I have a kinetico water softener and it is really good with our in home use if rids the house of rust that is very common in our Indiana water. We have fairly hard water 8.3/8.6 ph. I was curious if I need to set up my drip system before or after the water softener? I am wanting to keep a ray or 2 and a arowana and some peacock bass. I have never ran softener water in my tanks, not sure if it is good bad or whatever for the fish. I did a search and found practically nothing so any help would be great, Thanks.
Before or After Water Softener
- Thread starter Zhewitt04
- Start date
I used to have a water softener. I bypassed it during water change. I figured the sodium would be bad for my fish. I had nothing to back it up.
My opinion, get fish used to your water. That way you don't have to be concerned if it fails or run out of salt
From my understanding, "soft" water from a water softener is not at all the same as natural soft water. I have a whole house water softener system that is used for removing trace arsenic from my well water. Just for convenience, I use the softener water and it doesn't seen to affect any of my fish at all. I typically introduce new fish from city water sources and even native species right into this softened water without any issues.....that I can visually see. I even have African cichlids that are thriving in this water.
We are talking about 10mg/l sodium residual after the softener. Very insignificant. Now, if the tank is dosed with salt in addition to what is in the water, the cumulative result may be high salt...
From a dietary standpoint, 10mg/l is like a tenth of a piece of white bread...if that makes sense....very small amount.
From a dietary standpoint, 10mg/l is like a tenth of a piece of white bread...if that makes sense....very small amount.
Based on my own experience, I don't believe there is any "fish health issues" in running your drip after the softener. The disadvantage will be that you will have to replenish the salt more frequently (depending on your drip rate). The advantage would be there very little calcium buildup around tank and equipments that comes into contact with "unsoftened" water.
Naturally soft water is apple and orange different from softened water. Softened water is to replaced calcium and magnesium cations with sodium. Naturally soft water has low count of any cations. The only way to duplicate naturally soft water is to blend in with de-ionized water with distilled or reverse osmosis water. Peacock bass came from naturally soft water and won't do well with softened water which is closer to brackish water.