[CherylG]

Hi, I'm new here and have a question I hope someone can answer for me. I would like to have more live plants in my tank. I have well water and we use a water softener for our house. The question is, is the salt from the house water softener going to hurt the plants? If yes, is there a something I can use to take it out? I currently have moss balls and crypts wendtii (sp).
Thank you!
Cheryl

 

[Darkblade48]

Water softeners often use sodium chloride as a source of cations so that they can be exchanged for the calcium and magnesium cations that make water "hard".

As such, this is not optimal for plants/livestock.

You should be able to bypass the water softener, so when you are doing water changes, other maintenance, you can go back to normal water.

 

[steveo]

With my planted tank, I use a 2/3 mixture of water from the water softner with 1/3 of hard water (bi-pass valve used on softner). This approach was recommended by the freshwater plant manager a a very large and nationally recognized aquatic store in the Lansing area.

The method has worked great for my low tech set-up with Crypts and Anubius plants. The plants are thriving as well as the Angels, Rams and Cories. This has allowed me to dial in a GH of 5 dH for my angel tank. Both the KH and PH is unchanged.

 

[CherylG]

Thanks much for the information.