Water Softeners And Fish Keeping: The Real Danger May Not Be What You Think

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Do water softeners really put that much sodium in your aquarium water?
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[@yourtap]

Well explained Dan. Not many mention the DH to ppm. It's most definitely every hobbyist should know considering test strips only test in ppm. API is the only one I've found that test in dh. For me, it's just easier to start from scratch and only have in there exactly what I want. Trying to manipulate and control my tap is a pain. I breed shrimp. If I use a TDS. I'm aware it's only picking up, Nitrates, Carbonates, magnesium, calcium. Great video man 🤙

[@AC3HT]

Great topic and discussion.

[@yourtap]

I've been following you for a couple years. I have KZbinrs I trust in different aspects of this Hobby. I always turn to you for water understanding. "History living in your aquarium" I turn to for plants. Thanks for all you do.

[@chrispixx]

Very informative, I've been fishkeeping about 38 years and have had a water softener equally as long and haven't had any issues. As a matter of fact sometimes I think about how good my fish do might be because of the water softener and the quality of my water.

[@FoolyLiving]

I use a water softener, but our water is ported in from different sources. Our water tank is also right next to us, so the amount of chemicals we get from the tank are extremely high and the pH and hardness is always different. Our water softener is supposed to take out the chlorine etc, but what it appears now, is that we have aluminum in our water? The water treatment for the fish tank is supposed to take out aluminum as well, since it removes heavy metals? My fish tank says it has quite a bit of aluminum in it, if my test strips are accurate. My tank crashed earlier this month and my fish had to deal with a pH change and they all turned white and some of them died overnight. I had to take them all out and put them in an emergency tank and they are still in there while I'm trying to fix their big tank. I dont know what to do. The tank had several different types of crashes and I've been doing water changes on it to get it back to good. It had a pH crash, a bacterial bloom, and now it is kind of going through an algae bloom but it is ALMOST ready to go with good parameters again. Im very frustrated bc I want my fish to do well and have a good life. I am very attached to them. I just have community fish in a 75 gallon tank. I have plants but my plants werent doing well in water softener water, so while I had the opportunity, I put in some fluval stratum soil on top of and inserted into my sand substrate. I'm trying not to move so much of it around. I added some egg shells in a bag to the filter media. I am hoping that I can get everything good, but every change I make has dire consequences to my fish tank. What can I do to buffer my ever-changing water pH for my fish tank when I do water changes? I am so concerned because just one little change can crash the tank, and my water changes constantly. I am thinking of maybe porting water in myself from a fresh spring, but I know it's a lot different than the water I already have, so I don't want to kill my fish. I am kind of a nervous wreck about this issue, but I dont want to stop the hobby because it brings me a lot of joy when everything is going well!

[@rukshan_dhananjaya]

Thanks for sharing

[@AC3HT]

Thanks!

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Thanks Dave!

[@Reeser00]

I’m moving and will be on well water. My well hardness is 90. Very hard water. I’m thinking of mixing softened water with straight well water. If I do 50/50 I feel like it would alleviate the extreme hardness and sodium.

[@dylanvisitacion8618]

If anyone is still worried about water softener sodium, you can use potassium instead of sodium in a softener brine tank 👍

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Costs a whole lot more if you can get it.

[@christiedaggett5493]

I just went from hard water to soft water, what kind of fish should I get

[@majorbruster5916]

Just found this post. I was somewhat confused by some of the information regarding water softeners. Depending on the resins in the softening column, the exchange resins in water softeners only exchange sodium ions for calcium and magnesium ions, as you stated. They will often also exchange anions such as sulphate and carbonate for chloride. But not always. That is one reason your KH will go down, and why you need to add KH to the softened water. Other types of resins will demineralise the water completely (deionising resins) leaving just water. This will need to be re-mineralised with RO salts. Zeolites, such as clinoptilolite, will soften water without removing carbonates, and this has been used for some years in the aquarium hobby. Sodium in reasonable quantities is not harmful to fishes or plants. If you look at analyses from South American coastal waters you will see that the streams and lakes have a high sodium content compared to inland waters, and the fish seem to do OK. Softening has an effect on pH so the effluent water will need to be buffered, and many 'ph up' buffers are mixtures of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate, yet more sodium! As others have noted, potassium exchangers are now available which are more fish friendly, but it must be remembered that sodium is a necessary ion in fish physiology. However, osmotically, there is little difference. TDS is a useful measure but it may not be the best for soft water, a conductivity meter and a good quality hardness test kit are to be recommended.

