Soft water & reef tanks...

Stpatrick · Feb 5, 2013

My house has a whole house water softener & carbon filler system. Am I safe running that through my ro/di system to produce my water for my reef tank? I notice that my tds going into the ro/di is about 25pm and coming out is 0pm. When I didnt have the whole house softener/carbon system my water going into the ro/di was 125pm and coming out was 1pm.

Am I safe here?

Planedoc · Feb 5, 2013

Not only is it safe it is better than not having a softener. It's easier for your filters to remove salt than the hard molecules it exchanges them for.

Sent from my galaxy s3

Stpatrick · Feb 5, 2013

Planedoc said:
Not only is it safe it is better than not having a softener. It's easier for your filters to remove salt than the hard molecules it exchanges them for.

Sent from my galaxy s3

Perfect. I was scared for a sec....

Otter_rs · Feb 5, 2013

Planedoc said:
Not only is it safe it is better than not having a softener. It's easier for your filters to remove salt than the hard molecules it exchanges them for.

Sent from my galaxy s3

Agreed...

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mike007 · Feb 5, 2013

Sofeners do add sodium to the water. If you are using a ro system that is pure water thats has nothing in it. Ro strips out all the minerals and bad things in our water. Just make sure you changes filters and maintain it.

Stpatrick · Feb 6, 2013

mike007 said:
Sofeners do add sodium to the water. If you are using a ro system that is pure water thats has nothing in it. Ro strips out all the minerals and bad things in our water. Just make sure you changes filters and maintain it.

Thanks Mike.

AZDesertRat · Feb 6, 2013

All RO membrane manufacturers recommend using softened water, in fact most will not honor a warranty claim if the water is not softened.

Stpatrick · Feb 6, 2013

This is all great to know.

AZDesertRat · Feb 6, 2013

Something else I find interesting is often the TDS of the softened water is higher than the tap water TDS was to begin with. This is beacuse the ion exchange rate between sodium and the things it is replacing such as calcium and magnesium is not a 1:1 ratio. In my case my tap is slightly lower than my softened water, but the soft water is easier on the RO membrane so soft water it is!