[jjlin78]

i have a water softener in my house which gives me 0dgh. i checked out seachems website on dosing equilibrium to increase gh, and i input it into the fertilator. i also dose kno3 and kh2po4. so after i put in the numbers to try and reach an ideal level it says that my potassium is x4 higher than ideal numbers. i started to see some magnesium and calcium deficiencies and i read somewhere that a high imbalance of potassium level can lead to calcium and magnesium deficiency. i'm assuming that this means high levels of potassium http://www.finostrom.com.gr/images/a...lizers/map.htm

is this true? if it is, is their a better alternative to use for increasing my gh w/o increasing my potassium as well. thanks.

 

[EdTheEdge]

Just my opinion.... but I wouldn't use water softener water in my tanks. It might be OK but I would use regular old tap water..... But then again it probably depends on the type of water softener that you have.

 

[jjlin78]

Just my opinion.... but I wouldn't use water softener water in my tanks. It might be OK but I would use regular old tap water..... But then again it probably depends on the type of water softener that you have.

i forgot what i use to soften the water, but the softener is connected to the incoming pipe so that every tap in my house is soft water. the only water that is not softened are the outside pipes which is difficult to do 100g water changes every week in the winter. i measured that water at around 20dgh so that might have its own problems.

 

[MarkMc]

Most softeners remove magnesium and calcium and "swap" it with sodium. I don't know the details of how it works off the top of my head. Others here can tell the details. Sodium is not a good thing to put in your tank.

 

[Hoppy]

You can use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride in your water softener. That will eliminate the sodium overload. Plants need potassium, but I haven't heard of any upper limit on it. Obviously there has to be one, since potassium is another positive ion in the water, and it contributes to the total dissolved solids in the water. I'm pretty sure that limit is very high.