WATER

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
J

joseph

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 27, 2006
26
0
0
44
Ontario Canada
Hey guys,
I want to know if anybody can help me with my problem. I live in the country and I have hard water, so what I did was purchased a very expensive water softner. It uses 99.7% pure salt pellets. My problems is for the last 3 yrs I have owned REd Belly P's and of course they are fresh water fish. I have been buying 5 Gallon spring water jugs since I got them ( this is getting pricey). I want to know if I am able to use my water at home? I am not sure because the water is being filtered by the salt pellets.. I'd hate to kill my investments after all these yrs. But I am so tired of driving to the store every week or so to buy water jugs, when my water here at home would do. I live in a small town and we do not have the water testers anywhere around here. So if I could save the ordering online I will. Hope somebody can help me out.
Thanks
 
OH and I had it tested by our local health unit. They said our water is drinkable.. if this helps
 
My understanding is that the residual salt from a softener is fairly low and my guess is that the water is AOK for something as robust as a RBP. I would recommend that you get a hydrometer and check the specific gravity of your water just to be sure. However, it's been many years since I had pirahna and I'm sure there are individuals much more knowledgeable than I am concerning their requirements. Let's see what they think.
 
The salt in a water softener is used to "re-charge" resin, and then flushed and rinsed. That occurs is an ion-exchange. Hard water contains calcium ions, the resin when charged with salt is loaded with sodium ions. So the hard water goes into the water softener drops off a calcium ion and picks up a sodium ion.
Us humans supposedly do not like calcium ions, so we opt for "softer" sodium ion filled water. To a RBP, soft water is preferred, but if acclimated will survive in just about anything.
A further idea is to get potassium chloride water softener salt, which exchanges potassium ions instead of sodium ions. This set-up would be extraordinarily beneficial if you had plants, which love potassium.
Hope this is of some help.
 
get an r.o. unit and be done with it. eliminates all your water concerns. Just be sure to add some trace elements back into the water. But at least you are dictating what goes back in
 
The simplest solution to your specific situation is to keep all your fish in your hard water. Just acclimatise slowly over several hours if your aquarium water is currently very soft.
 
mat_per;1379927; said:
The salt in a water softener is used to "re-charge" resin, and then flushed and rinsed. That occurs is an ion-exchange. Hard water contains calcium ions, the resin when charged with salt is loaded with sodium ions. So the hard water goes into the water softener drops off a calcium ion and picks up a sodium ion.
Us humans supposedly do not like calcium ions, so we opt for "softer" sodium ion filled water. To a RBP, soft water is preferred, but if acclimated will survive in just about anything.
A further idea is to get potassium chloride water softener salt, which exchanges potassium ions instead of sodium ions. This set-up would be extraordinarily beneficial if you had plants, which love potassium.
Hope this is of some help.
Click to expand...

Exactly, no salt is added to the water. I use the potassium chloride pellets in our softener and my tiger barbs are thriving in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom