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Hello,

I recently added a water softener to our house, actually several months ago. I have made several water changes in the past with no negative occurances.

Recently I have noticed that many of the plants are starting to do several things: drop "healthy" leaves, leaves rot, turn yellow, get brown spots on them and eventually die off.

I was not sure of the possible causes of this. All of the water perameters seem "normal," and have not changed.

Another possiblity may be lights. How long do they last. I have had these for close to 18-24 months.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Alec

Well replacing the lights will help. I've usually heard around 6-12months. Since my planted tank has only been up a little less than 2years and I've upgraded the lighting system or bulb types several times I haven't reached that limit.
I've heard conflicting info about water softeners. Some people say they are very bad for fish or plants and some don't think there's a problem. I use the cold water from my well which doesn't run through the water heater or softener. It doesn't take much effort for me to get it from a different tap and avoids any possible problems.

I've heard conflicting info as well. Until now I was going with the side that says there is not a problem, now I'm not sure.

Can anyone else shed more light on the subject?

Thanks again,

Alec

Go with DO and save yourself a lot of trouble.

Most water softeners remove calcium and magnesium and instead replace it with salt. I would try to draw water from the source before it hits the softener -- is there a faucet in front of the softener? Use that.

Have you tried testing the softened water? If there's a big difference between what's in the tank and what you're replacing it with, I could see having problems... but then again, you said you've had the softener for a little while now.

If the fish you have like a bit harder water, I wouldn't even bother to us the softened stuff.

Also, check the bag of softener salt to see if it contains any iodine, chlorine, etc. A little bit of pure salt won't hurt fish... after all, using aquarium salt is reccommended for sick fish.

Lastly... do some research to see if the plants you have prefer harder water.

But definately change the lights. An average of 6 months is reccommended, after that, they're normally not at their full potential.

Last edited by harleysiber at 08-May-2005 14:27

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I have not been back in a few days, I have not been getting emails saying there have been posts to my question.

When you say test the water from the tap and the tank, what whould I test for?

I am in the process of replacing the lights now.

Thanks again for the info.

Alec

Test the gh definitely and probably the ph. Water softeners remove magnesium and calcium in exchange for sodium. Magnesium and calcium make up your general hardness. Calcium carbonate is also the kh which buffers the water but I'm not sure how much a water softener affects that. If it's lowering the gh alot then it's also adding alot of salt.

Ca and MG are plant nutrients, sodium, Na+, is a plant stressor at anything above small trace amounts.
All plants are stressed by NaCl additions.

You may have a few plant that do okay, but they will do better without the salty water.That much you can count on.

Some folks switch out the NaCl for KCL, so that you add high levels of K+ which is much less of an issue, you still need to add the Ca/Mg back though..........

See if you can bypass the softener.

Regards,
Tom Barr


3rd annual Plant Fest July 8-14th 2005!
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