water softener?

[mcgreg]

Hi everybody,
i want to ask if water softeners is really make the water softer.
My GH is to high because the tap water in greece is very hard, i make the changes with ro unit but its to hard again , so i want to put in the water softener product to make the gh lower but is this product really helps?
Is this product maybe harmful for the discus?

[Don Trinko]

A water softener will lower the GH reading. It does this by substituting sodium for calcium. TDS will probavly go up with a water softener. Don T.

[phidelt85]

If you're talkin' about a ion-exchange resin water softener, then, yes, as Don stated, they do work quite well.

[mcgreg]

sorry but what is TDS?

[Don Trinko]

TDS is total disolved solids. TDS and "softness" can be confusing. You can have soft water with a high TDS but if the TDS is low the water is also soft.
A water softener makes the water feel soft by replacing calcium ( or other ) ions with sodium or potasium ions. It feels soft but the TDS is not lower. If you lower the TDS the water also feels soft but there is a lot less disolved in the water and it is better for fish that come from naturaly soft water. You get a low TDS with RO or Distiled water. If fact it is to low and you need to add some tap water or other products back to make it suitable for Discus.
Most tap water is suitable for discus. Don T.

[jeep]

I would not recommend a water softener. As stated, they remove the trace minerals and replace them with salt or potassium. You may have a TDS reading in the thousands but not enough trace minerals to keep your fish healthy or even possibly alive.

If you want soft water I would use RO mixed with regular tap water...

[phidelt85]

I've had no problems growing out my fish in post softener water

[korbi_doc]

I've had no problems growing out my fish in post softener water

Boy I sure did Jose!! My TDS value was >900ppms, all sodium ions when using softener sodium salts....fish never did well 'til I started using reconstituted 100% R/O water, then they did fine...I'm dead against water softeners for fish, JME....

Dottie

[jeep]

Yup. I personally have no experiences using water softeners, but Dottie is always the example I point to. I remember the issues you had that got worse as time drug on, and the change to reconstituted water that made everything better over-night!!

[Apistomaster]

Extremely high calcium carbonate and magnesium sulfate levels would yield poorer results from a single stage cation exchange resin than if used on water with relatively low levels.

RO, RO/mixed bed DI post filtration, or dual stage cation/anion exchange resin systems are preferred unless clean rainwater is easy for you to collect and store in sufficient quantities.
Any of these methods of producing virtually pure water allows one to tailor the water chemistry to whatever one wishes.