Hi, thanks for sharing your experience! If you're using pure RO water.. why not try Seachem buffers to fix constant pH at a given value? Also, minerals in water do as well osmotic pressure on organisms, it is not just calcium fixation.. Discus Preis salt are not rising KH therefore let you put pH down.. Food brings pH down.. maybe it is more fish overactivity at this moment with CO2 production that impacts pH or? Over long term, you do have mulm or dirty sponges that drop down pH. How would you check water params? That could be interesting. Drop test? Monitor? pH and temperature.. smthg else? Conductivity? KH?
I tried buffers and was not satisfied with the final product. I think what a lot people that are trying to breed discus is they are always trying to drop ph to breed the Discus. If you study how the breed in the wild its just the opposite. They struggle in the dry season because the water drops and and so does the Ph. They actually breed when the water rises along with the Ph. The currents are are fast and water temp is around 88 degrees. It's the rising Ph is what triggers breeding. So to breed on command in a tank you must mimic these conditions. By using the ro/cc method they are waiting for the rise which is your warm tap water acting like mountain run off triggers them every time, the Ph goes from 5 to 7 and 100 micro siemens, I check it daily the crushed coral prevents crashing, if I leave it with food, mulm etc. It doesn'tdrop below4.6. If my discus aren't breeding they are in 7.8 500 micro siemens. To grow and stay healthy. With this technique I can produce fry with a confirmed female/ Male. They get 4-5 tries then moved to a regular tank for 45-60 days. This is not for the faint of heart but highly profitable and effective. There is so much more but it's hard to explain the entire system in a 15 minute video ,especially when I have to cut out 2 hours of video for youtube, it is so frustrating. If I cut it into a series people will take it out of context. I m consider starting live streams for a more interactive discussion. Steve Heller Sheller Aquatics
@@shelleraquatics Hi, thanks for such long answer, appreciated. Regarding pH evolution over the year, especially dry / raining season.. would you have references or paper? Because 1. in my own tank I can observe pH fluctuation over the days, 2. in many expeditions, people check pH once, when they're here in fact.. and I always wonder the representativness of such one shoot eval.. ;-)
ua-cam.com/video/Kn0-ZZPqR7w/v-deo.htmlsi=Xm6yKiQ4l8vifcKb. I was trained by John Nieman and he traveled to the Amazon many times. My information comes from him but I watched cool documentary but can't seen to find it I'll keep looking. The video link in this comment has some good info.
Great video, I am in north Florida water is pretty hard but I don’t soften. I am running a 300 discus tank, they doing great yet I get my fish local to the water.
That's awesome 👌. Yes I find they do just fine in any water that is constant and stable. Thank you for watching and commenting I really do appreciate it 🙏 😊
Question, Ive currently been running about 90% RO and 10% tap on my breeding tanks, grow out tanks and my display tank. After watching your video I’ve switched my breeding tanks to 100% RO with the addition to the crushed coral. My question is am I wasting RO on the other tanks? Is it necessary for optimal health or does it not matter if it’s tap? Sorry for the drawn out question thanks again
The ro/crushed coral is for breeding tank but please don't keep them in this water forever without supplementing their diet with vitamins and minerals. As far as grow out and display tank i would stop using RO and switch to tap. There is no reason to keep discus in RO water, this method is for temporary breeding. What is your Tap water Parameters? Sorry for some reason your important comment slipped through the cracks. If you would like to talk you can text me @ 801-471-9069. and I will call you back on a secure line, I am here to help it is my mission. Steve Heller Sheller Aquatics
Amazing clear cut explanation. Too much riddle trying to stabilize the buffering capacity of the water by pushing chemicals like Seachem Alkaline and Acid buffer. Calcium Carbonate or Crushed coral seems to be a easy solution to this answer. Discus i presume needs a Kh of 50 ppm. How much crushed coral is required for a 125 gallon tank capacity with straight RO water ( treated, aged and temperature balanced)?.
Thanks for this! I have been struggling with getting my water adjusted properly where it is stable. Out of the tap my water is a 9, but if I age it a couple of days it drops to a 6. I have been using RO and it comes out at 5.3. What is your pH before your RO and after?
