Am I Right In Thinking You Can't Use Water From A Water Softener?

[Cheffi]

We have a water softener with a cold water tap in the kitchen connected direct to the mains and bypassing the softener. Am I right that you can't use water from the softened taps? Also if I have to put warm water in with my water changes to get right temperature I will have to boil water from this unsoftened tap?
Thanks.

 

[dthoffsett]

Yup, you're right about not using water from a water softener, not sure about boiling though, hopefully someone else will answer. Sorry I'm not much help.

 

[JoanneH]

We have a water softener with a cold water tap in the kitchen connected direct to the mains and bypassing the softener. Am I right that you can't use water from the softened taps? Also if I have to put warm water in with my water changes to get right temperature I will have to boil water from this unsoftened tap?
Thanks.

I have a water softner with 1 tap in the kitchen that bypasses it also- I only use water from that tap and I heat that water up in the kettle to get the temp correct for water changes with no problems.

 

[Cheffi]

Thanks for replies.

 

[andywg]

Getting the water the correct temp is not necessary unless you are doing very large water changes (well in excess of 30%).

A 10% water change is at worst going to drop the temperature by a degree or two, nothing the fish would not experience in the wild. 20% will be very similar ( I have never noticed more than around a 3 degree change in my tanks).

 

[Snick]

actually all my water passes through a water softner and i have no problems at all, the only thing the machine does is minimize the amount of sodiums in the water... so actually it might help your aquarium. If im wrong please corret me.

 

[RandyK47]

I too use water out of a water softner with no problems....at least none that I know of. Would be very interested to know if I'm doing something wrong and why. Of course, after 3 months all I'm doing now is weekly water changes of 20-25% so maybe I'm doing no further "damage" but I'm curious.

 

[Cheffi]

I just assumed that as water softeners use salt to make the water soft that you would end up with high salt levels in the tank.

 

[leafs]

I've been using a water softener for over a year now without any problems. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[degsod]

All the water softener does is replace the Magnesium and calcium ions for Sodium which it gets from the salt, it will not make the water salty.