mickey-tropical-fish-mad Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Hi you may have read a different post i sent about deciding what fish i wanted to keep! I think a discus sounds rather nice! I have done a little bit of research and found that they need soft water i have searched everything to find what soft water is but nothing came up! so if anyone knows please post! I also found out they need there water filtered through peat. what is peat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Without getting too far into it "soft" and "hard" water refers to the pH level. <7 is soft and >7 is hard. Peat is the stuff they used to burn instead of coal; it's from marshlands, I believe. You can buy it at your LFS. As for discus, I strongly recommend you avoid difficult fish like these until you have more experience. They can't handle a temperature change of more than 2 degrees © and a pH change of more than 0.2, generally. Care must be taken with all aspects of water quality, which you seem to just be learning about, as negligence results in DEATH and that's a big loss with such expensive and beautiful fish. Good luck if you DO decide to keep discus in the future. We find them to be the kings of freshwater aquaria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickey-tropical-fish-mad Posted December 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Yer ok thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickey-tropical-fish-mad Posted December 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 oh and by the way i know lots about water quality! If i didnt the current fish i have would be dead. Just because im still a beginner doesnt make me stupid. I test phs in my current tank alot but i didnt know soft and hard i usually think acid to alkaline. anyway, We all learn new stuff everyday on forums like these. Thanks the advice goodbye! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Once again you seem to have taken things said a little harshly. Discus are MUCH more difficult than any fish you currently have. As I said, good luck if you DO decide to go with discus, as they're great fish and really have some beautiful colourations/strains these days. I strongly recommend buying a reading a book called "Discus Health" by Dieter Untergasser before getting into discus. It's literally the discus bible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 16, 2005 Report Share Posted December 16, 2005 Mickey he was trying to help you. Discus are expensive fish and harder to keep than many others. Considering the questions you have been asking, his suggestion you get more experience first is a good one. We would say it to anybody, not just to you because we think you are 'stupid'. This is not the case. You can't have looked very hard if you could not find any information on water hardness. Just type 'hard and soft water in aquariums' into Google and you will find plenty of information. Read http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Water hardness is caused by the amount of calcium (mainly) in the water and is not related to pH which is the hydrogen ion concentration (acid or alkali) coca cola I think has a pH OF 4.6. Temporary hardness is usually caused by calcium bicarbonate (baking soda) and will break down. The easiest way to get soft acid water is to collect rainwater (which is usually acid because of contamination by sulphur dioxide from smoke---cheap and easy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 You can tell easily how hard or soft water is by how long it takes to get soap to lather. In soft water you get bubbles quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Discus don't need soft water .Infect they grow very well in hard water which is full of mineral. The only time they need soft water is when you want to breed them. Discus don't need acidic water either. They trive very well in alkaline water too. All they need is stable PH be it ph5 or ph8.4. Fluctuating ph for eg. ph6 one day and ph7.8 another will stress them out. So always try to keep the ph the same. Discus don't need peat filtered water either unless you are breeding them. All peat does is make the water soft and acidic. Baby and juvinile discus don't do very well in graveled planted tank provided you can keep the water quality top notch. They might not grow to their full potential and quite often be stunted. Keeping adult in planted tank is ok. Discus can tolerate a temperature fluctuation of 5 degree without stressing out. Last but not least Discus are not hard to keep. Regular water change, Stable PH, Temperature 28-30 degree C are the key to healthy discus. Hth. Cheers, Ronnie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickey-tropical-fish-mad Posted December 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Thanks everyone and blue and kim sorry i guess you were only tryin 2 help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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