Can I boil Driftwood in softened well water?

So far with all my tanks everything is from the RO system. However standard household RO systems are very slow to refill, I have 8 gallons reserve but that probably takes all night to regenerate when I've been using it so heavily for the tanks.

I usually boil my Driftwood in RO also but it's taking so much water, and I have so many things to deal with right now like sick or injured fish (see other posts if you like). I'm even bringing in my drinking water 5 gallon jugs but there's only so many and so much time lol

Moral is, can I just boil my water in what comes out of the tap? It's softened well water. Depending on the time of year the well water itself can be iffy on what's in it - in the spring one year it had 120ppm nitrates or something along those lines. Heavily metals and whatnot probably vary also, I have no idea. In the fall (now) we get hydrogen sulfide smell in the water which is par for the course out here. The well water is also literal liquid rock, so we have a household softener.

If I boil my Driftwood or wash my rocks etc in the softened well water is it going to leech softener salt or anything else back into my tanks? Or would it be negligible?

Wood in question is Mopani

Thank you!

 

Don't really see why not. Boiling tends to take a lot of things out of water via evaporation.

 

So far with all my tanks everything is from the RO system. However standard household RO systems are very slow to refill, I have 8 gallons reserve but that probably takes all night to regenerate when I've been using it so heavily for the tanks.

I usually boil my Driftwood in RO also but it's taking so much water, and I have so many things to deal with right now like sick or injured fish (see other posts if you like). I'm even bringing in my drinking water 5 gallon jugs but there's only so many and so much time lol

Moral is, can I just boil my water in what comes out of the tap? It's softened well water. Depending on the time of year the well water itself can be iffy on what's in it - in the spring one year it had 120ppm nitrates or something along those lines. Heavily metals and whatnot probably vary also, I have no idea. In the fall (now) we get hydrogen sulfide smell in the water which is par for the course out here. The well water is also literal liquid rock, so we have a household softener.

If I boil my Driftwood or wash my rocks etc in the softened well water is it going to leech softener salt or anything else back into my tanks? Or would it be negligible?

Wood in question is Mopani

Thank you!

I dont see it hurting anything. A little salt wont do anything. Is there a reason your tap is not any good for the tanks?

 

Sorry, posted on this thread when i meant to post on my own haha

 

I dont see it hurting anything. A little salt wont do anything. Is there a reason your tap is not any good for the tanks?

The well water has very unreliable and fluctuating levels of nitrates as well as heavy metals and other minerals. We've had water coming out of the tap on several occasions that is unfit for human consumption, and my test kit can't even measure its so high. At other times nitrates can seem under control but it's all over the place. Plus softened water in planted tanks I've always assumed would kill everything including the freshwater fish. A potential reason for the nitrates is runoff of fertilizers etc. Or animal leaving lol but we've never tested bad for bacteria. I of course can't test for all the possibilities of what could be in there. So RO it is. I've always been very cautious not to mix tapwater except maybe briefly rinsing something non-porous. But if the absorption of the salt leeching back out later isn't really a concern then I'd definitely do it!!

 

RO water should be fine for boiling wood but shouldn't be used for fish though. It needs to be re-mineralized to a level that would be ideal to the fish.

 

RO water should be fine for boiling wood but shouldn't be used for fish though. It needs to be re-mineralized to a level that would be ideal to the fish.

Yep definitely! Although to be honest I got away with not re-mineralziing it for a very very long time... I'm trying to be more consistent now haha

But actually I'm wondering about boiling Driftwood in the tap/well water which is described above, and also softened. The RO water is from a standard residential system - in fact they normally only hold 4 gallons at a time but I asked for 8 - so big jobs like that can take me literal days depending what I'm doing. I have about 5 small and medium pieces I have to boil right now and that's probably a week's worth of work waiting for the RO to recharge each time I have to empty the pot and reboil. It's madness! Hahaha.

 

Yep definitely! Although to be honest I got away with not re-mineralziing it for a very very long time... I'm trying to be more consistent now haha

But actually I'm wondering about boiling Driftwood in the tap/well water which is described above, and also softened. The RO water is from a standard residential system - in fact they normally only hold 4 gallons at a time but I asked for 8 - so big jobs like that can take me literal days depending what I'm doing. I have about 5 small and medium pieces I have to boil right now and that's probably a week's worth of work waiting for the RO to recharge each time I have to empty the pot and reboil. It's madness! Hahaha.

The softened water should be safer than the well water.... but I dont boil my own drifrwood, I bake them in the oven