Does anyone have well water instead of treated tap water? If so is it alright for planted aquariums? I have a betta fish and it doesn't affect him as long as the water is treated with conditioner. The well water does go through a water softener, I'm not sure if that would effect the plants. Any thoughts?
Well Water
- Thread starter zgibbs
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Old Scales
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would draw some well water before the softener and do all full range of API tests on it. Also phosphate, GH & KH. Then do the same on the softened water. Does your softener use the salt free softening media? OS.
Old Scales
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hopefully someone will chime in that uses the same kind of softener. I'm not sure but the salt based treatment makes me a little nervous. OS.
bcarl_10gal
Aquarium Advice Addict
Im curious about this as well, i use treated tap water now but will soon be moving to well water. I do think that the salt acts as a chlorine not as a real salt. I just dont know how it all works! LOL
venymae
Aquarium Advice Addict
I do know that water softened with sodium based salt (as opposed to potassium based salt) increases the amount of sodium in the water to a point that if you are put on a sodium restricted diet you are not supposed to drink it. Not sure if it would hurt the fish. We used well water, and we did have a softener, but there was one indoor tap that was not softened (for drinking water) and the hose hook-ups outside were not softened either. So we just used those.
I'm trying it so I hope the results are good lol. It doesn't affect my betta in any way so im guessing it's ok. I just didn't know about the effect it would have on plants.
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jayDC_90
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
We'll water is rain water filtered through a Sand point. There are no added chemicals. So no chlorine or cleaning chemicals. You should be fine. The only thing you would have to worry about are iron deposits in the water.
The potential problem isn't the water, but the softener that it goes through. It is only salt so idk. It hasn't affected my fish so it might not be bad. The water doesn't taste very irony. It will probably be fine. With the right lighting and filtration I should be okay.
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venymae
Aquarium Advice Addict
I use nothing but well water and only have one issue with mine.Mine is real hard and has high PH.When i do water changes i fill a 5 gallon pale with my well water 24 hours before the water change.I let it sit with a air stone in it for the 24 hours and the high PH is is down to 6.8ish when i get ready to use it.
Well water can, and will be different from well to well.Some wells around here have sulfur in them,some have real hard water,some soft.All depends where you are.I would do like mentioned, and do a full test on it.
Other than the PH ,mine is kept the fish and plants happy.Good luck.
Well water can, and will be different from well to well.Some wells around here have sulfur in them,some have real hard water,some soft.All depends where you are.I would do like mentioned, and do a full test on it.
Other than the PH ,mine is kept the fish and plants happy.Good luck.
Scottyhorse
Aquarium Advice Addict
I use well water as well. But I believe it doesn't have a filter at all. (Old house).
venymae
Aquarium Advice Addict
Our well water is SUPER hard (think liquid rock) and yes we have a filter (I didn't know about it untill we had water pressure issues and the plumber guy was like "when was the last time you changed the main filter?"....um what filter? Yeah. 15 years ago. LOL. Needless to say it was pretty bad.) Regular water testing is a good idea for any well, to make sure it stays safe to drink (bacteria, minerals, metals, they can vary from year to year. We generally have someone take a water sample every other year. Always came back good except one year with lots of rain we had a small amount of bacteria in the water and had to bleach the well. Not fun.)
WisChris
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have well water and a softener, too. The sodium from the softener should be negligible. I ran tests of my raw well water vs. softened tap water and here's what I found:
Raw well: pH 7.5, 10 dGH, 13.4 dKH
Softened Tap: pH 7.5-8.0, 0-1 dGH, 13.4 dKH
Most plants like it a bit on the acidic side, but you can look up ideal water parameters for your specific plants.
I'm doing a heavily planted tank (plants arriving Thurs) & Amazon-theme fish. So I did a mix ~ 2/3 raw well water & 1/3 RO water. Tank canister running for two days with EcoComplete substrate & driftwood: pH 7.5, 6.7 dGH, 11.7 dKH. I'll test again after I have the plants in and my CO2 injection going.
I've heard that if you have very low GH and/or KH, your water can be prone to big pH swings. Maybe others can chime in on that?
If you do use softened water and your GH & KH are really low, you can use SeaChem Equilibrium to make great conditions for your plants:
Freshwater Aquarium Water Conditioners for RO Water: Seachem Equilibrium RO Water Conditioner
A water softener unit exchanges the magnesium and calcium ions for sodium ions. Some people have no problems using water that has gone through a softening unit and others have no end of problems with plants and sometimes fish when using it. You can use Potassium chloride instead of salt in most units which many consider better for use in planted fish tanks.
If kh falls below 4 ph can drop due to the lack of enough buffers in the water. A gh and kh of 4 gives enough calcium and magnesium for plants.
If kh falls below 4 ph can drop due to the lack of enough buffers in the water. A gh and kh of 4 gives enough calcium and magnesium for plants.
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