Very high pH, known water hardness issues.

If you are on well water, you usually do not have chlorine or chloramines. If you have excessive heavy metals, a conditioner will not remove them - it may complex them a few days, but they are still there in the tank and when the chelator breaks down, guess what?

Blackwater fish in general prefer or are more at home in lower TDS water than in higher TDS water. Post-water softener water is higher TDS than before treatment.
 
Question: So if I take water (unsoftened, straight from the well) and add something like "AquaSafe" to remove chlorine, cloramine & heavy metals that water would be better for my fish than the "softened" water?
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Yep, As RTR said, the water is lower solids before softening than after. additionally, IMHO calcium and magnesium are far more desireable in my tank than sodium.

This is where the entire PH myth falls apart in this hobby. I can take RO water adjust it to a ph of 8.4 with baking soda, and have lower TDS water than a lot of folks with 6.6 ph. So if I had Blackwater fish they would probably be happier in my 8.4 ph than in many tanks with 6.6 ph. Dissolved solids are the key for fish. PH can and usually does indicate this to an extent, but is far from dependable as a stand alone test.

The perfect example is my tap water here in columbus. It is low Calcium low magnesium, low in all metals, has a Kh of 2-3dKH and a PH of 7.6-7.8 once it equalizes. It really is ideal for Blackwater fish because there is next to nothing in my water but the PH will still read 7.6-7.8 It is useless for plants,snails and shrimp as it comes from the tap. It is prone to Ph crashes if I don't add anything to counteract KH consumption and all in all I can't wait to move somewhere with well water.
Someone will flame me for that last sentence I'm sure (he has the best drinking water available and is Bi#$%ing about it because his snails won't grow)

The bigger issue still remains that fish will acclimate to most water, and assuming good maintenance they will live happily for a long period in far from natural conditions. But if your pre-softener water comes closer to natural conditins than post softener water then using it is a plus.

I personally would get a copy of your water analysis to find out what heavy metals you actually have. chances are you don't have hazardous levels, and as RTR said well water will not have chlorine or chloramines (unless of course you are adding them)

Dave
 
Since you have brakish water fish, your water shouldn't be a problem.

I have a similar situation with my public water supply. Very hard water with a high pH. When I moved here, I was really surprised how different this water was. At the time, I only had a 6 gallon tank, so I purchased bottled spring water for 50 cents a gallon from the supermarket and used that for my community freshwater tank. I had initially tried a water softener pillow and large amounts of pH down, but had marginal success. Cheaper just to buy the water than to buy the chemicals or a water purifier or reverse osmosis device. I am in the process of upgrading to a 20 gallon tank, so now I am wondering how many trips to the grocery store I will have to make. Maybe I need to rethink this strategy.

What I thought was very interesting when messing with the tap water in a large 5 gallon bucket, was after adding the pH down and stirring it up with a stick, large amounts of salts would crystalize and settle to the bottom (acid + base = salt and gas, right?). My stirring in a circular bucket would cause them to concentrate right in the middle at the bottom. I would then suck it up with a siphon and discard. I would check the pH, add more pH down, create more salt, discard. etc. Eventually with a spare filter over the edge of the bucket with a water softener pillow and a ton of pH down, it would be at a GH and pH acceptable to my fish, but the KH was still way too high. I had no means to lower that. I just couldn't win and gave up.

Maybe I should take the brakish water route with my new tank, but I never cared much for cichlids and prefer the community fish.

Ed
 
Thanks everyone for your very informative answers. I think I'll just ... "keep on keepin' on" as they say. I'll use my filtered well water for maintenance and distilled as replacement for evaporation. This seems to keep my Ph stable and the fish are fine. Geeze! Who knew plain ole H2O could be so complicated!

N.
 
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