Water softener killing my fish?

[Haroon]

Hey everyone.

I have a 240 gallon African cichlid tank. About 2 years ago, I got a water softener in my house, the very first day I test the water and it showed 0 chlorine. So, logically I stopped using water conditioners and I've had no problem. Recently, I lost 2 adult male Haps. About a month ago I change the substrate from gravel to white sand, however I added turbo start to my water to add extra bacteria I was taking away from removing the gravel. 

 

So my question is, are my fish getting sodium poisoning slowly over time from my water softener and if they are, should I start adding water conditioner again? 

[tonyjuliano]

Water softening systems do not reliably remove chlorine, especially over time.

Have you tested recently for chlorine?  If not, I would.  It may be your culprit.

Oh, and the salinity of a properly operating system will not have a negative effect on freshwater fish.

The only sure way to know if the tank chemistry isn’t hurting your fish is to regularly test for “the big four”.

Chlorine, ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.

Edited June 10, 2021 by tonyjuliano

[Guppysnail]

Water softeners exchange (remove) calcium and magnesium for (add) salt or potassium depending on which softening medium you choose. When I started in the hobby clueless this caused me massive issues over time but not upfront.  I know nothing about chichilids And their requirements just wanted to share that info. 

[lefty o]

extremely doubtful your water softener is putting enough salt in your water to affect the fish.

[BIG GREEN]

12 hours ago, Haroon said:

Hey everyone.

I have a 240 gallon African cichlid tank. About 2 years ago, I got a water softener in my house, the very first day I test the water and it showed 0 chlorine. So, logically I stopped using water conditioners and I've had no problem. Recently, I lost 2 adult male Haps. About a month ago I change the substrate from gravel to white sand, however I added turbo start to my water to add extra bacteria I was taking away from removing the gravel. 

 

So my question is, are my fish getting sodium poisoning slowly over time from my water softener and if they are, should I start adding water conditioner again? 

 

 

Hard water= happy African cichlid.

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

When in doubt whenever you’re having any sort of issues in the tank, always test the water. It could be, as mentioned above, a chlorine issue. It could be a completely unrelated issue to the softener. It could be a hardnesses or pH issue if you’re not buffering to account for the softener. It could be stress, old age, some sort of internal parasite, tapeworm, it could be a heater malfunction…. It could be a whole host of different things, but I’d test the water for chlorine, ammonia, nitrite,  iterate, Gh, Kh, and pH, and if all of those are perfectly normal and within optimal ranges for your African cichlids, then we can start diving down weird rabbit holes. Hopefully we can figure out whatever it is before you lose any more fish 🤞🏻 
 

I don’t know much about water softening systems but I do know that with RODI systems you have to replace the media regularly otherwise it stops filtering stuff out as the media gets used up. I don’t know if a water softener works in this same principle, but if you haven’t tested for chlorine in 2 years it would definitely be worth testing water coming straight from the softener (not in the tank) to see if there’s any in there. Why don’t you go ahead and test both your tank and your source water just to get an idea of where the tanks at, and what you’re putting in it with water changes. A lot can happen in 2 years to a water source.