Whole House Water Softener

livelifelow

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After my boyfriend gets his tax return back, we will be buying a whole house water softener. After a year of watching house plants die and buying cut flowers only to have them die within a day, we believe that our well water needs serious adjusting. My biggest concern with getting one is obviously my fish.

Is there anything in particular with the water softener that I need to look for or avoid?
How heavily will the softener change my pH and gH?
What is the best method to adjust my fish to the change?
Can I have saltwater fish and corals on softened water?

I'm hoping the softener won't change things to drastically, I have a group of fish 2 weeks into quarantine that I just did the research on to actually match the fish to my water. I'm going to be gutted if these fish are suddenly not going to be capable of thriving in the conditions that I will be getting.
 
After my boyfriend gets his tax return back, we will be buying a whole house water softener.

Before giving any advice we need to know the exact make and model of the unit you are getting.
 
We have not gone looking at models yet. I was hoping to possibly get suggestions on what would work best with my fish in mind prior to looking at softeners. I figure its probably easier to know what not to get going in than to try to correct it for my fish afterwards.
 
As Nick indicated, it depends somewhat on the softener, how it works, what it does, to achieve softer water.

Generally, water that has gone through a softener is not suitable for any fish. This is because they frequently use sodium salt (like table salt) to replace the hard mineral salts (calcium and magnesium primarily). And sodium salt is dangerous for most freshwater fish.

What you should do is find out exactly what is in your well water. Even if water is safe for humans to drink, it can still be lethal to fish. It might be best to use the well water on its own, or it might not. But be careful, because softeners usually make things even worse for fish.
 
Generally, water that has gone through a softener is not suitable for any fish. This is because they frequently use sodium salt (like table salt) to replace the hard mineral salts (calcium and magnesium primarily). And sodium salt is dangerous for most freshwater fish.

When people refer to water softener they are mostly referring to a device that uses a resin bed and salt to soften water. This is the most common water softener used but there are other types.

Actually water softeners don't add sodium chloride to the drinking water. They do however release Sodium bicarbonate into the drinking water. After the water softener is charged with sodium chloride The calcium and magnesium carbonate in the water reacts with the salt releasing sodium bicarbonate into the drinking water. Later when the resin is recharged calcium and magnesium chloride is flushed down the drain and the the resin bed is recharged with salt.

The major disadvantage to water softening is the potential health risks for people on low sodium diets. The exchange of hardness minerals for sodium adds 7.5 milligrams per quart for each gpg of hardness removed. In addition, calcium and magnesium are eliminated from the homeowner's diet.

Note the gig in the above statement is in grains per gallon. So in order to know how much sodium bicarbonate is release in to the water you need to know how hard your water is right now. I don't know how much sodium bicarbonate is harmful to fish. But many people add sodium bicarbonate to increase KH in their aquariums. Since calcium and magnesium carbonate is removed the water scale problem is eliminated but many other elements in the water remain.

Another way to soften water is to use a RO filter. These often fit under the kitchen sink and larger units are available. An RO filter remove most elements including sodium lead and any magnesium and calcium that get past the water softener.. Not just calcium and magnesium. Unfortunately RO filters clog up very fast if the water has high levels of iron.

In many cases a water softener and RO filter are use together. The water softener is used to soften the water substantially (which also reduces iron) and all faucets in the home receive the soften water. Then a under sink RO unit is used to make cleaner low sodium water for drinking and cooking.RO water can be use in salt water and fresh water aquarium.

No mater which methode you use to soften the water. water with zero GH should not be used in an aqium. zero GH water is not good for shrimp snails and fish.A sulfate GH booster should be used to increase GH to at least 2 degrees GH.
 

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