All things being equal, experience says...what

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frostby

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 9, 2006
Messages
94
Imagine three identical tanks in every way, even fertilizing.

The one difference:

tank1 HARD WATER 15+
tank2 Mix hard/softened(sodium)
tank3 100% softened water(sodium)

Which tank will grow plants best, how much better, and the reason I ask about the mix, is because I have softened 'hot' water, and hard cold h20, I use a python!


Does anybody USE AND/OR PREFER SOFTENED WATER?
 
Good question frostby. My answer would be that it all depends on what types of plants you're planning on keeping, but most of the plants in the hobby today would favor softer (KH 2-6), more acidic (pH<7.0) water overall. That's not to say that you can't grow plants in hard water, you'll just have an overall easier time of it in softer water. I keep African cichlids with plants so my water is quite hard for a planted tank and I've had difficulty with many species but have surprising success with others. Hopefully some of our soft water brethren will have more input for you :)
 
I'm an old softie so I cannot say much about the values of alkaline waters. Plants, for the most part, enjoy a softer climate and will do well. The only thing that I see is that you mention sodium being a part of your hot water supply. Do you know what type of sodium is in there? Aquatic Salt?
 
Well, this begs another question.

My soft water is ARTIFICIALLY soft ---thanks to my softener. I am mostly trying to figure out if my plants may be healthier if I do NOT use the (seasalt) softened water.

As an alternative, if the above is possibly true, people use PEAT to soften water right?

Can anybody comment on the soft water with sodium.... and it's effects on plants?
 
Water softened by a water softener is not soft water from an aquarium perspective. Naturally soft water or RO/DI or Distilled water has a low Kh. i.e. a low Carbonate content.
Water softener water replaces calcium for sodium. This is not the same thing. In fact, I believe you are striping valuable Gh component minerals, and replaceing them with not so benficial sodium, with no particular effect on carbonate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softener
 
I have always heard that sodium is bad for your plants - but other people report that their plants are fine with softened water. You could get some potassium chloride pellets for your water softener (about $10 per bag). They will add potassium to your water instead of sodium. According to my calculations (for my water) the mixture of cold, hard water and hot, soft water had 50ppm of potassium (your water may be different).
 
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