Water Softener?

[drdud]

I have hard water. Very buffered. High pH (nearly 8). Great for africans. I do not want to restricted to fish that like alkaline water. I do not think I can add enough acid to reduce pH.

RO water seems too expensive. What affect would a whole house water softener have on my water params? I know that the water softener uses salts. This always made me wonder how dissolving salts would make the water 'softer'. Wouldn't this add to the ions in solution and increase the hardness? I understand adsorption, resin ion exchange and basic chemistry principles. Can anyone help me understand this? Would a water softener system make my water quality better for my fish?

 

[Hooked Newbie]

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question99.htm says...

The idea behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are replaced with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix called zeolite. The beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As the water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite contain nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium, and at this point they stop softening the water. It is then time to regenerate the beads or zeolite.

 

[loaches r cool]

If I am not mistaken (I could be - I've never used a softner) that the TDS level would be at or higher with softened water. Its not lowereing it, just replacing a couple of things (Ca, Mg) with another (Na). And I think Ca and Mg are better for fish and plants than Na is anyway...

 

[drdud]

Wow. Now I understand. Does anyone use a water softener? Problems with Total Dissolved Solids? Is there often a chlorine spike following regeneration?

 

[TKOS]

Since TDS are more important for the life in the water (ie fish andplants) than pH, I think using this method won't help any and will potentially make things worse. RO or Distilled would be the only way to soften things really. Adding CO2 woudl potentially help and stocking the tank with lots of plants might also help (as they will use the TDS in the water to grow).

MOst fish shoudl be able to adapt easily enough to harder water.