# How do I make soft water hard



## OleSarge (Oct 4, 2011)

I just set up a 36 gallon bow front tank. My house water is softened by a water softener system. After testing the water before purchasing African Cichlid Peacocks, I found the water to be soft. What do I need to do to bring up the hardness of the water?


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

See these articles in the forum library.

Practical Water Chemistry

Water Treatment

Water Harness and Fish Health


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Rather than set up a situation where you have to constantly monitor the water and adjust it, have you looked at what it would take to use water which is not softened? Often there are easy ways to get water before it goes through the softener. Depending on location of tanks and faucets, it is sometimes practical to use an outside faucet that is not softened. In my house, I found it simple to cut a plastic line at the softener and add a raw water connection for the fish. 
Just a way to make the hobby a bit less complicated.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I would add a tap somewhere. Softened water has more Total Dissolved Solids than the unsoftened, because the softener exchanges one ion for another. I believe in the this case it removes one Ca ion and replaces with 2 Na ions.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I think you may be missing some of the process and the way the softener resin works. It keeps the solids in the resin tank rather than leaving them in the water. Then during the refresh cycle, this is flushed to the drain. If there were more solids in the result, there would be little purpose to using a softener.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

PfunMo said:


> I think you may be missing some of the process and the way the softener resin works. It keeps the solids in the resin tank rather than leaving them in the water. Then during the refresh cycle, this is flushed to the drain. If there were more solids in the result, there would be little purpose to using a softener.


The resin works by exchanging ions; a sodium or two for one calcium. A softeners purpose is to remove calcium, so while there is a reduction in calcium, so you have "softer" water. There is more TDS in the water. Easy enough to check with a TDS meter.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

So what is the result of the meter readings worth? Are you interested in results you can see and feel or results that a meter might show? Seems the meter reading is not of any importance if the objective is to get soft water? Is it possible your softener is not set up to operate correctly? This is the frist house where I have used a softener and it definitely makes a major difference when I use the raw water or softened water. I would not want the fish in soft water nor my shower in hard water if given a choice.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

The TDS will tell you the conductivity of the water. Soft water, and distilled is the softest, and will have conductivity of 0 or very near. if you were to take water that has run trough a water softener, it will have a conductivity higher than the water was before it was softened. For most of us it won't make much of a difference, but if you were to take a fish that did in fact need to be kept in soft water such as wild discus or Altum angel, you would actually be making the situation worse by using the water softener softened water, as those fish come from water with little or no conductivity. When you put fish into water with a radically different TDS than they came from, there is the risk of osmotic shock. This is probably the real killer that led to the myth of pH shock killing fish.


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## Pizzle (May 24, 2011)

Freeze it.


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

freeze it +1


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## mobafrontlover (May 1, 2011)

Sorry not trying to take over but have a small question, is there anything that you can add to soften your water? My brevis tank is above 300 kh


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

You can add RO, distilled or rain water to dilute the hardness.


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## mobafrontlover (May 1, 2011)

Thanks bill theres not a quick fix like backing soda? Rain water is out the question due to acid rain here and the other opions could be pricy im using ocean sand could that be the main cause of the highting kh cause both my kh and gh are high[/list]


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I suppose if the marine sand is coraline in origin it could be a factor.


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## mobafrontlover (May 1, 2011)

Its from Virginia beach lol

But I don't wanna disturb them to change it out we all know how hard it is to get brevis to breed and I finally got them started so ill just grab a case of distilled water for the change this week end that's and sorry about the hi-jack


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## Norm66 (Mar 3, 2005)

moba, why would you want to soften the water for brevis? I purposely raise my GH and KH for my Tangs.


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## mobafrontlover (May 1, 2011)

My stats are so high its off the charts im using api to test it and api stops at 12 drops and mine is 16-18 if you do the math is over 300 kh


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## Norm66 (Mar 3, 2005)

Ah. Makes sense. I've never heard of anyone having to lower pH for Tangs before is all.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

I wouldn't bother with lowering it. A high KH should not make any difference at all when breeding brevis IME.


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## mobafrontlover (May 1, 2011)

Okay thanks guys.

I just wasn't sure if it was to high for them and if it could cause problems being that high.

Again thanks all. John. :thumb:


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