It takes a long time for salt to get out of an aquarium…

[Magnum Man]

I had 1 tank, that I had running for over a year, with house softener water… the salt ions in the house softened water made the Ph very high… I imagine that evaporation, only concentrated the salt… I’ve been doing about 10% weekly water changes with straight well water, and topping off evaporation, with the same… 3 months later, and the water is hard, yet still a Ph around 8

 

[Naughts]

Why only 10% weekly? It is a very small amount.
What are the parameters of the well water?

 

[Essjay]

Salt does not make water hard, it makes it salty.

Hardness is a measure of divalent metal ions, and is composed mainly of calcium and magnesium and small amounts of other divalent metal ions. (Source of info - son who used to work as an analyst at a water testing company)

Salt is sodium chloride and sodium is a monovalent metal ion. It cannot be included in hardness as it isn't divalent.

But salt is included in TDS, which measures everything dissolved in water not just divalent metal ions.

 

[AJ356]

If you have problems with water quality, you are really going to have to get stuck into some 50% or more weekly water changes. 10% is like doing nothing. The only way to remove the salt is though putting "non salt' water in as a direct replacement for the 'salt' water.

 

[Essjay]

Forgot to mention

I’ve been doing about 10% weekly water changes with straight well water, and topping off evaporation, with the same… 3 months later, and the water is hard, yet still a Ph around 8

It's the hard well water which makes the pH high. Topping up with hard water makes the water even harder, and the pH will follow.



I agree with the others, the way to remove salt is by diluting it with non-salt water.

 

[Ram419]

Evaporation does concentrate the salt into the water that is left, but topping off or only doing small water changes leaves the salt still in the water. Once you raise the water level to what it was before the salt content should return the what it was before evaporation.

That's why in saltwater tanks you only top off with unsalted RO water. You only use new saltwater when doing water changes.

 

[Magnum Man]

Most of the fish in this tank are harder water fish, but with the house softener water, it was never really hard, just a lot of salt ions left over from the softener… our well water is “rock hard” and since adding that, my tank water now reads hard… I’m only doing 10 gallon water changes weekly, to slowly transition the water for the fish that have been in there for the last year…
This tank has a dozen hang on pots, with Pothos vines in them, all growing in a mix of ceramic filter media, and peat beads… I’m not seeing any softening of the Ph, even with that much peat beads added to the tank…
I may be transitioning the salt out better than I’m thinking, as our well water is alkaline as well…
May have to look for a water test, to specifically read the salt, over the other TDS???

 

[Ram419]

Refractometer for testing salinity.

I use this one Amazon

 

[Magnum Man]

So that will only read the salt, not the rest of the TDS’s ??? I’ve used refractometers, to test whey, and honey, but in both those cases, they are really testing sugars, or in essence solids

 

[Naughts]

I’m only doing 10 gallon water changes weekly, to slowly transition the water for the fish that have been in there for the last year…

I assume 100 Gallons volume. I think you could definitely up this now, maybe 20 gallons every other day for a week, then a couple of 40 gallons to get it in the same region for parameters. Then you’d be good to go on the 50-75 gallon weekly changes. Freshwater fish shouldn’t live in salt and hard water fish obviously need hard water so it will be better to get the parameters in their range now.
Once you’ve upped the water changes there will be no need to test or monitor salinity as it will be freshwater.

 

[FishyD]

Salt does not make water hard, it makes it salty.

Hardness is a measure of divalent metal ions, and is composed mainly of calcium and magnesium and small amounts of other divalent metal ions. (Source of info - son who used to work as an analyst at a water testing company)

Salt is sodium chloride and sodium is a monovalent metal ion. It cannot be included in hardness as it isn't divalent.

But salt is included in TDS, which measures everything dissolved in water not just divalent metal ions.

Yes, every softener I ever owned exchanged an ion of sodium for an ion of calcium and/or magnesium. I am no chemist for sure but I see no big change in my TDS or PH. That requires a lot of dilution with RO water. We all deal with different water though.

 

[Magnum Man]

This is actually a 55 gallon tank

 

[Ram419]

So that will only read the salt, not the rest of the TDS’s ??? I’ve used refractometers, to test whey, and honey, but in both those cases, they are really testing sugars, or in essence solids

TDS meter for the TDS. Amazon I use this one to test my RO/DI water before mixing for saltwater to make sure the filters are still working good.

Oh, looks like they have a 4 in 1 meter that does both salt as well Amazon

 

[10 Tanks]

I had 1 tank, that I had running for over a year, with house softener water… the salt ions in the house softened water made the Ph very high… I imagine that evaporation, only concentrated the salt… I’ve been doing about 10% weekly water changes with straight well water, and topping off evaporation, with the same… 3 months later, and the water is hard, yet still a Ph around 8

Hello Magnum. Your water has a good mineral content. As long as the pH reading is steady, you shouldn't have any trouble keeping aquarium fish. A steady pH of 6.8 to 8 is ideal. Your water changes should be at least 50 percent every few days. Twice a week for a small tank This will help maintain a steady water chemistry and this is all the fish need. Well, maybe a bit of food now and then too.

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