muriatic acid

[jts112278]

I am a newbie to discus and I have been doing quite a bit of research both on the internet and in my lfs about Discus. I hope to set up the tank in July and would like to know if anyone has any opinions on Muruatic Acid. Supposedly this will bring your ph down to the necessary level. Any advice/experince you might have would be greatly appreciated.

[aznpanther98]

well don't keep discus or use muriatic acid in fish tanks i've used them at my pool i use to work at to lower the ph, it was very concentrated so be careful with that stuff the fumes are enough to burn the hairs off ur nose

I use Discus buffer and Neutral regulator by Seachem when using R/O water. Works great. I would recommend that if you do use muriatic acid, that you first test it without using fish, maybe in a 5G pail or something. Then you can figure out what ratio is needed for your tank and slowly can start changing the pH.

[jts112278]

Excellent suggestion ronrca! That is exactly what I did on my lunch break today. Picked some up at a lps (local paint store) and treated 5 gal. in a bucket. After five minutes, using one capful, the water went from a 8.8 to 5.5!!!! Wow is all i have to say. This is preliminary info but i am pretty excited to do somemore tests this evening! i'll keep the updates coming!

Just to make sure. Im not sure if you know this or not so I will mention it anyways.

Please do not change the pH that your fish are in too quickly. It will stress you fish out and can lead to disease, then death. I have had it happen to me already. Do it slowly over a number of weeks. I would recommend changing the ph by only 0.2 every couple of days. The method I use is a drip method. I place a 5G pail of water higher than my tank and, using a air hose tube, slowly siphon the water from the pail into the tank. Depending on the rate of flow, the pail will take 3-4 hours to empty. This works great for changing water chemistry and for acclimating new fish especially discus.

Another test you should do is get a feeder goldfish and also put it in the 5G test pail. This way, if the acid is somehow harmful to the fish, you do not expose your discus to it.

[jts112278]

Thanks for the advice ronrca. I tested the water again last night. The ph is still 5.5 and is about 3 degrees dkh. Here is my plan as of now. Ronrca I would love to hear your opinion.

Do further tests on the acid (i.e. ph over time, live fish tests, amount needed per gallon)

55 gal garbage can.
pretreat water with muratic acid (pending more tests to see if healthy for livestock)
Amquel & Novaqua
heat water to 86-88 degrees.

Do water changes with this water only.
Any other suggestions would be really appreciated! I am in no hurry to set up the tank since i am moving in July, and will not be setting it up until after the move.

Sounds good to me. Just keep doing tests. You are on the right track. Good luck and let me know how it works out. I might just try it also. *miley*

One more thing, when you do get your tank up and running, dont get any fish yet. First cycle is by using the fishless cycle. It should take around 3-5 weeks. In that period you can also watch the water parameters with all the tank decorations, gravel, etc. That would be your last test before actually getting any fish. Caution is the word.  miley*  ley*

[jts112278]

Thanks again ronrca, by the way that evening picture of yur 90 gal looks unbelievable! Your discus must be very happy.

My discus were pretty happy. That was until I bought 2 more, a Tangerin Dream and a Blue Turquiose. Being naive, I put them into my 90G that very evening. In a couple of days, one discus got sick. Of course, my hospital tank I didnt bother to keep running so I had to quickly get it started again plus cycled. Well, that took a week so by the time I finally was able to put my discus into the hospital tank, one was pretty much a goner and two more were infected. My discus are healthy now but I lost two more before they were. At least the new ones survived which costed me $100 for both of them. I still am fighting a disease in my 90G. My dwarf neon rainbows are sick and I have lost 4 rasboras and 1 cardinal. I hope that it will to over soon.

Now I know better. Use the hospital tank no matter who you get fish from. The lfs I bought the discus from is the best and I have bought many fish from them without any problems. I know their fish are the best however no one can be garenteed that the fish are %100 disease free.

Another cause might of been my pH fluctuating because of my C02 injection and surface movement from my bio wheel. Even though the movement was very slight, my pH would keep rising to 7.6. I would then increase C02, it would come down however I was approaching the harmful level of C02 of around 25-30ppm so I could not increase C02. I finally removed my bio wheel and now there is no surface movement. C02 injection is a lot less and pH is steady at 7.0. That should help with the disease.

[jts112278]

Sorry to hear that. I would also recommend a water change and increasing the temperature a degree a day for a few days. The warmer water will increase their metabolsim and hopefully get rid of anything that is in the water.

As my lfs guru tells me everytime i pick up a new pet

"quaratine, quaratine, quaratine!!!"