Soft Water.....

[truetotexas]

hey guys im a noob to fishkeeping... i just got my first tank a couple of days ago and i finally got all of my decor and stuff just the way i want it.. i filled it up to see what it would look like... i later realized that i have soft water... and to make our water soft we have to put rock salt in it... would this be bad for my freshwater fish?


forgive me for my ignorance..


thanks a bunch guys!

 

[Biulu]

I am not sure what you are referring to.... Did you put rocksalt in your tank water or is it used by the company to soften the water?

Why don't you test your water for pH, nitrates etc. to see what the parameters are?

 

[truetotexas]

I am not sure what you are referring to.... Did you put rocksalt in your tank water or is it used by the company to soften the water?

Why don't you test your water for pH, nitrates etc. to see what the parameters are?

we have to put rocksalt in our softener to make the water soft... if i knew how to test my water i would soo do it hahaha.... i have heard that its okay... but i know your guys here know your stuff so i wanted to ask you guys as well

 

[Mr Bliss]

I am not sure what you are referring to.... Did you put rocksalt in your tank water or is it used by the company to soften the water?

Why don't you test your water for pH, nitrates etc. to see what the parameters are?

we have to put rocksalt in our softener to make the water soft... if i knew how to test my water i would soo do it hahaha.... i have heard that its okay... but i know your guys here know your stuff so i wanted to ask you guys as well

Wait, what? You put what in what to what? What is this softener and how does it pertain to your tank?

Anyway, the softness/hardness of your tap water isn't going to be a problem in a "generic" community tank. If you get into specialized fish species, breeding some of the more exotic fish, or into heavily planted tanks/aquatic gardening, then you need to pay attention to that particular parameter.

 

[Biulu]

I am not sure what you are referring to.... Did you put rocksalt in your tank water or is it used by the company to soften the water?

Why don't you test your water for pH, nitrates etc. to see what the parameters are?

we have to put rocksalt in our softener to make the water soft... if i knew how to test my water i would soo do it hahaha.... i have heard that its okay... but i know your guys here know your stuff so i wanted to ask you guys as well

See what you mean......

Take a sample of the water to your lfs and ask them to give you pH, hardness and nitrates readings.

 

[kribensis12]

I dont see anything wrong with putting Rock Salt in the water. We have to put Salt in our water softner, so whats the difference( i may sound very stupid, but im not very experienced in this "area")

 

[tenohfive]

What this guy is referring to is he lives in a hard water area, and uses rock salt to soften it - whether in the water tank or after I'm not sure, but theres nothing wrong with that. It just means the water out of the tap is soft water.

In fish keeping you'll hear hard and soft water referred to often - neither one is good or bad. Hard water has a high pH and soft water a low pH.
Different fish prefer hard or soft water - though most can adjust. If you look up any particular fish, most articles will tell you what pH range that fish prefers.

To find out what your water is like, either take your tap water in to your local fish shop (LFS) and ask them to test it for pH and make a note of what the number is. Or better still, buy a testing kit yourself - personally I think a testing kit that tests Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH is essential for anyone who wants to keep their fish alive. If you get a testing kit buy one that uses liquid drops - they're more accurate and reliable than the test strips.

If the pH of your tap water is softer than the what the fish you intend to keep is, post up on here. Some fish will tolerate well outside of the recommended pH range for that fish, and its better to put them in a less suitable (but steady) pH than add products that will change the pH up or down - fluctuations are the bigger problem.


Hope I've explained that ok, if you're not clear on it post here again and someone will try to explain it better.

 

[Mikaila31]

You put rock salt in the water softener, not the water. Very little of the salt actually goes into the water. Water softeners use the sodium in the salt to regenerate the resin that removes the hardness from the water. Water softeners work by using ion exchange....... I can go further, but that means talking chemistry....... I don't do chemistry very well at 1:46am........

I'm assuming you have well water if you are running a softener? Just because you are running a softener, it doesn't mean your water is going to be soft. water softeners make water softer than it originally was, so it really depends on how hard your water was to begin with. I run a softener and still have a kh of 8.

 

[tenohfive]

I'm assuming you have well water if you are running a softener?

Also just because you are running a softener, it doesn't mean your water is going to be soft. water softeners make water softer than it originally was, so it really depends on how hard your water was to begin with.

I don't know about the US, but alot of people in the UK just live in areas where the tapwater is hard and want softer water for a number of reasons - reduce wear and tear on appliances, taste etc.

And you're absolutely right about water softeners not making the water soft, testing the water is the only way of knowing.



Side note - if you have a water softener and are on a water meter, make sure its serviced regularly - if you don't it can increase water consumption by a large amount. Don't ask me how but it can make a big difference to your bill.

 

[OldMan47]

The end result of using a household water softener is that calcium and magnesium salts that are what makes water hard are removed and replaced by sodium salts. The stuff that comes out of your faucet contains as many sodium salts as the hard water started with in calcium and magnesium. It's actually worse than that because sodium is a single + ion while calcium and magnesium are ++ ions. That means each individual ion of calcium or magnesium that is removed is relaced by two ions of sodium. The reason your outdoor faucets usually are not connected to the softener is that you don't want to use that salty water to water plants in the yard. What fish keepers call soft water when talking about water for their fish is water with low concentrations of solids and a neutral or low pH. It is not the same thing that people mean when they are talking about a softener. A household water softener does not remove any solids from the water, it substitutes one kind of ion for another. As Mikaela said, you can still have a high buffering number after using a household softener. If you replace calcium carbonate with sodium cabonate, the carbonate is still present along with its ability to buffer your pH.