Adding A Water Softener To The House

[thisguyek]

We will be adding a water softener to the house and I am just wondering what I should expect in the behavior of my fish.

Can I go about my water changes as normal? (aprox. 25% weekly) or should I do less more frequently.

 

[KittyKat]

What will the softener actually do? Is it RO? An acid? Pass water through some other membrane or resin?

 

[thisguyek]

Its just a water softener for my house water. Basically it passes though salt tablets and filters for hard metals. It doesnt go in the tank... its in line with our main water supply. Nothing fancy, just a standard water softener... lol

 

[KittyKat]

If it only removes heavy metals, then it would be fine. But the "softener" part usually means removal things like calcium, etc, which can cause problems, if they are not added back.

 

[Mikaila31]

Depends how much is in the water to start with as I doubt it will remove ALL of it. When this house still had one running, tap water was still moderately hard after softening. Biggest thing to keep in mind is you will have salt in your tap water. As far as we care about the aquarium the softener does nothing but add salt. It doesn't really remove anything to start with, just exchanges. It will remove some hard metals, mostly what it removes is magnesium and calcium. It can have a effect on GH and KH which determine pH and buffering capacity. If you do really have hard water I would not expect any noticeable change.

 

[thisguyek]

ok great! so i can go about water changes as normal?