Hard well water or Softened well water

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I'm wondering if the different amounts of magnesium and calcium in different peoples water can mean different levels of sodium ions. That could explain why some people have problems and some don't. It's kind of interesting and I'd love to know the answer.

Can I ask what the impact of sodium on plants is? I've been using a marine product to increase kH (not sure what it is) and I swear that if I don't very lightly dose then plant stems just above the gravel seem to rot out. I'm not a hundred percent sure, it's just been coincidence a few times. Bit stuck on understanding this.
 
I too have my whole house on a water softener system and have had no issues keeping anything from plants to discus. Everything does fine even wild caught fish. I have a wild caught oscar that is doing great and some silver dollars from the wild that are doing great too. Also some F2 Honduran Red Point fry that have no issues. I understood that the amount of salt that ends up in the water is very small and basically undetectable.
 
I too have my whole house on a water softener system and have had no issues keeping anything from plants to discus. Everything does fine even wild caught fish. I have a wild caught oscar that is doing great and some silver dollars from the wild that are doing great too. Also some F2 Honduran Red Point fry that have no issues. I understood that the amount of salt that ends up in the water is very small and basically undetectable.

Thanks for the information, handy to know.
 
If I remember right salt hurts aquarium plants by causing the plant cells to burst or collapse but I don't remember what type of salt or any other information. My last chemistry class in college was 1978.

But since this subject came up I decided to see if I could find out why some people have problems with their softener water and some don't and have found out this information:

If your water softener uses potassium chloride to soften then you should be okay, but if like most softeners it uses sodium chloride then your water will contain high sodium levels which your plants will not like.

Also found many units have filters that actually remove sodium before water leaves the unit.

I also ran across a tiny bit of information that said the harder the water the more sodium or potassium (depending on which you use in your softener unit) ions are present in the resulting end water product (soft water).

Mostly the information out there about water softener units and fish/plant tanks are just personal accounts of either it worked in tanks or didn't for various people. I found that what little info was available was interesting.
 
If I remember right salt hurts aquarium plants by causing the plant cells to burst or collapse but I don't remember what type of salt or any other information. My last chemistry class in college was 1978.

But since this subject came up I decided to see if I could find out why some people have problems with their softener water and some don't and have found out this information:

If your water softener uses potassium chloride to soften then you should be okay, but if like most softeners it uses sodium chloride then your water will contain high sodium levels which your plants will not like.

Also found many units have filters that actually remove sodium before water leaves the unit.

I also ran across a tiny bit of information that said the harder the water the more sodium or potassium (depending on which you use in your softener unit) ions are present in the resulting end water product (soft water).

Mostly the information out there about water softener units and fish/plant tanks are just personal accounts of either it worked in tanks or didn't for various people. I found that what little info was available was interesting.

Thanks for the information. I did see a reference to potassium carbonate (I guess meaning potassium) is preferred to sodium for plants but I'm out of my depth.

The product to raise kH was seachem reef carbonate which just says it is a mixture of carbonate and bicarbonate salts. It could well have been the fish being generally destructive, the dose I used was very light.
 
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