WATER PARAMETERS

I can remember when i started with discus in 1985 there was no internet so i had to rely on books and word of mouth. I used 6.5 ph buffer or rain water the fish were ok but not happy and never breed. So i thought i would make life easier for anyone reading this. What i do now is use R/O water and HMA water. I have a 30 gallon water butt that i add 15 LTR'S of HMA water to this gives me PH=6.5 GH=4 KH=2 then its heated and used for water changes this is just to keep discus. When i want them to breed i use pure R/O water which in my case is PH=5.7 TDS=12 to this i add 3 scoops of tropic marin pro-discus mineral which you can buy from any good tropical fish shop this does not effect the PH but gives me a TDS of 100ppm remember this is all done in a 30 gallon water butt with heater my tanks all run at 30C 86F Incase anyone is wondering what HMA is its water through a filter thats had all or most of the heavy metals removed and TDS means total desolved minerals. The reason i mention this is because i did'nt know myself and it took me ages to find out. This works for me not saying all fish are the same i change a 3rd of the water every other day in the 400 LTR tanks. In the young fishes tank which is 120LTR i change 75% every day. Hope this helps people starting out with discus if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. Regards. Colin