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

EC meter and TDS meter are the same thing. Just different ways or reading the same information.

[@majorbruster5916]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly yes, but TDS meters measure conductible and non-conductible solutes, whereas EC meters only measure conductible solute content. The meters readout in different units which require a mathematical conversion between the two. When measuring only hardness, EC could be more useful coupled with a hardness test kit which, as you pointed out, measures only the two hardness cations. Non-ionic solutes with covalent bonds do not impact hardness. Some people may prefer TDS as they feel more comfortable dealing with ppm, rather than the potentially confusing Siemens scale.

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

@@majorbruster5916 TDS meter measures the EC and just converts the number. TDS meter doesn't measure non conductive solute

[@adrianwsmith]

Hello Dan, can you use water softener water for mbunas if your tank has been treated with aquarium salt?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I wouldn't. I believe the Mbunas would need more that just NaCl.

[@tkaiser2086]

I have really hard water here in Indiana. I have a water softener on my whole house water. Would you recommend dosing Calcium or Magnesium to tank water use some trace elements. Was curious cause if water softener removes all calcium and magnesium do I need to dose it in my tank?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I put a bit of crushed coral in most of my tanks. It provides a little mineralization and it adds carbonates to stabilize the pH.

[@krishpaint]

Hai Dan I've been keeping severum, silver dollors bala shark, Geophagus and couple of plecos (blue phantom and star night) in 125 gallons for over a year. They're doing fine. Recently we have installed water softener and i realised we have to add non iodised sodium chloride salt every 3 weeks about 3kilos. I've not yet done water change yet. Will it be safe to use that softened water? As the entire home is water softener source I'm really concerned... please advise

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

You can find out how much sodium is in he water, but it's probably not much. The real issue is how much calcium does the tank normally have, because the softened water won't have any calcium or magnesium in it. You'll have to test and add some back in with crushed coral or something.

[@krishpaint]

​@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly as of now it is a bare bottom in that case I can make it arogonite sand

[@andrewdangelo4873]

In have a ph of 8.2 Tds of 300 from the tap My GH is 22 Im having some issues keeping plants like Madagascar lace. Also im wondering if this hard water is affecting my fish as far as life expectancy. Woud a salt based softener work for me?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Plants do grow well in a pH above 7.5. A ion exchange softener would work, but it would completely change how you have to treat your tanks/fish.

[@andrewdangelo4873]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly I'm trying to use peat in bags in my filter first. Thanks for the response

[@janicelundberg2960]

Hi Dan! That go go juice kept you going after the livestream! Go go test your TDS 😂 My town water is 93 TDS. I use crushed coral and Fluval Stratum in my guppy breading tank and it varies between 280-300+ with low PH. My other tanks are in the 100+ range with neutral PH. So in my opinion TDS is also affected by the substrate you use as well. Thought’s? Go mod go! 😉

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Your substrate will definitely affect your TDS, depending on what it is of course.

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Don't let that mod power go to your head. Lol

[@janicelundberg2960]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly Lmao!

[@wheatfieldproductions1564]

Is that the real size of those rainbows and guramies? Or the camera angle is making them look bigger?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

They're pretty big.

[@TheSeverum]

Do you need a water conditioner w well water???

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I don't need any with mine. I can't think of any reason you'd need it.

