Water softener

[DonC]

Question would a under sink water softener help lower the gh coming out of the tap

 

[Essjay]

That depends on the softener.

If it's the type that use salt, no as sodium affects fish.
But a reverse osmosis unit would reduce, if not completley remove, the hardness minerals without adding sodium to the water.

 

[Byron]

Agree with essjay. Going further from your question, what is the GH, KH (Alkalinity) and pH of your tap water on its own? You should find this data on the website of the water supplier if you don't already know. Presumably you are wondering about softening the water for certain fish, and this we can discuss once we have the parameters.

 

[10 Tanks]

Question would a under sink water softener help lower the gh coming out of the tap

Hello Don. Just curious as to why you're concerned about your water chemistry. Are you thinking of raising a rare fish breed? Just so you know, the vast majority of public water supplies are fine for the vast majority of pet store fish. As long as the tap water is treated to remove the chemicals your public water people put into it to make it safe to drink, your fish will be fine.

10 Tanks

 

[StevenF]

I have never heard of an under sink water softener. The only water softeners I have see are large and require periodic loading of salt.There are filters you can install to removed chlorine or organics or RO systems.

Test your water GH and KH. GH is the harndness of the water and only detects calcium and magneisum in the water. Water softeners that usecalso will cause the GH to be very low or close to zero but would have a very high KH. KH is a measure of carbonate in the water (CO3 ions. RO systems will reduced GH and KH to close to zero. Compare these numbers with numbers from your unfiltered water.

For other filters you might not see any change in GH or KH. Post your GH and KH test results for the filtered and unfiltered water. We can provide more advise after knowing that.

In general you don't want water with a zero GH. Water naturally will either have a very low GH or a high CH. But almost never zero ppm. Fish need some GH. Some fish dow well with very soft water while others need hard water. It is best to havefish that are adapted to the harness of your water.

 

[Archerfish]

Question would a under sink water softener help lower the gh coming out of the tap

That is an interesting question. I use a Culligan water softener but since I no longer breed, have never tested before and after. Hum, guess one of these days I should.

 

[DonC]

Hello Don. Just curious as to why you're concerned about your water chemistry. Are you thinking of raising a rare fish breed? Just so you know, the vast majority of public water supplies are fine for the vast majority of pet store fish. As long as the tap water is treated to remove the chemicals your public water people put into it to make it safe to drink, your fish will be fine.

10 Tanks

I was thinking about Going with Apistogramma and and was concerned that my tap water might be to hard but now I am leaning towards something less sensitive to water parameters like rainbow cichlid

 

[DonC]

I have never heard of an under sink water softener. The only water softeners I have see are large and require periodic loading of salt.There are filters you can install to removed chlorine or organics or RO systems.

Test your water GH and KH. GH is the harndness of the water and only detects calcium and magneisum in the water. Water softeners that usecalso will cause the GH to be very low or close to zero but would have a very high KH. KH is a measure of carbonate in the water (CO3 ions. RO systems will reduced GH and KH to close to zero. Compare these numbers with numbers from your unfiltered water.

For other filters you might not see any change in GH or KH. Post your GH and KH test results for the filtered and unfiltered water. We can provide more advise after knowing that.

In general you don't want water with a zero GH. Water naturally will either have a very low GH or a high CH. But almost never zero ppm. Fish need some GH. Some fish dow well with very soft water while others need hard water. It is best to havefish that are adapted to the harness of your water.

Thanks for the info you made some good points

 

[DonC]

I have never heard of an under sink water softener. The only water softeners I have see are large and require periodic loading of salt.There are filters you can install to removed chlorine or organics or RO systems.

Test your water GH and KH. GH is the harndness of the water and only detects calcium and magneisum in the water. Water softeners that usecalso will cause the GH to be very low or close to zero but would have a very high KH. KH is a measure of carbonate in the water (CO3 ions. RO systems will reduced GH and KH to close to zero. Compare these numbers with numbers from your unfiltered water.

For other filters you might not see any change in GH or KH. Post your GH and KH test results for the filtered and unfiltered water. We can provide more advise after knowing that.

In general you don't want water with a zero GH. Water naturally will either have a very low GH or a high CH. But almost never zero ppm. Fish need some GH. Some fish dow well with very soft water while others need hard water. It is best to havefish that are adapted to the harness of your water.

My tap comes out e

I have never heard of an under sink water softener. The only water softeners I have see are large and require periodic loading of salt.There are filters you can install to removed chlorine or organics or RO systems.

Test your water GH and KH. GH is the harndness of the water and only detects calcium and magneisum in the water. Water softeners that usecalso will cause the GH to be very low or close to zero but would have a very high KH. KH is a measure of carbonate in the water (CO3 ions. RO systems will reduced GH and KH to close to zero. Compare these numbers with numbers from your unfiltered water.

For other filters you might not see any change in GH or KH. Post your GH and KH test results for the filtered and unfiltered water. We can provide more advise after knowing that.

In general you don't want water with a zero GH. Water naturally will either have a very low GH or a high CH. But almost never zero ppm. Fish need some GH. Some fish dow well with very soft water while others need hard water. It is best to havefish that are adapted to the harness of your water.

Thanks for all the info my tap is ph 7.5 gh 9 kh 3. I am setting up a 29 G and would like to go with a peaceful colorful dwarf cichlid. I struggled years ago with aggressive fish so l am not ready for them yet. I have a 75 G with many different species of nano fish that are doing great and ph holds at 7.3 gh 11 kh 3 which l am concerned with the kh but I have never had any ph swings anyway I think I am going to go with kribensis. I really like what I see so far and I think its less sensitive to water parameters than apistos. What do you think?