# Water Chemistry from really hard water



## Chris25 (7 Jun 2014)

Hi all,

I live down in Southampton and have stupidly hard water!

I want to try and breed and raise discus and am struggling to get my parameters correct.

I have a bare bottom 100l tank which I've setup with an air filter and air stone.
I have put in some moss balls from another tank and there are currently no fish or livestock.
I did have my air filter foam in my trickle filter for 3 weeks and before that they were being used so they should be cycled?

I used 14 parts RO water to 1 part HMA water.

After a few days these are my parameters:
TDS: 44ppm
PH: Around 7.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5ppm
KH: 2dKH, 35.8ppm
GH: 2-3dKH, 35.8-53.7ppm

Parameters of HMA water:
PH: Over 8
TDS: 266ppm
KH and GH: 14-15dKH

I've read to keep, breed and raise discus I need a PH around 6-7 ideally 6.5? and TDS of around 50-150ppm. 

How do I go about mixing more of the HMA water in, without raising the PH? Is this even possible or would I need to add some chemical to lower the PH back down? (Theres no co2 injection in this tank) 

Any one in southampton that keeps discus and could explain how they mix up their water would be very very much appreciated!!

Thanks for any advice and help you can give me!

Chris


----------



## OllieNZ (7 Jun 2014)

With very soft water it doesn't take much to shift ph. Try making your own black water extract or adding a bag of peat or kappata leaves to the tank.


----------



## Chris25 (7 Jun 2014)

Ah I've got some Kappata bark which I tried before but it didn't do anything. Guessing that was because the water was way to hard for it to shift the ph.
I've dropped a few of those in to see what effect they have! Thanks Ollie!


----------



## dw1305 (8 Jun 2014)

Hi all, 





> I used 14 parts RO water to 1 part HMA water.
> 
> After a few days these are my parameters:
> TDS: 44ppm
> ...


That is absolutely fine, just ignore pH. You can add sphagnum peat or a few _Terminallia_ (or Oak leaves) if you want, and I'd suggest a potted Amazon sword or similar if you want to stay bare bottom (personally I'd add a thin layer of sand).

Have a look for Larry Waybright's (Apistomaster) posts on various forums. For Discus, he is a "man who can", and I'd trust his view over a lot of the "experts" on some Discus forums
<http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=191575>.

cheers Darrel


----------

