soft water

[greatgman]

does ne1 here know if water passed through a water softener would be worth it in reef tanks

i was reading an old issue of a fish mag and it said something about dwarf chichlids in the wild found in soft water will do fine in the hard water that comes out of the tap

mind you this was concerning fw but it got me wondering if soft water would work for sw

 

[Daniels_Geisha]

It would still need to pass through an RO/DI to be of much use in SW. I've got a neccessary water softer on the house and the TDS (total dissolved solids) measures about 1600 after passing through it. The only real use of a water softener if for humans (makes soap last longer, comfort in showers and better at washing dishes/clothes). A water softener alone is not enough for removal of dissolved solids from water for reef tank use.

 

[IndyReefMan]

Two LFS's in my area soften the water before running it thru their RO/DI units. They say that it helps the filters and membrane last longer.

 

[ADA33]

Just go RO/DI IMO

 

[azgard]

RO/DI is easy to say, but if your on hard well water the membrains whould need to be changed every day. I've learned to live with it as top off direct. In my case I've been lucky and the high CA turns out great for hard coral.

 

[swenard]

I recently added a water softener to my house and it definitely helps the membrane and DI resin last longer! My TDS into my RO/DI dropped from 100TDS down to 19 TDS when I got it. But you could not use the water softener excusively, it doesn;t filter the water, only remove minerals.

 

[bboats]

Does the water softener have any effects on the skimmer production?