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Water changes -- water softener -- temperature shock


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I'm pretty new.  I just started keeping fish this summer.  I completely love it.

I bought this house recently. It has a water softener from like 1975. The bypass is stuck, and I can't turn the water softener off.  I've been getting water from the garden hose because it doesn't go through the water softener.  Anyway, I noticed my fish weren't looking so great and tested my water; my nitrates were too high. I changed probably 3 gallons in  my 20 long. Almost immediately, they were better, so I did another 5 gallon water change, but then they didn't look so good again.  The next day, they were great.  They were swimming around, investigating things, grouping up (guppies), acting just how they should.  I think they were shocked from the temperature.  It did drop by a degree or two when I changed that water.    

I really want to be able to match temperatures and do a water change whenever I need to, but I have this undesired water softener, and I can't turn it off.  Is there anything I can do to my softened water to make it okay to use for water changes?  

 

PS I love my guppies so much. 

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52 minutes ago, KBOzzie59 said:

They don't really, just tossing it out there since you mentioned you just started fish keeping this summer.

 

I'm really enjoying plants.  I did a ton of reading, wound up really confused. I decided to just buy a bunch of them and see which ones died. None of them died!

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I am assuming that your bylass valves are brass valves soldered to copper pipe?

I would try applying a penetrating lubricant like WD-40 to the valve stems and maybe try to get the valves warm with a hair dryer. This has a chance to make them loose enough to get unstuck, but fair warning anytime you mess with old plumbing with issues there is a chance things will leak. Usually best to replace with new.

Edited by TheDukeAnumber1
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@SpongeFilter,

There is nothing better than getting first-hand experience with plants, seeing their rates of growth, how they propagate, what they like, and how they go together.

You grow a list of your favorites, start trying the cousins of your favorites, and then you find yourself with a new tank and a shopping cart of just the right plants for a new project.

Edited by Streetwise
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If you have a spare container you can keep available for replacement water, you could use your garden hose to fill it instead. Either permanently keep it filled or just fill it up the day before you plan to do a water change. Add you dechlorinator there and let it come to room temperature, or if your tank is significantly different add a heater and set it to tank temperature. Then when your ready to replace water, pump or transfer from your container. It's a little extra work, but gives you a lot more control. 

That said, I also wouldn't be concerned about a few degrees, but larger differences could be concerning. 

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Is there any salt left in the water softener?  If not then its not really doing anything other than some additional plumbing for the water to go through. 

A water softener works by replacing the hardness in water with salt. It should not affect the fish as osmotically the water is the same to them. You lose buffering capacity though. 

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25 minutes ago, NoobieFish said:

Is there any salt left in the water softener?  If not then its not really doing anything other than some additional plumbing for the water to go through. 

A water softener works by replacing the hardness in water with salt. It should not affect the fish as osmotically the water is the same to them. You lose buffering capacity though. 

I plan on moving to house in the future with a new softener and am wondering the same. I understand the salt replacement thing. But are you saying the levels of salt in the water will be ok for aquariums? 

On a side note, let's say the bypass works and I just use that, but then I'm mixing hot water from the same tap.... Doesn't that defeat the purpose because the hot water will have been softened? 

Also I lik the hardness for at least some of my tanks because.... Livebearers haha

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20 minutes ago, Pekitivey said:

I plan on moving to house in the future with a new softener and am wondering the same. I understand the salt replacement thing. But are you saying the levels of salt in the water will be ok for aquariums? 

On a side note, let's say the bypass works and I just use that, but then I'm mixing hot water from the same tap.... Doesn't that defeat the purpose because the hot water will have been softened? 

Also I lik the hardness for at least some of my tanks because.... Livebearers haha

The hot water tank should be after the water softener. One of the major points of a softener is to protect the hot water tank and make it last longer. 

The levels of salt will correspond with the amount of hardness present in the water. In essence if the fish could tolerate the hardness, they can tolerate the salt. A softener does not help with fish that actually likes soft water. 

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11 hours ago, Sykes said:

If you have a spare container you can keep available for replacement water, you could use your garden hose to fill it instead. Either permanently keep it filled or just fill it up the day before you plan to do a water change. Add you dechlorinator there and let it come to room temperature, or if your tank is significantly different add a heater and set it to tank temperature. Then when your ready to replace water, pump or transfer from your container. It's a little extra work, but gives you a lot more control. 

That said, I also wouldn't be concerned about a few degrees, but larger differences could be concerning. 

Thanks. Do I need to be using Seachem Prime if I have well water? 

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35 minutes ago, NoobieFish said:

The hot water tank should be after the water softener. One of the major points of a softener is to protect the hot water tank and make it last longer. 

The levels of salt will correspond with the amount of hardness present in the water. In essence if the fish could tolerate the hardness, they can tolerate the salt. A softener does not help with fish that actually likes soft water. 

Are you saying I could be using my regular water even after it's been through the water softener?

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29 minutes ago, SpongeFilter said:

Thanks. Do I need to be using Seachem Prime if I have well water? 

It might not strictly be necessary if you don't have any chlorine or chloramine in your water to deal with, but prime (and most aquarium conditioners) also have other benefits of detoxifying heavy metals, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Heavy metals in particular aren't generally testable by any standard aquarium test strips/kits, so I'd still recommend using a conditioner such as prime to be on the safe side.

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1 hour ago, SpongeFilter said:

Are you saying I could be using my regular water even after it's been through the water softener?

Unless the fish is very sensitive, it should be fine. It would be like soft tap water and you add some aquarium salt to it. Again the amount of salt would be proportional to how much hardness was removed. Fish that like hard water will probably be okay. Fish that dont like hard water still wont like it. Im not sure about plants as some plant dont tolerate salt well. 

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