Soft Water

bighammerfan · Mar 19, 2009

Is it ok to top my tank up with soft water? I have a water softener but usually bypass it to fill up.

skittz · Mar 19, 2009

as long as the bacteria levels asr good in the tank and the ph is good i dont see why not

bighammerfan · Mar 19, 2009

ok i will check it later

OldMan47 · Mar 19, 2009

If you have a domestic water softener, it is higher in minerals than the hard water you get when you bypass it. Don't make the common mistake of believing that a water softener removes anything from water. What it does is substitute sodium salts for calcium and magnesium salts. Because sodium has an ionic charge of 1 and calcium or magnesium have an ionic charge of 2, there are 2 sodium ions added for each calcium or magnesium ion removed. That is not exactly a winning situation when you are trying to keep your total mineral content, called total dissolved solids, low. If you want to top off a tank, use your untreated tap water to minimize the rise in TDS or if you are lucky enough to have an RO, use RO water. In general, if you are doing adequate water changes every week or two, you will not see much build in minerals between regular water changes anyway.

drobbyb · Mar 19, 2009

OldMan47 said:
If you have a domestic water softener, it is higher in minerals than the hard water you get when you bypass it. Don't make the common mistake of believing that a water softener removes anything from water. What it does is substitute sodium salts for calcium and magnesium salts. Because sodium has an ionic charge of 1 and calcium or magnesium have an ionic charge of 2, there are 2 sodium ions added for each calcium or magnesium ion removed. That is not exactly a winning situation when you are trying to keep your total mineral content, called total dissolved solids, low. If you want to top off a tank, use your untreated tap water to minimize the rise in TDS or if you are lucky enough to have an RO, use RO water. In general, if you are doing adequate water changes every week or two, you will not see much build in minerals between regular water changes anyway.

^^^
What he said

bighammerfan · Mar 22, 2009

OldMan47 said:
If you have a domestic water softener, it is higher in minerals than the hard water you get when you bypass it. Don't make the common mistake of believing that a water softener removes anything from water. What it does is substitute sodium salts for calcium and magnesium salts. Because sodium has an ionic charge of 1 and calcium or magnesium have an ionic charge of 2, there are 2 sodium ions added for each calcium or magnesium ion removed. That is not exactly a winning situation when you are trying to keep your total mineral content, called total dissolved solids, low. If you want to top off a tank, use your untreated tap water to minimize the rise in TDS or if you are lucky enough to have an RO, use RO water. In general, if you are doing adequate water changes every week or two, you will not see much build in minerals between regular water changes anyway.

not to sound rude but i have 25 years in the plumbing industry so i know how they work. thanks for the input and i was considering a RO. thanks again. Alan

saz326 · Mar 23, 2009

bighammerfan said:
not to sound rude but i have 25 years in the plumbing industry so i know how they work. thanks for the input and i was considering a RO. thanks again. Alan

doesnt sound rude fella, but is a little confusing.

Was the original question more aimed towards whether soft water will harm the fish?

'coz if thats the case then as long as you do a water change with unsoftened water every few weeks then the soft water used for topping up would get diluted down and so salts etc wouldnt get the chance to build up too much.

I guess its probably a pain in the neck to uncouple water softners evertime you want to do something fishy. I've never used one so I have no idea how they are plumbed in.

As a plumber, could you make yourself an extra tap that lets water out the mains before it gets to the softener unit?

bighammerfan · Mar 23, 2009

saz326 said:
bighammerfan said:

not to sound rude but i have 25 years in the plumbing industry so i know how they work. thanks for the input and i was considering a RO. thanks again. Alan

Click to expand...

doesnt sound rude fella, but is a little confusing.

Was the original question more aimed towards whether soft water will harm the fish?

'coz if thats the case then as long as you do a water change with unsoftened water every few weeks then the soft water used for topping up would get diluted down and so salts etc wouldnt get the chance to build up too much.

I guess its probably a pain in the neck to uncouple water softners evertime you want to do something fishy. I've never used one so I have no idea how they are plumbed in.

As a plumber, could you make yourself an extra tap that lets water out the mains before it gets to the softener unit?

yes thats what i meant...will it harm the fish. it is plumbed in with a by-pass but what was concerning me is even when the softener is by-passed (which only means turning 3 valves - 2 cut off the softener and 1 to open the by-pass) there could still be some soft water in the pipes. i actually have an outside tap with warm water which has a thermostatic mixing valve.
i can set the temperature to what i need then fill the tank up via a hose....so much easier than buckets.