RO water

Good day everyone.

I am looking to get some nice Discus next year and would like to know how do you make RO water? There is many filter systems one can use that I saw to turn the tap water to RO water. However, do anyone now of an easier way?

 

You could buy the water from any pet shop. There also water shops but you will need to find ones that produce ro water.

I am also busy doing research for my first salty and found that puritech.co.za have a nice marine option that is budget friendly.

P.S, only way to make RO water is to pass the water through a membrane which removes dissolved salts. Read up on the RO process online to gain more insight.

Regards
K

 

You will need to re-mineralize your water once you have made it. Agree that it will probably be cheaper to get your own unit rather than buy water.

 

The tap water I use is at about pH 7.3-7-8 and many minerals.

The discus will be fine in the pH range put will want soft water that I do not have so if I mix 80% RO water and 20% normal water I should be fine as that is was is recommended. Or do you have any other advice?

 

Mixing the water will be fine.

 

I bought my RO unit from aqua empire for around R1500 odd, made by RSK Reef, works like a bomb

 

@Bart, my apologies... I dont mean to derail your thread but I would like to throw a question out there which I think is relevant

I am no expert on discus although we did keep discus for some time before we went full swing into rays and we never used RO water
The discus were in superb condition, in fact some were discus we bought from @Marco.

The rule of thumb for sensitive fish is stable water to which they adapt is better than trying to change too much in an effort to replicate the water in the wild
Most discus available unless you import wild caughts, are captive bred

So my question to the discus guys.... unless you embarking on a breeding program, is it necessary to use RO water to successfully keep your discus in top condition?

Firstly.... let me tag @Marco ..... your input... please...
And any of our discus keepers that would like to share what they doing.... @Nico Hamman ... @BoelderBeestie ...

 

Hi Bart. Firstly you really should have some test kits and measure the values of your water. KH, GH, pH, test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates etc. ( or if there is a laboratory near you, get a full water analysis done)
Once you know all these you can then make a calculated decision about how hard or soft your water is. It also depends on whether you are using borehole or municipal water. If your water is good as it is, you might not even need to spend money of softening it. Discus can live is a wide variety of water types. When it comes to breeding them, well then you need to have very specific water to have success. There are many people who successfully keep their Discus in tap water - just age it to preheat it and to remove the chlorine. The only time you might have to buy a RO unit is to remove nasties from the water - but you also then HAVE to buy a TDS meter - to measue the Total Dissolved Solids.
Spend money on THE BEST filtration you can afford - that's a good start !!!!

 

I use RO only if I need to for breeding. Yes, BIG filter is best.

 

Thanks for the input so far guys

 

Hi

Eros gave good advice. Nothing to add.

Regards

Marco

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Just want to say thanks to everyone for all the information.

I have also talked to someone, which assisted me a lot regarding to do RO, or not with discus. So that helped a lot but it comes down to what was said regarding breeding and so on.

Thanks once again all.

 

Hi bud, I bought an RO unit for around 2k at dorrys pets in centurion and it works very well.

Are you sure you would need RO tho?

 

You can have a look at puritec in centurion they supply all the filters and cartridges to most shops and the are dirt cheap. If i remember correctly an basic unit was R999