Water Softener Water For Aquarium?

I’ve been researching a lot about using softened water from a water softener in aquariums. We have a water softener in our home. And I’m wondering how many people out there are in the same situation?
Do you use softened water in your tank? Do you bypass the softener and use that water or use the water before the softener from the outside hose spigot? Do you use a RO system? What’s your experience with it? I could really use some help.

 

I’ve been researching a lot about using softened water from a water softener in aquariums. We have a water softener in our home. And I’m wondering how many people out there are in the same situation?
Do you use softened water in your tank? Do you bypass the softener and use that water or use the water before the softener from the outside hose spigot? Do you use a RO system? What’s your experience with it? I could really use some help.

From my understanding water softeners use a phosphate-based buffering agent to alter your water chemistry. Excessive phosphates are not good for an aquarium, as they promote algae growth and can be detrimental to live animals in higher concentrations. It is also not a permanent fix.

If your water is too hard, try cutting it with distilled or RO water. May I ask what your pH is out of the tap in your home?

 

From my understanding water softeners use a phosphate-based buffering agent to alter your water chemistry. Excessive phosphates are not good for an aquarium, as they promote algae growth and can be detrimental to live animals in higher concentrations. It is also not a permanent fix.

If your water is too hard, try cutting it with distilled or RO water. May I ask what your pH is out of the tap in your home?

I did a test the other day.
pH- Before water softener (unsoftened water) is 6.5
pH- After water softener (softened water) is 7.6-8.0

 

I did a test the other day.
pH- Before water softener (unsoftened water) is 6.5
pH- After water softener (softened water) is 7.6-8.0

Weird that water softener raises your pH... have you tried leaving a sample straight from the tap out for 24 hours before testing? Sometimes dissolved CO2 can give you a false reading.

Normally people who use a water softening system have very hard, alkaline water, but yours from the tap is acidic. Anyway you can measure your KH, GH, or TDS?

 

I know right, it’s weird, I’m gonna do that and leave the water out for awhile and then test it.

And I’ve never tested KH, GH or TDS, do I need to buy another test similar to the API Master Test Kit?

 

I know right, it’s weird, I’m gonna do that and leave the water out for awhile and then test it.

And I’ve never tested KH, GH or TDS, do I need to buy another test similar to the API Master Test Kit?

API makes a KH and GH test kit, they measure your carbonate hardness (KH), which is the amount of dissolved calcium carbonate, and general hardness (GH) which is the measure of dissolved metal ions in the water. Total dissolved solids (TDS) is a measurement of all dissolved solids in your water. There is no test kit that I know of that can measure this, but you can get a TDS meter for relatively cheap. I have one that reads up to 999 ppm and it was $13 on Amazon.

Honestly, if your tap water IS 6.5, you can just throw a little crushed coral in a media bag in your filter and that will raise your KH and subsequently your pH to more neutral levels. My tap water used to be 6.6 and I never had any problems keeping fish (snails' shells dissolve at acidic PH though, so you have to feed them calcium-enriched foods like zucchinI or even some eggshell), they put down a new well and now it comes out at 7.5!

 

Great explanation, thank you, yeah I’ll test that other stuff and see what happens, I’m curious what the results are.

Does anyone else have some input regarding this?

 

Only tip I can recommend is to just research the fish and plants that you want to add and find breeds that would do well in those type of conditions. That way you don't have to fuss too much with the chemistry of the water and just learn to love a few species that you may not have originally intended.

Rummynose Tetra are a great tightly schooling species that do well in lower PH conditions I hear. Cardinal Tetra are beautiful and do better in lower PH as well.

 

Well actually my pH out of the tap turned out to be 8.3, so if anything I would lower it with driftwood or something but, I don’t want to just settle for certain types of fish, idk.

 

gotcha - just acclimate them correctly and you should be good

 

I hope so!

Does anybody out there deal with a water softener at their home? *crickets*

 

It completely depends on the fish. Some fish like soft water. If you want harder water, add a rock with calcium into the tank until you get the desired hardness. There are also safe products that make water harder.

 

I’m talking about a water softener though, not actual soft or hard water requirements.

 

I’m talking about a water softener though, not actual soft or hard water requirements.

I'm on a well so unfortunately I am of no help.

David894 I would imagine using your unsoftened tap water cut with distilled or RO would help.

 

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH! yeah, water softener. I'm just not sure I'm understanding your question.

 

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH! yeah, water softener. I'm just not sure I'm understanding your question.

How do you deal with the increased phosphate levels associated with using a water softening system.

 

My questions are in my first post of the thread but, just asking if anyone else in this forum has a water softener at their home, do they think it’s safe for their tank, etc etc.

 

yes it is safe. I have used it before.

I didn't understand your question that why I changed my answer

 

Attached informative articles saying it is not safe. Which is why I’m trying to see if anybody out there has experience with it.

And yeah Fahn that's what I thinking might help, thank you for trying to help, I appreciate it, I haven’t got many informative replies

 

So I’m wanting my first tank. I’m a newbie and have limited knowledge. Want to start out very simple. I’m thinking 10-15 gallon planted and a beta. Maybe if I’m ok and love it this would become my quarantine tank in the future.

My house has a water softner. Everything is soft. Even spigots outside. Only sprinklers are hard (16). Rest of water is soft (0). Sodium based.

I have a reverse osmosis (ro) for drinking.

So, am I out of luck? RO water isn’t ideal and I read soft water with salt is bad. Maybe I can’t do this easy. Thoughts?

 

That is unlucky I don't have any recommendations but good luck with this lol.

 

That's fine. RO water is quite good; marine aquarists use RO water. It's not very common for freshwater, but it's not because RO is bad; it's just been the trend that tap water is "good enough".

