soft or hard water?

[Agent Jones]

san antonio has very hard water. Is soft or hard water better for a reef tank? General Hardness is affected not carbonate hardness.

[hobogato]

neither. it is better to use RO/DI and adjust the alkalinity (hardness) to the desired level with reef additives or calcium chloride and calcium hydroxide.

[Agent Jones]

yeah i have a ro/di, but i have a softener that the water runs through before the ro/di. the water softener can be turned off or on by a value so i didnt know which one to use.

[Agent Jones]

what should be the parameters for KH(carbonate hardness) and GH(general hardness) once i adjust it?

[Texreefer]

you measure KH in saltwater and GH in freshwater.. with RO/DI you are starting with what should be zero TDS so it is considered very soft because there is nothing in the water to make it hard.. alkalinity could be anywhere from 2.5 to 4 Meq/l

[OrionN]

It is best to use water after the water softener. Hard water have lots of precipitation and will clot up the RO membrane quicker. It you run very hard water then the membrane do not last too long.
Water softener replaces ions in water with either Na or Cl both can easily handle by the RO membrane.
In Corpus Christi, I have to change the RO membrane every 6 months until I add a water softener to the house.

[Agent Jones]

thanks.

[BuckeyeHydro]

Yes - if you have a softener - supply softened water to the RO system.

Russ

[Agent Jones]

ok, well i was getting ready to start filling my tank and can not find my RO/DI system. i believe it was lost in my move.

So which i better regular tap water or softened tap water. I know RO/DI is the best but if thats not available

[Kristy]

If you use either versions of tap water, you will regret it. More algae growth, diatom blooms, even worse than what you are about to go through.

You can buy RO/DI water at the LFS or even get some at Wal-mart, HEB, etc. We used to use the water from the Windmill by our house before we bought a RO/DI for our house. Some people have complained about the Windmill water, but we never had any problems with it. Anything's better than the tap water.

[Agent Jones]

yeah i wish i could get some from somewhere but my car is very very small sports car and the trunk is full of electronics so no room to lug around water.

Guess im gonna use the water from the water softener. i know everyone doesn't use RO/DI water. I guess i was just wondering if softened water was a step up or a step down from regular tap water

Thanks for all the quick replies

[chark]

Yes, softened water is a step up from the hard untreated water from the city. But it is not a large enough step to not have problems. Do yourself a favor and buy an RO/DI as soon as you can.

[Agent Jones]

can anyone point me in a direction of a decent one that will not break the bank. The one i had previously was bought from home depot and used at my old house. i recently bought a new house and just paid 2k for a softner so i really dont care to spend too much more money on water care. thanks.

[jroescher]

BuckeyeFieldSupply

His information is in an earler post.

[Bill S]

Don't go cheap on your RO/DI system. You will be throwing money away. I own 3 and a half systems. That's how I know.

Just go to Russ at Buckeye. And as suggested previously, don't use your tap water - it really will affect your system.