Home water softener change from salt to potassium for aquarium use?

In order to switch your water softener from hazardous Sodium to environmentally safe Potassium you need to scoop out every bit of salt pellets (8 gallons) out of the holding tank plus flush out all the brine by cycling with tap and lastly RO water. Now your plants and fish ready for potassium instead of hard water.
picture.php

I diden't really have time to research the best source and price so for the first bag I had to go to Culligan Water to buy this 40 Lb bag for $20, until I can find a cheaper source in LA or LV when I visit my parents.
picture.php

As you can see 40 Lbs doesn't look like muck but is enough to treat about 100-200K gallons of water which is substantially cheaper then RO when all your trying to battle is toxic levels of calcium and magnesium.
picture.php

The 70 pounds of salt I removed will not be going to waste but in the new water softener I purchased today form Sears for my rental home. Next week after it arrives I will post a DIY new water softener install for all those with hard water blues. Why? The rental is 5 years old and my privious tenant had her own softener she took when she moved out last fall. So my rental has been without a softener and its not good because the if the 600 PPM Cal/Mag is not replaced with sodium, the pluming will become clogged with calcium build up and pluming would have to be replaced. So thats why, of course it will make my new tenant very happy as well beacsue cleaning, washing and bathing will be much better.
 
Last edited:
Oh I forgot to mention, the honey gold color fiberglass spun cylinder you see holds thousands of resin beads that collect calcium and magnesium when you turn on a house faucet. The water passes though the resins beads and exchanges calcium and magnesium for salt, or in this case potassium. After the resin beads reach saturation (in 3-4 weeks), a sensor automatically sets off the recharge and wash cycle to clean the resin beads free of calcium with salt or potassium and the beads are cleaned and ready for another 3-4 weeks of removing calcium from the water on demand. Sort of like recharging zeolite ammonia chips and having soaked them in salt you rinse off the salty water with fresh water before placing them back in your filter and aquarium. A softener does the EXACT same thing only automatically and on a huge scale, and it really works great. Needless to say I no longer need and have tossed out my ammonia chips.
 
Well good news, I did my first 50% water change with potassium softened water and the results were much better then I expected. 1st off I didn't use any RO mix since this was part of my purpose to get off RO but still keep my plant filter alive. My water parameter looked good after the water change Amm-0; Nitri-0; Nitra-5; PH 7.2 and holding, also no drops of water that dried with telltale white spots everywhere. The fish all seem to love it, the Cory's always show stress if the water is harsh but they are just dimpling the sandy bottom for food a good sign. All that's left is to see if my nitrate plant takes a hit in the next 24 hours from the presence of sodium.
Oh also I went back to Sears and got a refund for the plain-Jane water softener I bought for my rental because I got a much better deal at Sams Club for the same price ($399) but a much better model by Morton Salt with auto recharge sensing features, higher capacity, lower salt usage, and a much better warranty, even come with the pluming hardware installation kit which doesn't come with the Sears model. Best of all I don't have to wait for them to order it as it was in stock. Sears wasn't too happy but agreed since I hadn't even taken delivery yet they would not charge me a restock or ordering fees, but I do have to wait for my refund until my check clears the bank as they already sent it in, and then come back with my receipt in 10 days for a cash refund, but I made them put it all in writing on the receipt so it cool I can wait for the refund as long as I get it. I'm a little jealous and tempted to pull my old water softener out for the rental and keep the new one for myself, Ahhh but that wouldn't be Kosher lol.
 
Last edited:
Well as you can see I'm using the name brand now (Natures Own). But only because their Potassium Nitrate (not sodium) is $2 cheaper ($22/40Lbs) then what Ace Hardware wants for their name brand "Ace Potassium" ($24/40Lbs). Both are a product of Canada. So far for my application I have for the first time been able to stop using RO and unlike before when I tried to use my hard water strait 800-1K Ca/Mag, my fish aren't dying and actually love the stuff, and of course drops of water leave no telltale white deposits all over my hood and glass covers anymore. I just ordered a GH/KH kit API water test. As soon a s I get it I will do a comparative test between the bypass non treated and the softened water and post the results. I can tell you that My API Phosphate liquid test kit registers 2-3 PPM lower for the softened water (0 PPM) compared to the bypassed (2-3 PPM).
 
Last edited:
Well I'm pretty excited about the results from my new API liquid GH/KH test kit which finally arrived today with my Pet Solutions order. I did two independent test of my water, 2 samples from inside the house which is part of the potassium water softener circuit and two samples from outside which is strait city well water. While KH (the ability of the water to buffer PH) was identical for both at 143 PPM, GH had a difference of 467 PPM between the water softener and city water. My potassium softener water that I have been recently doing my water changes with tested at 35 PPM while outside strait from the city well tested at 502 PPM which is sometimes higher. This test wasn't even performed on a water change day when I recharge the softener so I plan to take another test on my next scheduled water change right after a fresh potassium recharge I bet the GH will be 17 PPM.
So this proves what I have been seeing in my fish that no longer do they get stressed after water changes even though I am no longer using RO to cut the hard water and best of all with potassium in the water instead of salt for softening, my nitrate plant filter is growing fast now budding strong again which means I will see my nitrates drop back down to zero again, oh happy day.
 
So far every brand I have seen is imported from Canada where I suppose since they process the most potassium. Since that last photo I have since changed brand labels to Morton Potassium Chloride because its only $14 a 40lb bag at Sams Club which is almost half the price I can find it anywhere else. The Morton brand is still imported from Quebec but claims in the label to process at a higher ion exchange rate with 20% less chloride released into the water compared to other brands resulting in even cleaner water and works in all softeners. All I know is my wallet isn't as light after buy it.
The only time I recharge the softener manually now is the day before my water changes which saves allot also, I also try and schedule my laundry in close proximity to the same day. Not that its necessary but after a recharge the water harness is at its lowest like 17 PPM and about 2 weeks later it about 129-214 PPM at the borderline of hardness, but for me still light years from our maximum untreated water which is a steady 550-650 PPM which takes about 4 weeks to get that bad if I haven't recharged the softener.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom