Soft Water system

[regulardrake]

This is kind of embarrassing for me to say, but I have been out of the aquarium hobby for about 5 years now. I was in that time of life where I was busy with college, work, the hole nine yards and just didn't time to maintain 3 aquariums and they have been sitting over at my mom's house collecting dust in the basement. But the good news is, I am done with college got my own place, getting married soon and I decided that I miss my aquariums and going to start small for right now and start up my 37 gal.

Well after moving the aquarium and cleaning it a bit, it dawned on me that we have a soft water system in our house. So I was just wondering is having a soft water system going to be a problem for the aquarium and fish?

 

[eco23]

I don't know too much about what fish do better in soft water, but I work for a water purification company and all of the water systems have a bypass valve on the top of them where you can turn off the softener and just have the normal tap water go through.

I'd wait for someone who knows more about the fish to tell you if it's a problem for the fish, but otherwise just turning off the system for a few minutes during PWC's is an easy option.

 

[regulardrake]

I don't know too much about what fish do better in soft water, but I work for a water purification company and all of the water systems have a bypass valve on the top of them where you can turn off the softener and just have the normal tap water go through.

I'd wait for someone who knows more about the fish to tell you if it's a problem for the fish, but otherwise just turning off the system for a few minutes during PWC's is an easy option.

Yeah your right, I checked the soft water system, and sure enough there was a PVC valve that says push in to by pass. I still would love to know if it's ok for the fish, so I didn't have to mess with the bypass valve. Now the next question I have, and I am not sure if you would know this or not but if I do have to use the bypass valve for PWC, would I have to shut off the main water, and then push in that bypass? I tried pushing it in just to test it out and it seemed to have a lot of pressure on it. But at the same time I could of been not giving it enough mussel, cause I didn't want to break it. lol

 

[tornadonick]

We have a soft water system and (aside from now) have had success with it in the past. and for what little it works, our LFS says it is fine.

 

[eco23]

In 9 years of working in water purification I've never seen a system that requires you to turn off the main water supply to put it into bypass. They can take some muscle to turn since it's probably never been turned since the system was installed.

I don't know which specific fish like hard/soft water but I've had different tanks for years and have never had a problem with it (my whole house system softens, takes out chems, neutralizes PH and removes suspended debris/TDS). When you start looking at what fish you want and research them, it will always tell you what their preferred water conditions are.

Here's a couple different sites that you can type the fish you're looking at into and it will tell you what they like, good luck!

Dr. Jungles Exotic Pets, Animals, Aquariums
Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

 

[regulardrake]

In 9 years of working in water purification I've never seen a system that requires you to turn off the main water supply to put it into bypass. They can take some muscle to turn since it's probably never been turned since the system was installed.

I don't know which specific fish like hard/soft water but I've had different tanks for years and have never had a problem with it (my whole house system softens, takes out chems, neutralizes PH and removes suspended debris/TDS). When you start looking at what fish you want and research them, it will always tell you what their preferred water conditions are.

Here's a couple different sites that you can type the fish you're looking at into and it will tell you what they like, good luck!

Dr. Jungles Exotic Pets, Animals, Aquariums
Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

Yeah, I am sure I wasn't putting enough mussel into pushing that bypass valve. I just didn't want to break it and have to call the repair guy. Lol well since you and the other guy that posted didn't have any problems, then I am not going to worry about that and just use the bypass valve as a backup plan if something does go wrong. Thanks for the sites, I will check them out. I been thinking about doing an angelfish tank or a bala shark tank, haven't decided.