TDS and plants

[TXaggie]

Hi all, I am finally at a point after moving where I can look at starting up some tanks again. However; we're now on well water and it's a whole new world. We run our water through a softener but our TDS is pretty high.

Here's the results from a recent professional analysis we had done:

TDS: 507
Ca mg/L: 0.241
Hardness mg/L: 0.602
pH: 7.6

I think the hardness converts to less than 1 degree??? Is that possible?

pH seems fine, but I'm not sure what this does to my plant options. What should I avoid? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Thrills22]

For what it's worth my tds is around 450 out the tap and I live in London. In my setup I planted the plants reduced my tds to about 420 in the week sinced they've been in there.

I think all plants will adjust to your tds. Your light, nutrients, amd ferts will still be the deciding factor in what you can keep. I say that with a smidgen of confidence because London has the worst water in Europe. At times my out the tap ammonia, tds ph, nitrite, nitrate, silicates, phos etc etc vary from week to week. I once went a few with a tds over 620 and my plants didn't seem phased.

If it's any comfort, I'd trade your well water for this London tap water (which sometimes has a unique taste) anyday.

 

[Caliban07]

Hi all, I am finally at a point after moving where I can look at starting up some tanks again. However; we're now on well water and it's a whole new world. We run our water through a softener but our TDS is pretty high.

Here's the results from a recent professional analysis we had done:

TDS: 507
Ca mg/L: 0.241
Hardness mg/L: 0.602
pH: 7.6

I think the hardness converts to less than 1 degree??? Is that possible?

pH seems fine, but I'm not sure what this does to my plant options. What should I avoid? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Softeners replace calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions at a ratio of about 3:1 in favour of sodium. Therefore softeners in a sense do 'soften' the typical constituents of hard water (calcium and magnesium) but actually increases the TDS. I'd rather have calcium and magnesium In my tank but your pipework, boilers, kettles and washing machines would want to disagree.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[CatfishRex]

There should be a faucet somewhere that is not connected to the softener, everything I've read heard advises against using water softener water for plants and fish. Maybe test or have tested the water from this source and go from there.