Soooo what if all your water is softened...

[Kornchild]

I am currently moving into a new apartment building which softens all the water in the building both hot and cold..... Can I still use it for african cichlids... The municiple water supply states the water si 17-18 grain, basically liquid rock, but I though I read somewhere that soften water was bad for aquarium fish. Can someone clarify this for me.. thanks, Aaron

 

[Bubble_B0y]

soft water = acidic water.

not many fish like this water - I know that angels do.

But the main issue here is how "low" the pH will be??
any pH below 6.0 is extremely bad for both the good bacteria (good bacteria die off) and the fish (it burns their skin).

 

[greenmaji]

water softeners are not terribly effective at removing KH.. you can always buffer your water up.. I would test the KH of the tapwater and not worry too much about it. HTH

the PH has to be very low for it to effect your bacteria.. Im pretty sure its in the 5 range.. and water softeners that Ive lived with pumped out 8.3 PH water LOL..

 

[Jchillin]

I agree. Test the ph and kh out of the tap. A kh of 3dkh is good and if the ph is lower than 6.8, you can buffer it up naturally.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Agreed. My parents have a water softener and my brothers tank has a pH of 8.2 with a hardness of 5dkh. He keeps African Cichlids perfectly fine.

 

[coolchinchilla]

I have a water softener and my water always tests very hard (300 ppm) and my pH is off the charts (8.3+). 8O

Softened water is not pure water as you would get from RO/DI or distilled water. I understood that a water softener doesn't really affect the "hardness" of the water according to the fish. The amount of total disolved solids (TDS) is the same before and after the water softener. The softener simply exchanges the metal ions for sodium ions. The amount of TDS is the same so it is still effectivey "hard" for the fish.

I don't remember where I read this, so I may be in error. I do worry though about the extra sodium in the water for FW fish.

 

[Guest]

If all else fails you could always used some crush coral in your filter or something.

 

[mrsmarsig]

If it helps...when I lived at my parents house, I used softened water in my 29 gal freshwater tank without any noticabe negative effects.