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Household water softener water usability

are there any other systemic solutions that would make sense?
Nope. Just do what most people do try and work with the water coming out of your tap. If doing continuous changes, use tap water with a pre-filter and Dechlor (or equivalent) de-chlorination cartridge.

A lot of discus keepers just use tap water with a HMA filter.

can I install some additional filter at the exit to remove the Na ions?
Nope as well. Switching to potassium chloride would be OK, but as stated about 5 times the cost.

You could of course use RO water, possibly mixed with tap water if you really insist on having carefully controlled water.
 
Nope. Just do what most people do try and work with the water coming out of your tap. If doing continuous changes, use tap water with a pre-filter and Dechlor (or equivalent) de-chlorination cartridge.
A lot of discus keepers just use tap water with a HMA filter.
Nope as well. Switching to potassium chloride would be OK, but as stated about 5 times the cost.
You could of course use RO water, possibly mixed with tap water if you really insist on having carefully controlled water.
I can't use "tap" water as it is systemically softened as the water enters the house.

What I am thinking now is to add an RO/DI unit underneath the aquarium; I intend to have a continuous automatic water change (50-100l/day) through the sump filtration; in this case I would just be adding completely "pure" RO water and then mineralising the sump water with necessary minerals and other nutrients and fertilisers. I will have a GHL doser with 4 separate pump heads so I can add a number of various solutions as needed.

Would this work? ...so - removing sodium from the softened water with RO and then remineralising with appropriate mix of minerals and nutrients automatically and as needed?
 
I can't use "tap" water as it is systemically softened as the water enters the house.

What I am thinking now is to add an RO/DI unit underneath the aquarium; I intend to have a continuous automatic water change (50-100l/day) through the sump filtration; in this case I would just be adding completely "pure" RO water and then mineralising the sump water with necessary minerals and other nutrients and fertilisers. I will have a GHL doser with 4 separate pump heads so I can add a number of various solutions as needed.

Would this work? ...so - removing sodium from the softened water with RO and then remineralising with appropriate mix of minerals and nutrients automatically and as needed?

The problem is, it is difficult to regulate the production rate of RO water, as it is dependent on water pressure, temperature, membrane age etc. so running the filter for a fixed period ot time might not always produce the same quantity of water. You'd be better to have a 100 litre container under the tank, fill this with RO using a float valve to stop the flow once full, and then pump that into your sump.
 
The problem is, it is difficult to regulate the production rate of RO water, as it is dependent on water pressure, temperature, membrane age etc. so running the filter for a fixed period ot time might not always produce the same quantity of water. You'd be better to have a 100 litre container under the tank, fill this with RO using a float valve to stop the flow once full, and then pump that into your sump.
Yup, I could easily do that as well. Good point. So: would an RO system like this make sense then to get rid of the sodium ions from the water softener and, being then a completely purified H2O, my aim would then be to remineralise with with relevant nutrients with my automated dosing system. Does that make sense?
 
I can't use "tap" water as it is systemically softened as the water enters the house.
So where do you get your drinking/cooking water from ?

In UK there must be an unsoftened water supply (by law), normally in kitchen, for drinking/cooking, as salt softened water is generally not recommended for human consumption. Cold taps in kitchen and all bathrooms are unsoftened water in my house.

What I am thinking now is to add an RO/DI unit underneath the aquarium; I intend to have a continuous automatic water change (50-100l/day) through the sump filtration; in this case I would just be adding completely "pure" RO water and then mineralising the sump water with necessary minerals and other nutrients and fertilisers. I will have a GHL doser with 4 separate pump heads so I can add a number of various solutions as needed.
Yes would work, but as water pressure, after going through a softener is likely to be low, the efficiency will be very very poor. Most RO membranes quote typically 4:1 (4 litres waste water for 1 litre RO) at 8bar pressure and 25'C. I bet your water pressure will be considerably less than 8 bar and water less than 25'C. I suspect you will be lucky to get 10:1 waste ratio. It gets worse the colder the water. That's a lot of waste water and salt. My water softener has a 3 bar pressure reducer on it as mains pressure is 9-10bar so will be cr*p with an RO unit. Performance can be enhanced with a booster pump, to get back down to 4:1 (or even less), but booster pumps are not cheap and certainly not quiet.

Could you not run say a 4mm plastic water line from mains water to tank area ? This has been done loads of times by many people to get water to your tank. Not a monster flow rate, but perfect for continuous replacement.
 
FYI my tap water TDS appears to have stabilized around 240-250 ppm about 72 hours after switching the water softener to Potassium (down from 325-350 ppm before the switch). Purely anecdotal. Other water parameter that I care to measure are unchanged (KH 10-11, GH “0”, pH 7.2-7.4). I would assume by now that I got rid of any significant amount of residual sodium in the system (which I do not have the means to measure) and the water is now ready for use in my Tap/RO WC mix.

I will do 65% dechlorinated Tap / 35% RO as originally suggested, and wind up with around 7 KH and around 7 GH after remineralization with Equilibrium only, and get the benefits of saving time and waste-water on RO production while doubling my weekly WC %. A nice improvement to my maintenance regime.

Thanks to everyone who chimed on this. Very informative and helpful!
Michael
 
So where do you get your drinking/cooking water from ?

In UK there must be an unsoftened water supply (by law), normally in kitchen, for drinking/cooking, as salt softened water is generally not recommended for human consumption. Cold taps in kitchen and all bathrooms are unsoftened water in my house.


Yes would work, but as water pressure, after going through a softener is likely to be low, the efficiency will be very very poor. Most RO membranes quote typically 4:1 (4 litres waste water for 1 litre RO) at 8bar pressure and 25'C. I bet your water pressure will be considerably less than 8 bar and water less than 25'C. I suspect you will be lucky to get 10:1 waste ratio. It gets worse the colder the water. That's a lot of waste water and salt. My water softener has a 3 bar pressure reducer on it as mains pressure is 9-10bar so will be cr*p with an RO unit. Performance can be enhanced with a booster pump, to get back down to 4:1 (or even less), but booster pumps are not cheap and certainly not quiet.

Could you not run say a 4mm plastic water line from mains water to tank area ? This has been done loads of times by many people to get water to your tank. Not a monster flow rate, but perfect for continuous replacement.
Water for drinking / cooking is coming from the softener... supposedly the sodium that one drinks through this way is really quite minimal and way below RDA; we use very little salt in cooking so that also reduced overall impact. I understand this could be critical for those few people who really have sodium-related health issues but not for general population...

Regarding water line from mains - no go; our mains is in the basement and not close to the tank so no drilling possible.

Regarding pressure, I would get an RO with a dedicated booster pump that can up the pressure for increase flow and also better efficacy / lower waste. I am now worried about the noise you mention... I might need to run the RO during the night then...
 
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