Water softening pillow

[FishNCash]

Try reverse osmosis or try 2-3 bags of softner pillow for added effect. I've tried it on altum angels and it works.

 

[xaznkewlguyx]

Howdy,

water softening pillows are basically ion exchange resins. The emphasis lies on "exchange". They reduce hardness, but introduce other ions that, while they do not contribute to hardness, still contribute to osmolarity.

Bottom line: I'd rather try an r/o unit or peat ...

HarleyK

+1

In fact, the water softening pillow may actually make things worse for the fish. It is not hardness (calcium and magnesium ion concentration) itself that "soft water" fish dislike but total dissolved solids (TDS- total ion concentration), of which hardness is a component. Water softening pillows lower hardness but actually raise TDS; they replace each calcium or magnesium ion with two sodium ions, so your water is gaining salinity faster than it's losing hardness.

hmmmm........ now thats a mind boggler.

Thanks for the input guys.. i really appreciate it, finally some useful info about these WSP's.

Not that your input wasn't helpful Joe.

I may just dump this barrell and go with the peatmoss route..I'm trying my hardest not to go with the RO..

Last question about peat. I can just buy it from Lowe's or Home Depot, put it in a media bag and put it in my sponge filter just like my WSP? Well its not really a sponge filter, more like a media filter where I can put media inside of it.

 

[FishNCash]

Not that your input wasn't helpful Joe.

Goodluck on your findings. I just go by what I was told by my supplier experience and I trust his findings.