Discus PH

[shakadog]

hi all,

As I've said in a couple of other posts im just in the process of getting back into discus and I've got water in the tank cycling now. With the water being neutral and very soft here out of the tap and running through prefilters before going into the tank my water is currently sitting at about 5.5 ph with almost no gh or kh.

Should I just leave this as it is or should I buy some buffers and try to bring the ph up a bit? I am leaning towards well enough alone and just let water changes and settling for the next month but I've never had a ph this low before so not sure whether it is best to interfere or stay away.

If you seen my other post im having all sorts of fun as well trying to figure out what the actual temp in the tank really is at present as well.

I want to get this right as will have a lot of discus in there once up and running.

[jimstreet]

My tap water runs about the same as yours and with driftwood in the tank pH drops further. My discus are fine so far. My view is the less you add to the water the better it is. IMHO keeping the pH etc constant rather than at the correct number is better.

[shakadog]

Thanks for your responses across all my posts greatly appreciated. Think I'll buy another $3 glass thermometer and program the Ehiems and Seneye to give the desired temp based on the avg of the glass readings which hopefully won't be far off each other.

As for the rest yea will leave alone, think I might chuck some otocinculus into the tank today just to make sure something is helping the nitrogen cycle along.

[Nathan]

i agree with jim a stable ph is very important. I would ask the seller what ph they have been bred in and try to align it more closely. 5.5 is quite low, that would be fine for wild caught but generally tank bred are slightly higher, as previously said though continuity is very important, with such a huge water volume you shouldnt have to many problems

[shakadog]

I decided that a KH of 0 was probably a bit to low so I added some Seachem alkaline buffer over a few days and have got the KH up to 2. I've now got a ph at its highest of 6.5 which drops to 6.3 during the day while the lights and co2 are running.

I feel a bit more comfortable with the parameters now.

[Nathan]

Perfect!! 6.5 is much

[ILLUSN]

where ever possible don't mess too much with your source water. those parameters are fine so long as you don't let the tank get too grubby