Water Quality - part 1

So, first an obvious confession: I haven't kept Discus before. Any ideas for the design and maintenance of the new tank have all been gleaned from reading of books, magazines and internet sources. This also goes for any comments I make about the fish themselves - what you read in these pages is what I know - that doesn't mean it's correct!! I guess I'll be making my own mistakes as I build this thing, hopefully any mistakes or holes in my knowledge won't be too critical. One thing seems to clear to me though, Discus like high quality water to swim around in. They used to be regarded as very challenging or even to be avoided. These days though they are being much more widely kept. This seems to be down to 3 main factors:

Modern equipment allows tank conditions to be more accurately tailored to their needs

Most commercially available Discus have been bred and raised for many generations in more forgiving water conditions (pH 7, GH +10)

Fishkeeping knowledge is better than it used to be - it's now known what's more important to keep the fish healthy and how to get to that point

So, for whatever reason, discus probably easier to keep than 10-20 years ago…. but whichever source you consult, water quality remains a very important consideration and they way I interpret the facts is that no harm can be done by maintaining the highest possible quality. Factors that Discus don't like are: Contaminants that come in from the tap water (Chlorine, chloramine, heavy metals etc) and their own (or other tank inhabitants) pollution and the breakdown products of their own pollution. The issue of tap water quality can be addressed by purification of the tap water after it's drawn from the mains the issue of the pollution produced by the fish themselves is either tackled through filtration and/or water changes - basically diluting the problem. Over the next few posts I'll cover how I'm planning to tackle each of these challenges..