My tap water is between 8.2 and 7.8 depending on the source and time of year. My RO is 7-7.2 when it hits the barrel but drops to 6.8 after a day of aging. Steve Heller
2 sets. Tap runs through the first into barrels. Right after the 3 filters it splits off to the 2nd set and finally goes through 2 ro membranes and automatically fills other barrels. Steve Heller
Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback. I enjoy making videos again and learned a lot on making quality not just quantity. Still have much to learn on the video side and by making videos again its teaching important aspects of fish keeping so a win win. Steve Heller
Great content, would love to get the chance to pick yours brain lol What type/brand of minerals do you add to the food? Also what brand of crushed coral do you use? And how much should be added per gallon? Thanks
I use a lab grade vitamin and mineral supplement. It is very high grade and I actually take it myself. You can add tap water to help mineral content but this hard for me to recommend amounts because water is so different around the countries but also change locally for me every season. Right now I add 1 gallon to every 30 Gallons Of R.O when needed, but I also test. For breeding we don't want the Ph to drop below 5.5 because the male milt is not viable. My tap water on average is 8.2 and 300 pm. Crushed coral amount does not matter if it is visible in a media bag. The acids only use it when the Ph drops. I usually use around a cup. If it is hidden in a filter or substrate more is better than less, it's a buffer on demand! I am launching my meds. Package soon and crushed coral will be included or purchased separately. I source it local to me by the kilo. I just purchased 10 kilos. Steve Heller
I've tried it both ways and prefer the tank. For me the thought of pure RO water was appealing but not sure it really makes a difference. My other thought was it adds biological media to the tank so duel purpose but my mind sometimes over thinks things. Steve Heller
I'll be selling my brand of Crushed coral soon. I have invested a lot of money to create my own products. Literally 1000's of dollars. I have a good friend who is a scientist that creates all my chemicals for my other business. Most of the products sold by the corporate aquarium companies is total garbage.
I definitely would recommend crushed coral. Your pH will fluctuate natural but will not crash as long as you keep an eye on the crushed coral. When your water get acidic it eats or dissolves it fast. I would try and put it in a very flow. I have found in In A high flow filter the flow eats the Crushed coral up faster than needed. You need to keep an eye on it so you know when is getting depleted. Steve Heller
My soft water going into breeding tanks is 1 micro Siemens. This allows me to control my TDS with my food, not chemicals. I don't measure tds. Regularly feeding the right foods brings my tank to around 50-60 micro siemens, which I believe is around 100 tds.
Hi, thanks for sharing your experience! If you're using pure RO water.. why not try Seachem buffers to fix constant pH at a given value? Also, minerals in water do as well osmotic pressure on organisms, it is not just calcium fixation.. Discus Preis salt are not rising KH therefore let you put pH down.. Food brings pH down.. maybe it is more fish overactivity at this moment with CO2 production that impacts pH or? Over long term, you do have mulm or dirty sponges that drop down pH.
How would you check water params? That could be interesting. Drop test? Monitor? pH and temperature.. smthg else? Conductivity? KH?
I tried buffers and was not satisfied with the final product. I think what a lot people that are trying to breed discus is they are always trying to drop ph to breed the Discus. If you study how the breed in the wild its just the opposite. They struggle in the dry season because the water drops and and so does the Ph. They actually breed when the water rises along with the Ph. The currents are are fast and water temp is around 88 degrees. It's the rising Ph is what triggers breeding. So to breed on command in a tank you must mimic these conditions. By using the ro/cc method they are waiting for the rise which is your warm tap water acting like mountain run off triggers them every time, the Ph goes from 5 to 7 and 100 micro siemens, I check it daily the crushed coral prevents crashing, if I leave it with food, mulm etc. It doesn'tdrop below4.6. If my discus aren't breeding they are in 7.8 500 micro siemens. To grow and stay healthy. With this technique I can produce fry with a confirmed female/ Male. They get 4-5 tries then moved to a regular tank for 45-60 days. This is not for the faint of heart but highly profitable and effective. There is so much more but it's hard to explain the entire system in a 15 minute video ,especially when I have to cut out 2 hours of video for youtube, it is so frustrating. If I cut it into a series people will take it out of context. I m consider starting live streams for a more interactive discussion.
Steve Heller
Sheller Aquatics
@@shelleraquatics Hi, thanks for such long answer, appreciated. Regarding pH evolution over the year, especially dry / raining season.. would you have references or paper? Because 1. in my own tank I can observe pH fluctuation over the days, 2. in many expeditions, people check pH once, when they're here in fact.. and I always wonder the representativness of such one shoot eval.. ;-)
ua-cam.com/video/Kn0-ZZPqR7w/v-deo.htmlsi=Xm6yKiQ4l8vifcKb. I was trained by John Nieman and he traveled to the Amazon many times. My information comes from him but I watched cool documentary but can't seen to find it I'll keep looking. The video link in this comment has some good info.
Quality. Not quantity. Really. Really good vid. Thanks
Thank you very much! Appreciated!
Steve Heller
Great video, I am in north Florida water is pretty hard but I don’t soften. I am running a 300 discus tank, they doing great yet I get my fish local to the water.
That's awesome 👌. Yes I find they do just fine in any water that is constant and stable. Thank you for watching and commenting I really do appreciate it 🙏 😊
Do I need an reverse osmosis machine or can I use tapwater with water conditioner I have a 300 L tank thats empty any ideas great video?
Tap water is fine unless you are breeding.
Steve Heller
Will you be planning to make a vid focusing on breeding? Would like to learn more with your way of doing it
Yes, I will try but if you read the pinned comment on this video it begins to explain the process.
