H2O quality.....RO/DI, water softener or bypass. 90 gal planted

[Philly33]

I have a combination of well and city water that requires water softening. Without testing the water I decided to use an RO/DI system w/buffer. Everything is fine, BUT.......... I make the water in my basement and it's becoming a pain.

I just recently tested (test strips) my water softened tap water and it seems ok. I haven't tested the water bypassing the softener yet.

Can I use my tap (softened) water or bypass with success?

 

[Philly33]

Anyone?

 

[blert]

I would use the well water from the bypass while continuing to use a conditioner (like Prime). A softener is not going to take out ammonia, nitrites or nitrates, just the minerals that your fish and plants need anyway (your well water should contain no ammonia, nitrites or chlorine anyway). It could also lead to pH instability as a lot of the water's buffer will have been filtered out. If the water is super hard then maybe a mix.