# Water softner...how does it affect the pH?



## sea-horsea (Apr 4, 2008)

I have a water softner hook up for the house and also have a RO unit for drinking....I was wondering if water softner will affect the pH and I should just use the water straight from the garden hose for my tank....thanks


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Probably, but it depends on your water and how your water softener is set up.

No way to advise you which to use without knowing the parameters of the water in question plus your goals for the tank, though.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Generally household water softeners add sodium to your water, which is undesireable in a planted tank.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

jmhart said:


> Generally household water softeners add sodium to your water, which is undesireable in a planted tank.


+1. Sodium exchange water softeners will replace calcium and magnesium cations with two sodium cations, effectively increasing your TDS as well. If possible, you could try to look for a water softener salt that uses KCl instead. While you will still be increasing your TDS, you will at least be providing a useful cation for plants to use.

However, if you are only concerned about the pH, the water softener should not affect the pH.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Darkblade48 said:


> +1. Sodium exchange water softeners will replace calcium and magnesium cations with two sodium cations, effectively increasing your TDS as well. If possible, you could try to look for a water softener salt that uses KCl instead. While you will still be increasing your TDS, you will at least be providing a useful cation for plants to use.
> 
> However, if you are only concerned about the pH, the water softener should not affect the pH.


I've been VERY successful in growing all my plants in my high tech ADA scape, and my house run's on a positive ion displacement water softener... Pretty sure it's NaCl as well, I'll double check to make sure it's not KCl. :thumbsup:


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## Rebel1970 (Aug 8, 2011)

In my case the PH is affected. Prior to hooking up a softener, my PH was 8.2. Now my PH measures 8.8+. The company that installed the softener, claim that the PH should drop to about 7.2......WRONG!!! So I don't get it. But the softener did affect my PH.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I added a tap before the softener to make it simple to get raw water. Unless you are specifically buying the much more expensive potassium , most softeners will be using salt but the salt added to the water is so small that it should have little effect on the tank. 
When dealing with serious health issues it is often compared to the salt found in a slice of bread. Many fish meds have more salt in them. Many times people don't understand how the salt is used in softeners. They add salt to the tank and it is gone so they assume it is in their water when it really is used to restore the resin and then rinsed down the drain. It is in your water only if you are using the water during the recharge cycle. Normally that is set to 2AM. 
What I find is that soft water is soft water. It has the same problems whether it is soft water like found in the Northest US or soft water from a softener. You have no buffers so the PH is free to swing when any change is made. You have the same problems with controlling the PH in pools. If you let your buffers down the PH is hard to manage.


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## lilhelper (Nov 24, 2008)

RO/DI are always the way to go. When you pH drops when using RO/DI, it isn't buffered. You'd still need some sort of acid or base to add to the water if you wish to change it's pH, although it would be much easier to manipulate.

What type of fish are you planning on keeping?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Reconstituting RO/DI water may be a little work, but it's so worth it.


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

I have no PH issues using softened well water but what has crept on me now that I have good plant growth rate is the lack of GH. I found I have a tap before the softener and I now use that for any top offs during the work. After I do this for a while I will start mixing it in on water change day also but I didn't want change things too quickly.


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## procyg (Nov 16, 2011)

Rebel1970 said:


> In my case the PH is affected. Prior to hooking up a softener, my PH was 8.2. Now my PH measures 8.8+. The company that installed the softener, claim that the PH should drop to about 7.2......WRONG!!! So I don't get it. But the softener did affect my PH.


I just got a neutralizer and softener installed in my new house and i am getting the exact same thing. PH from before neutralizer 5.6 after the neutralizer 7.8 but after the softener 8.8+ did you ever get yours resolved?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Since the original post is several years old, we are probably not dealing with that one any more. 

pH is not a stand alone value. To figure this out it is best to post all relevant tests:
Water before softener:
GH
KH
pH
TDS 
any other tests you might have. 

Water after softener:
Same

Water after RO filter:
Same. 

Doing all the pH tests several times. Test water right out of the tap, then let some water stand 24-48 hours and test again. 

You may be able to get more info about your water from the water company, or any recent tests done if you are on a well. 

Also, read whatever literature came with the softener and try to figure out what kind it is. The sodium exchange type is by far the most common, and is often used before the RO as a pre-treatment. 
RO membranes generally do not deal with calcium very well, but can handle sodium just fine.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

It really doesn't take much thought to find out if you are using a sodium or potassium softener if you are the one adding it. If you are adding salt, that is a big hint that it is a sodium . If you are paying the big bucks and adding potassium, you will likely know that as well? 
If you want to change from using potassium to using sodium, reprogram the softener and start buying the other bag. The only difference in the two is what amount of either chemical it uses to get the hardness to the point you want. If you want to only have semi-hard water, it may be possible to change the settings for that but I never really heard of anybody doing it. It's much easier to just add a tap before the softener and use the hard water for the tanks.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

PlantedRich said:


> I added a tap before the softener to make it simple to get raw water. Unless you are specifically buying the much more expensive potassium , most softeners will be using salt but the salt added to the water is so small that it should have little effect on the tank.
> When dealing with serious health issues it is often compared to the salt found in a slice of bread. Many fish meds have more salt in them. Many times people don't understand how the salt is used in softeners. They add salt to the tank and it is gone so they assume it is in their water when it really is used to restore the resin and then rinsed down the drain. It is in your water only if you are using the water during the recharge cycle. Normally that is set to 2AM.
> What I find is that soft water is soft water. It has the same problems whether it is soft water like found in the Northest US or soft water from a softener. You have no buffers so the PH is free to swing when any change is made. You have the same problems with controlling the PH in pools. If you let your buffers down the PH is hard to manage.


Not quite. The salt is broken down and the calcium and magnesium ions in the water switch places with more desirable ions, usually sodium. Although we look at our intake of "salt" we are really concerned with sodium. 
The salt is not just washed away in a softener.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question991.htm


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