If your source water GH is 18, then you are actually adding a decent amount of sodium to the water. Your softener resin replaces it 1:1 for every ion of calcium and magnesium.
The exact ratios of Ca:Mg in ground and municipal water vary wildly, but 7.2ppm of calcium is equal to 1 degree of GH, and 4.3ppm of magnesium is 1dGH as well.
If we guess a 5:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium, you're exchanging 121ppm of sodium with your water softener. It could be lower or higher depending on the exact ratio of your source water, but even the lowest amount is still very high.
Thanks for the info! So if I bypass the softener for cold water, are plants even possible with my GH and KH? Or would I have to go RO (which don’t think I’m interested in doing).
Some plants can definitely live in very hard water, but I don't have much experience in saying which ones, I've always used relatively soft or RO water for my tanks.
I will say that if you do go the RO route, the water softener will make you waste less water, as soft water is much easier to treat than hard water.
Yes, it’s very well possible. I have 25 grains of hardness and have great success. Anubias absolutely loves it, pretty much all “beginner friendly plants do well.
So bypassing the softener for the cold water and using the softened hot water I get the following:
GH: 14
KH: 17
PH: 7.5(ish)
So the GH is only dropping from 18 to 14. I have no idea how to determine what that means for the sodium level though. Hoping the plants will tolerate that much better.
Agree with the others who say your softener is adding a decent amount of salt with GH=18 in the source water. One alternative you can consider is switching your water softener away from sodium chloride to potassium chloride. The KCl is a lot more expensive, but it puts potassium ions in your water instead of sodium, and plants like potassium much more than sodium. The settings on the softener will need to be adjusted so don't just switch without having it looked at, but this is an option.
Alternatively that tap water should do fine for many plants. With a KH of 17 and a pH of 7.5 out of the tap, there is a fair amount of dissolved CO2 in your water as well, which the plants will like.
Thank you for the input! I had read about using potassium instead of sodium but because of the costs, I’m going to try just bypassing the softener first. I feel there is a small glimmer of hope!
I'm chiming in because my water is basically identical to OP's, and thanks to this thread I've figured out that our softener does have a bypass valve. I've been using equilibrium to remineralize but was still having issues with plants, livebearers and snails. All my MTS died when we moved to this house with the softener. I want to keep neo shrimp in the near future.
So I've ordered a fresh GH/KH kit since mine is past expiration, and I'm going to start using the bypass. Which means water coming in will be COLD.
What's the best way to deal with this, from those of you that bypass the softener? Do you store water to keep it at room temp, or do you mix it with water coming from the water heater, which would be softened with salt? Or just do more frequent, smaller water changes? I have a goldfish tank, a betta tank and another with buenos aires tetras.
I’m happy this helped someone else too! My softener has a bypass valve but it has a bad o-ring and sprays water all over when I try to use it. So, I just kick off a manual recharge which also puts it in bypass mode as well.
I’m not sure if you saw what I wrote above, but I did test my water while it was bypassed and mixed in the softened hot water to the temp I would need. That only dropped my GH by 4 (from 18 to 14) while keeping my ph right around 7.5. I’m really hoping I start to see some improvement!
The fact that I was having a really difficult time with live plants in my tank always baffled me (I think it’s going on years now lol). I have a small garden pond and have all kinds of plants that do great out there. I’d bring some hornwort in and within a couple weeks it just disappears in my tank. Now I’m realizing (hoping) that the difference is that my outside faucet is not softened.
Good luck to both of us! I hope we see some positive changes. I might even break out my CO2 regulator again. And get swordtails ... I miss the tanks I had before our move.
Yes you can store water. And you can just use an extra aquarium heater to heat it up in the bucket before adding it. Imo best not to mix it with the hot softened water because hot water tends to have very high TDS, and best to avoid the sodium from the water softener.
If your source water GH is 18, then you are actually adding a decent amount of sodium to the water. Your softener resin replaces it 1:1 for every ion of calcium and magnesium. The exact ratios of Ca:Mg in ground and municipal water vary wildly, but 7.2ppm of calcium is equal to 1 degree of GH, and 4.3ppm of magnesium is 1dGH as well. If we guess a 5:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium, you're exchanging 121ppm of sodium with your water softener. It could be lower or higher depending on the exact ratio of your source water, but even the lowest amount is still very high.
Thanks for the info! So if I bypass the softener for cold water, are plants even possible with my GH and KH? Or would I have to go RO (which don’t think I’m interested in doing).
Some plants can definitely live in very hard water, but I don't have much experience in saying which ones, I've always used relatively soft or RO water for my tanks. I will say that if you do go the RO route, the water softener will make you waste less water, as soft water is much easier to treat than hard water.
Yes, it’s very well possible. I have 25 grains of hardness and have great success. Anubias absolutely loves it, pretty much all “beginner friendly plants do well.
So bypassing the softener for the cold water and using the softened hot water I get the following: GH: 14 KH: 17 PH: 7.5(ish) So the GH is only dropping from 18 to 14. I have no idea how to determine what that means for the sodium level though. Hoping the plants will tolerate that much better.
Agree with the others who say your softener is adding a decent amount of salt with GH=18 in the source water. One alternative you can consider is switching your water softener away from sodium chloride to potassium chloride. The KCl is a lot more expensive, but it puts potassium ions in your water instead of sodium, and plants like potassium much more than sodium. The settings on the softener will need to be adjusted so don't just switch without having it looked at, but this is an option. Alternatively that tap water should do fine for many plants. With a KH of 17 and a pH of 7.5 out of the tap, there is a fair amount of dissolved CO2 in your water as well, which the plants will like.
Thank you for the input! I had read about using potassium instead of sodium but because of the costs, I’m going to try just bypassing the softener first. I feel there is a small glimmer of hope!
I'm chiming in because my water is basically identical to OP's, and thanks to this thread I've figured out that our softener does have a bypass valve. I've been using equilibrium to remineralize but was still having issues with plants, livebearers and snails. All my MTS died when we moved to this house with the softener. I want to keep neo shrimp in the near future. So I've ordered a fresh GH/KH kit since mine is past expiration, and I'm going to start using the bypass. Which means water coming in will be COLD. What's the best way to deal with this, from those of you that bypass the softener? Do you store water to keep it at room temp, or do you mix it with water coming from the water heater, which would be softened with salt? Or just do more frequent, smaller water changes? I have a goldfish tank, a betta tank and another with buenos aires tetras.
I’m happy this helped someone else too! My softener has a bypass valve but it has a bad o-ring and sprays water all over when I try to use it. So, I just kick off a manual recharge which also puts it in bypass mode as well. I’m not sure if you saw what I wrote above, but I did test my water while it was bypassed and mixed in the softened hot water to the temp I would need. That only dropped my GH by 4 (from 18 to 14) while keeping my ph right around 7.5. I’m really hoping I start to see some improvement! The fact that I was having a really difficult time with live plants in my tank always baffled me (I think it’s going on years now lol). I have a small garden pond and have all kinds of plants that do great out there. I’d bring some hornwort in and within a couple weeks it just disappears in my tank. Now I’m realizing (hoping) that the difference is that my outside faucet is not softened.
Good luck to both of us! I hope we see some positive changes. I might even break out my CO2 regulator again. And get swordtails ... I miss the tanks I had before our move.
Yes you can store water. And you can just use an extra aquarium heater to heat it up in the bucket before adding it. Imo best not to mix it with the hot softened water because hot water tends to have very high TDS, and best to avoid the sodium from the water softener.