Antipofish said:krazypara3165 said:BOOM! and i believe that is what people call a 'ceg bomb!' thanks for that, its made me feel more confident about keeping them in tap water!
Im not so sure it has given me that confidence. Whilst tarring most mainstream discus keepers with the same brush (of overfeeding and using unsuitable foods) Clive has also implied that just because a couple of named people we are all familiar with have had success keeping them in tap water, that everyone will be as successful. Its a double edged whammy that Im not prepared to accept so easily, simply on the grounds of its author (in this instance). I know people who keep discus, and one who lives very close to me (who knows his cichlids well enough to write for various publications as well as giving talks to Aquarist Societies) neither over feeds his discus nor holds with the idea that tap water is ideal. He has just "kept" them in tap water but having started using an HMA filter, has noticed that they are far happier. This has nothing to do with depleted oxygen caused by excessive feeding, but the water quality itself.
And wanting to use RO water is not obsessive. I find that notion somewhat offensive in fact. From a conversation I had with him before he went on his current tour of duty (which is thankfully soon to end), I know that George Farmer uses RO water because he believes it provides a better environment for his fish. And I would not expect he can be accused of overfeeding either.
Not all water is equal out of our taps too. Water supply companies tend to add cr4p as and when they feel like it. At least having RO filtered water that is then adjusted back to what we want in terms of mineralisation, we can give some kind of continuity to our fish.
true, but i think the point he was getting at is that a lot of people seem to believe you need r.o and the various other stuff, i for one have been told by one person i need 5x 20 min feedings a day which to me seems excessive, and would pollute my water (he was another discus breeder) whereas there seems to be a lot of information surfacing in the recent years saying that discus can thrive and breed in standard tap water (altho you are right, everyone has different water parameters) as you said before about seeing a noticeable difference after using R.O water but surely that would be the case with most fish?