You needn't use water conditioner (like Prime) with RO water. But you will need a GH/KH supplement. Target around 2-3 dGH and dKH.

 

That's fine. RO water is quite good; marine aquarists use RO water. It's not very common for freshwater, but it's not because RO is bad; it's just been the trend that tap water is "good enough".

You needn't use water conditioner (like Prime) with RO water. But you will need a GH/KH supplement. Target around 2-3 dGH and dKH.

Is dGH and dKH same as PPM in hardness? Thanks for your help.

 

1 German degree General Hardness (dGH) = 10 ppm CaCO (calcium oxide)
1 German degree Carbonate Hardness (dKH) = 17.848 ppm CaCO3 (calcium carbonate)

Most testing kits for aquariums use German degrees for measuring hardness, but they do come with charts for the ppm (or mg/L) equivalent.

 

Wow. That is hard water! I have a water test kit for testing my softness. That is why I know about ppm. Make sure I have my softner programmed ok.

So 2-3 dGH is 20-30 ppm. The tap water here is only 16ppm. I’ll have to figure this out.

 

Is there a bypass in your water supply line (where it enters the house from the municipality)? Ie a tap or junction in the line where you can draw un-softened water? If not, it wouldn’t be the hardest plumbing job in the world to add one.
I maintain a 10gal at my parents house, and they have a softener too. For water changes, I fill bucket 3/4 full from exterior tap (cold, not softened), and use softened hot water from the tap to match temp. Seems to be working well for me, thus far.

 

It depends what sort of "parts" they use to measure ppm. 1 dGH = 10 ppm CaCO but it's also equal to 17.848 CaCO3.

1-5 dGH/dKH is generally considered soft water.

 

Double check your softener pipe flow. My bathtub is not softened along with my kitchen sink.
Edit: BTW I had a betta and ghost shrimps in a 10 gallon using softened water. Only Ill effects was the shrimps mysteriously dying after a couple months. Although the shrimps were feeders so idk...

 

All water is soft except sprinklers, I’m 100% sure. The soft water line is before it enters the house. There is a bypass but weekly changes would be a pain. There is a pool filler (on sprinkler line) I might be able to use. I’d have to develop some kind of pvc/hose system to connect. Other options are to use neighbors spigot. They likely wouldn’t mind. Other option is to condition ro water. Add calcium back in. Maybe coral rock? I read that is good for shrimp and crawfish anyway. Thanks for all the thoughts.

 

Other option is to condition . Add back in. Maybe coral rock?

GH isn't just calcium, there's magnesium too. There are also other essential minerals not accounted for by GH, including chloride, sodium, potassium and other trace elements necessary for fish/plant health. You can just purchase a GH supplement. You can also purchase a KH supplement, or just using baking soda: it takes 1,135 mg (or a quarter teaspoon) of baking soda per 10 gallons of water to raise the carbonate hardness by 1 dKH.

All LFS will sell GH/KH supplements.

 

I have an un-bypassable potassium water softener personally which is supposed to be less hard on aquatic life/ecosystems than the sodium softeners, but my Bettas kept mysteriously dying after 3 months. I’ve switched over to store bought spring water for my ten gallon tank and I no longer have this problem. My tank is very healthy and well buffered. As I understand it though, many people consider an RO system which they replenish with the appropriate minerals a better option, but since I’m a renter it’s easier to just buy 4 gallons of Spring Water once a week for water changes. I don’t really have to worry about all the measuring except for when I did the initial searching . I just found a brand that worked and that was easily accessible to me. I’ve stuck with it and have had very good results with it.

 

Question
What is better to use Spring Water, Purified Water or Distilled Water. It would be for a community tank.
Current water info all zeros except for nitrate which is no higher than

 

I use water through my salt-based softener. After softening my KH is 17 drops, and my GH is 3 drops. pH is 8.0. I haven't had any issues with plants or tanks yet, but who knows.

 

Depends on what's meant by "purified water".

Spring water is often marketing slapped onto water drawn from urban water systems and so has typical amounts of chlorine, chloramines and trace elements in it. Not that it makes it bad, but it's really no different from tap water (unless your tap water is extremely hard/soft and/or has elevated levels of ammonia or nitrate in it).

Distilled water is typically very soft, but likely still has some Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and other compounds. Will likely require a GH/KH supplement.

In practice, always go for tap water, even if it's super soft (in which case just add a GH/KH supplement). Only use distlled or RO water if your tap has elevated concentrations of some compound that's otherwise toxic to fish/plants (e.g. nitrate, ammonia, copper, etc.) or if it's extremely hard (15+ dGH/dKH) Some people cut their tap water with a percentage of RO water to soften the resulting solution in their tank.

 

GH isn't just calcium, there's magnesium, copper, chlorine, boron, etc. and other trace elements necessary for fish/plant health. You can just purchase a GH supplement. You can also purchase a KH supplement, or just using baking soda: it takes 675.61 mg (or roughly 1.5 teaspoons) of baking soda per 10 gallons of water to raise the carbonate hardness by 1 degree.

All LFS will sell GH/KH supplements.

Is GH/KH supplements one item or two? Can you link me to a specific product like “Kent Marine Superbuffer-dKH”.

I can’t find anything online that is a GH supplement.

Thanks.

Ok, I think I figured it out.

Baking soda to increase KH
“Equilibrium” for GH (and minerals)
I should get the GH/KH test kit (made by API it looks like)

So I use RO water add baking soda and Equilibrium until I get the right levels of GH/KH for whatever I need. Need to determine what I want for sure. Was thinking betta and some plants because they are easy but love looking at swimming fish more (active)

Thanks for letting me know if I’m right or not.