,
Yes, as the fish become more and more generations removed
from their home waters, we can relax on the old time rules.
In the case of Discus fish this has become obvious as folks
are having successful broods with the pH into the low 7's.
Personally, I'd check with the breeder if possible, and
duplicate their water chemistries.

As far as RO water is concerned, I simply refuse to use
chemicals to alter the water when I can do it "naturally."

The draw back of RO filters are that they are expensive
to purchase, wasteful to run, and you have to replace
the membrane on a regular basis. Sounds like
perfect reasons NOT to own one! But they are excellent
filters and do a fantastic job.
The trick is to first decide what pH you
want to maintain in the tank. Then see what your tap pH
is. To do that run the tap for a few minutes (flushes the
line) and then draw a clean glass full of water. Allow it
to set for 24 hours to degas (keep the pets out of it -
no kitty spit!) and then test the pH. If you have a 10G
tank, I'd fill it with tap water and then replace the tap
water, a gallon at a time, with RO water. When you have
the desired pH, then you know that for every 10 gallons of
water that you change out, you will need "x" number of
gallons of RO water for the desired pH. Or, use a gallon
container and follow the same procedure.

Peat Moss and, or driftwood will drop the pH,
as do chemicals, but there is no way of saying that
1 pound or "x" number of ounces moss or wood will
suffice for a "Y" gallon tank. It takes trial and error
and the variables abound.

If I were dropping the pH for any fish, not just discus,
I'd use RO mixed with tap.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi

I've only been keeping discus for 3years (including wild caught) & am active on a discus specific forum. From what I've learned, it's more important to keep things constant. Whilst everyone seems to agree low pH & soft water are ideal (may be even more important for breeding), it's better to have a slightly higher pH & slightly harder water - if that means you can keep it stable. What discus don't like are a lot of swings, which can be experienced with chemical alteration of the water. There are many on that forum who keep them at higher pH & seem succussful. Keeping the tank clean - that's the important thing.

My water is naturally soft, so I'm lucky there. My pH is kept low by ph controlled C02 (both my 2 discus tanks are planted tanks). I'm not sure I would muck around with the pH though, if the tanks weren't planted or if I didn't have wilds. Wilds do need the lower pH. Also, it's recommended to keep wilds in a separate tank to domestics.

I haven't found my routine altered very much at all with the introduction of discus. For the first 2.5yrs of keeping discus, I kept to my routine of 50% water change weekly. I've recently moved to 2 x 30-40% wc per week. Not because I saw evidence my discus weren't doing well, but because so many people said discus prefer it - not really noticed any added benefit as yet, but the wc changes aren't hard, so I'll keep up the extra wc.

So what I'm trying to say is that I don't think discus deserve their reputation as being hard to keep. If you don't like doing at least a minimum of 1 or 2 water changes a week, they're not for you. You could maybe get away with 1 x 30-40% change a week, but be prepared to up the frequency at the first sign of trouble. They're big meaty fish who like clean water. As long as you're ok with the water changes, you should be fine.

Cheers
TW