stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hi All I'm New so be gentle. I,m losing a constant battle with ph.I want it around 6.5 for my discus especially my new youngsters from Auckland. I have a storage container around 100l to condition water i have a heater, sponge filter, two bags of peat moss and a softening pillow in it, hoping to reach a ph around 6.5. But dosent seem to be doing what i want it to do my tap water is around 7.2-7.5.Iv tried using discus buffer but it keeps rising back up to the original ph. And if i could keep away from chemicals. Any suggestions on how to reach my goal as i don't want to shock my fish with bouncing ph levels, but also dont want to stunt there growth due to ph levels Any help would be so grateful as im running out of options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 You could get some elder cones (should still be some on trees this time of year) and boil up some tea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 wood helps aswell, could try using rain water in the waterchanges instead of tap? its always better for fish to have a constant PH rather than one that fluctuates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 also does peat work as efectivly if its just sutting in the conditioning container or would it work better if water runs through it :dunno: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Chuck some peat and alder cones in a bag in your water conditioning bucket with an airstone and see if it makes a difference.. If it does nothing then your KH might be too high in which case you will have to goto a different water source like rain water etc. Also you are using a water softening pillow, I am unsure how these work but water softness/hardness is completely different to PH.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 have you also got peat in the tank filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 the water softening pillow helps to lower kh/gh so thats why thats in there. And the tank is bare bottom 80l with sponge filter and heater thats it for the wee ones they are my main focus getting them to grow to there potential. Just did the big run round aquarium places and every1 suggests peat. its just the waiting period for peat to work, it takes a wee while to do its job and my fish kinda need water changes in between waiting for peat to soften and lower the ph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 The only other thing I know that lowers the ph, other than what has been said already, is co2 but that can have it's downsides with fluctuations etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 yea the only other thing i can think of is R/O unit which makes water pure then with the discus buffer as it has nothing to bounce it back to the original ph :dunno: Its one of those things why cant the council give me 6.5 soft water &c:ry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 They will not give it to you like that because you would be screaming down the phone at them when all your taps were dripping and your hot water cylinder was leaking. God gives it to you every time it rains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Your young discus will be better off in water with pH 7 - 7.5 As they get older a pH between 6.5 - 7 or close enough will do. Don't chase a number; just ensure the quality of the water is high and stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 collect rain water and add that to the tank for water changes. If you have limestone/shells in your tank that will raise the ph and could be the cause of your battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 :slfg: true but it would be nice for my fish about the 6.5 hehe :slfg: The rain water sounds like the go to be honest, and nah i dont have shells its a bare bottom souly for growth. Have just done a water test in condition container............ after 24hrs dun dala dun PH:7 Nitrite:0ppm Nitrate:0ppm Ammonia:25-50ppm...............What the duce??? :nilly: So im guessing my conditioning container is trying to cycle???? what the heck So Back to square 1 I think the R/O is looking to be the go. Any ideas on what the hell is happing??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 If the PH is 7 then just leave it, you will cause more harm than good messing with it.. I would be more concerned about the ammonia than anything else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 As Ryan said, test the KH otherwise you could be fighting a losing battle using peat and alder cones if your water is hard as rock. I would suggest putting the peat in a stocking and rinse it well, then add it to a filter so it has good water movement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 cheers for all the help and yes i think im just going to leave it for now because ill end up bald at this rate but gunna buy a R/O unit just to make lifre that we bit easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted July 13, 2011 Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 Driftwood will also help lower the pH. How long has your tank been set up for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2011 i have a display which is 300l which is planted and drift wood etc etc But this 1 is a grow out tank for youngsters but am just gonna leave the ph as like every1 sez your Betta to have 7ph that's stable than trying to adjust it and it fluctuating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishplants Posted July 14, 2011 Report Share Posted July 14, 2011 i have a display which is 300l which is planted and drift wood etc etc But this 1 is a grow out tank for youngsters but am just gonna leave the ph as like every1 sez your Betta to have 7ph that's stable than trying to adjust it and it fluctuating. Good idea. I am growing out 3 batches of Discus fry and one tank of sub-adults in straight tap water at the moment (pH 7.2-7.4), and I definitely can't complain about their growth rate! The first batch of fry range between 30mm (two runts) and 45mm avg 37.5mm excl tail at only 10 weeks old. My tap water is sourced from the same place as yours, except we don't have chlorine in ours. If you wanted to (for some other reason), it is very easy to create a dark, 6.4pH tank using water pre filtered through a peat filter system. This does remove some of the beneficial salts from your water though, but not all. RO units can be very dangerous for Discus fry as they remove all of the dissolved solids (calcium etc as well as other less desirable chemicals) in water. If you used 100% RO water your Discus would suffer very badly, you would need to remineralise your water before putting it in the tank. So, aside from the chlorine issue, you may as well skip that complicated, expensive step and just use tap water. Hope that helps? What are the juvenile discus you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacey cunningham Posted July 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2011 my juveniles are 5 x brilliant blues 1 runt, and have just got 2 intermediate albino leopards and two fuji reds that will arrive in couple of weeks. my briilliant blues are growing so big and so fast its great atm they are between 5-6cm and eat my $120 brew of ox heart, salmon, cod, shrimp,prawns, spirulina,carrot,spinich,pro growth etc etc they absolutely love it. I went out and bought a r/o unit havent set it up yet as we are moving house this week. But stoked with the purchase.I emailed seachem and asked weather i would have to add replenish and discus trace to the r/o water but they said discus trace will put all the essential minerals back in so :thup:. What are the juveniles your bringing up? Im just getting into the breeding side of things now and have two breeding pair ready to go once i move and they can go in there own tanks. But have been purchasing younger fish to grow out for the future because its pretty hard to find anything decent in chch.. discus wise anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flosty Posted July 24, 2011 Report Share Posted July 24, 2011 Just use aged tap water You will get far better growth from your discus if you are not bouncing the ph around The first thing that will stunt growth is stressed fish RO is fine for lowering your tds for beeding purposes but otherwise growing your discus out in tap water is perfectly fine and cheaper! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishplants Posted July 24, 2011 Report Share Posted July 24, 2011 my juveniles are 5 x brilliant blues 1 runt, and have just got 2 intermediate albino leopards and two fuji reds that will arrive in couple of weeks. my briilliant blues are growing so big and so fast its great atm they are between 5-6cm and eat my $120 brew of ox heart, salmon, cod, shrimp,prawns, spirulina,carrot,spinich,pro growth etc etc they absolutely love it. I went out and bought a r/o unit havent set it up yet as we are moving house this week. But stoked with the purchase.I emailed seachem and asked weather i would have to add replenish and discus trace to the r/o water but they said discus trace will put all the essential minerals back in so :thup:. What are the juveniles your bringing up? Im just getting into the breeding side of things now and have two breeding pair ready to go once i move and they can go in there own tanks. But have been purchasing younger fish to grow out for the future because its pretty hard to find anything decent in chch.. discus wise anyway. PM sent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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