Steve Heller
Question, Ive currently been running about 90% RO and 10% tap on my breeding tanks, grow out tanks and my display tank. After watching your video I’ve switched my breeding tanks to 100% RO with the addition to the crushed coral. My question is am I wasting RO on the other tanks? Is it necessary for optimal health or does it not matter if it’s tap? Sorry for the drawn out question thanks again
The ro/crushed coral is for breeding tank but please don't keep them in this water forever without supplementing their diet with vitamins and minerals. As far as grow out and display tank i would stop using RO and switch to tap. There is no reason to keep discus in RO water, this method is for temporary breeding. What is your Tap water Parameters?
Sorry for some reason your important comment slipped through the cracks. If you would like to talk you can text me @ 801-471-9069. and I will call you back on a secure line, I am here to help it is my mission.
Steve Heller
Sheller Aquatics
Amazing clear cut explanation. Too much riddle trying to stabilize the buffering capacity of the water by pushing chemicals like Seachem Alkaline and Acid buffer. Calcium Carbonate or Crushed coral seems to be a easy solution to this answer. Discus i presume needs a Kh of 50 ppm. How much crushed coral is required for a 125 gallon tank capacity with straight RO water ( treated, aged and temperature balanced)?.
Crush coral does have some buffer but it real job is to stop Ph crash. It is a backup or a CYA method.
@@shelleraquatics Ok. Thank you.
Great video and very informative. Thank you!
Very welcome! I really appreciate your feedback!
Thanks for this! I have been struggling with getting my water adjusted properly where it is stable. Out of the tap my water is a 9, but if I age it a couple of days it drops to a 6. I have been using RO and it comes out at 5.3. What is your pH before your RO and after?
My tap water is between 8.2 and 7.8 depending on the source and time of year. My RO is 7-7.2 when it hits the barrel but drops to 6.8 after a day of aging.
Steve Heller
So you have 2 sets of HMA and RO systems or you somehow run the filtered water back through the same HMA and RO systems?
2 sets. Tap runs through the first into barrels. Right after the 3 filters it splits off to the 2nd set and finally goes through 2 ro membranes and automatically fills other barrels.
Steve Heller
@@shelleraquatics this video was really helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback. I enjoy making videos again and learned a lot on making quality not just quantity. Still have much to learn on the video side and by making videos again its teaching important aspects of fish keeping so a win win.
Steve Heller
Great content, would love to get the chance to pick yours brain lol What type/brand of minerals do you add to the food? Also what brand of crushed coral do you use? And how much should be added per gallon? Thanks
I use a lab grade vitamin and mineral supplement. It is very high grade and I actually take it myself.
You can add tap water to help mineral content but this hard for me to recommend amounts because water is so different around the countries but also change locally for me every season. Right now I add 1 gallon to every 30 Gallons Of R.O when needed, but I also test. For breeding we don't want the Ph to drop below 5.5 because the male milt is not viable. My tap water on average is 8.2 and 300 pm. Crushed coral amount does not matter if it is visible in a media bag. The acids only use it when the Ph drops. I usually use around a cup. If it is hidden in a filter or substrate more is better than less, it's a buffer on demand! I am launching my meds. Package soon and crushed coral will be included or purchased separately. I source it local to me by the kilo. I just purchased 10 kilos.
Steve Heller
Thanks for the info appreciate it! Do you hang a bag of the crushed coral in your RO barrels? Or just in the aquarium itself? Thanks again
I've tried it both ways and prefer the tank. For me the thought of pure RO water was appealing but not sure it really makes a difference. My other thought was it adds biological media to the tank so duel purpose but my mind sometimes over thinks things.
Steve Heller
@@shelleraquatics awesome thanks again!
I'll be selling my brand of Crushed coral soon. I have invested a lot of money to create my own products. Literally 1000's of dollars. I have a good friend who is a scientist that creates all my chemicals for my other business. Most of the products sold by the corporate aquarium companies is total garbage.
And also, if my straight RO is too low, you would only recommend crushed coral in the filter raise it and to keep it stable?
I definitely would recommend crushed coral. Your pH will fluctuate natural but will not crash as long as you keep an eye on the crushed coral. When your water get acidic it eats or dissolves it fast. I would try and put it in a very flow. I have found in In A high flow filter the flow eats the Crushed coral up faster than needed. You need to keep an eye on it so you know when is getting depleted.
Steve Heller
@@shelleraquatics awesome, thanks so much Steve!
@@dasmiths69 anytime 😊
whats the best temp for small discus(2 to 3 inches)?
86 degrees
Putting it into the the sump...
Awesome 👌
I mean for breeding discus
The comment I just sent is optimal for breeding Discus.
wat about total disolve solids TDS
My soft water going into breeding tanks is 1 micro Siemens. This allows me to control my TDS with my food, not chemicals. I don't measure tds. Regularly feeding the right foods brings my tank to around 50-60 micro siemens, which I believe is around 100 tds.