[@conman20000]

I have a softener and my GH and KH are low but my ph is around 8.2, so how do I raise KH AND GH without raising PH?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I'm not sure how you have a pH if 8.2 and low KH. If you raise KH, it'ii raise your pH too.

[@conman20000]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly I have a water softener system for my hard well water that makes my Gh 0 as for my KH it comes out at 40ppm.

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

@@conman20000 I'm not sure why your pH would be so high. I'd try adding a bit of crushed coral and see what happens,

[@janderson5773]

I use Potassium in my water softer will that effect the Tank?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

The biggest issue with softened water is that there's no minerals in the water. The fish need some calcium and magnesium. Potassium shouldn't harm anything.

[@MrHominid2U]

I've just given up on trying to keep soft water fish which is too bad because New World Cichlids are my favorites. Our local water is too hard and I'm just not going to mess with any of these water softening procedures.

[@MrHominid2U]

I would also never put salt in my tank.

[@chatito21001]

I 've also been trying to keep Apistogramma's as well but have not been successful. I'll be trying to soften my water with this product: Cobalt Aquatics Total Softener Rechargeable Hardness Removing Resin next week and get more fish and hope this will work.

[@dylanvisitacion8618]

#HeyEverybody

[@KatoKrazy]

I accidentally used water from the water softener for some new guppies yesterday and they were all dead within 24 hours! All my fish in my other tanks I've used water from the kitchen sink that isn't softened and they are doing fine. Lesson learned.

[@coleyip4763]

It may have been bad stock or the fish store you bought them from were acclimated towards the local tap water by your area

[@TeamFuzzy3]

Should I use presoftener water at 16kh and 16gh or softener water at 16kh and 0gh?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

That depends on whether you have hard water fish or not. Some fish need hard water.

[@TeamFuzzy3]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly well I thought that those are both still hard water? I read softener water is not truly soft, but still considered hard due to sodium only replacing the calc and mag?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

@@TeamFuzzy3 Sodium doesn't count towards "hardness". only Calcium Magnesium and iron (and other trace metals)

[@ThatanOmega]

You can get water softener that use potassium instead of sodium , which is fish safe

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

Probably, but it would cost a fortune.

[@Skullyhead135]

I’m a Rookie who used argonite sand and have these beautiful orcas (panda Cory’s) swimming around my tank and I don’t want to lose them, I gotta get this ph and Gh down, if this doesn’t work I might really have to resort to taking it out?? Any thoughts? Will the fish acclimate as long as I do weekly water changes? I have Cory’s and neons in there rn, if there’s anyone out there who uses argonite sand and has had luck lmk please, I used the African Cichlid Carib sea sand…

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I'm not sure how much you can do to soften that. The aragonite will constantly be raising your pH to about 8.4. If you keep doing water changes, you're just going to bounce your GH, KH, and pH all over the place. I'd seriously consider removing the sand.

[@majorbruster5916]

Get rid of the sand. This is completely the wrong substrate for them. Use fine silica sand or kiddies play sand (like a lot of us do) and you will not have the problem of rising pH or GH. I use softened water in my tanks with no problems, I keep a couple of kattapa leaves in each tank which release tannins into the water that acidity it slightly, and I adjust the pH of new water with citric acid. Have bred apistos and four species of corys so far this year.

[@davidadkins8805]

👀 umm.

[@judysavin1222]

I was confused with your presentation because I evidently don’t have the background knowledge to understand a topic that I hoped would help me to start my new fish tank in many years. You did your best, it just wasn’t as helpful to me. Keep up the hard work. You seem well-informed.

[@pacae911]

One question high TDS provokes algae ? If is that case , I can use resin for drop my TDS ?

[@DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I'm not sure I understand your question. and high TDS doesn't necessarily impact algal growth.

[@pacae911]

@@DanHiteshew-oneandonly I have zero nitrates ph7 . Iron 0.5 . Phosphate 0 , I have co2 but I have silicate 8.0 even in my tap water , and I a lots algae , MY TDS is 375 I try to use resin for drip my TDS