RO with water softener

[Cjbear087]

So I plan on running my RODI after the water softener that connected to every tap in my house so the membrane won’t wear out as much, but I am aware that softener water isn’t good for fish or plants as it takes away certain needed minerals. I was wondering if I used the rodi water after my softener and remineralised as needed, it would be fine for the fish again? Because surely the RODI basically does the same thing as the softener in terms of minerals which is why you need to remin? Thanks

[Tony s]

Your softener is going to strip the gh elements out of your water. Or at the least, depending on the softener, the calcium parts will be gone. The kh will remain to a lesser degree. The problem there is if you want to raise your discus in a higher gh, you will not have a source of gh to mix your ro water with and would have to add gh back in. Seachem equilibrium would work best for this. But if you’re going to go down that road you might as well do straight ro water. 
 

I know, when you’re trying to figure out how to get the water you want, it can be a pain until you figure it out. One change leads to another change. It’s all interconnected. I have the same issues. And if the softener runs out of salt. Then everything is back to hard water and changed again. That’s why I try to get people to use the water they naturally have. And mix in the ro. Instead of making all of their water with supplements. And with the discus, you’re going to need a ton of water. 

[Cjbear087]

On 5/17/2024 at 3:40 PM, Tony s said:

Your softener is going to strip the gh elements out of your water. Or at the least, depending on the softener, the calcium parts will be gone. The kh will remain to a lesser degree. The problem there is if you want to raise your discus in a higher gh, you will not have a source of gh to mix your ro water with and would have to add gh back in. Seachem equilibrium would work best for this. But if you’re going to go down that road you might as well do straight ro water. 
 

I know, when you’re trying to figure out how to get the water you want, it can be a pain until you figure it out. One change leads to another change. It’s all interconnected. I have the same issues. And if the softener runs out of salt. Then everything is back to hard water and changed again. That’s why I try to get people to use the water they naturally have. And mix in the ro. Instead of making all of their water with supplements. And with the discus, you’re going to need a ton of water. 

The cutting with tap isn’t really a problem as I can use my water softener bypass valve, my question is more about going through the RO would it do the same thing as the softener until it’s been remineralised?

[Tony s]

Yes. But not as much. It completely eliminates my gh through the softener. My kh ends up like 2dkh. Ro eliminates everything. All trace minerals included. That’s why mixing with unsoftened water is best. Keeps the trace minerals intact. Well, at the % of the mix anyway. 
 

I was thinking about discus yesterday. Seachem makes a discus trace additive. I wonder if that’s a good idea or not. If it works well with Ro straight, my wife might get her discus 

[Cjbear087]

On 5/17/2024 at 5:09 PM, Tony s said:

Yes. But not as much. It completely eliminates my gh through the softener. My kh ends up like 2dkh. Ro eliminates everything. All trace minerals included. That’s why mixing with unsoftened water is best. Keeps the trace minerals intact. Well, at the % of the mix anyway. 
 

I was thinking about discus yesterday. Seachem makes a discus trace additive. I wonder if that’s a good idea or not. If it works well with Ro straight, my wife might get her discus 

So basically as long as I’m cutting with unsoftened water the softener water will be fine because it’s going through the ro?

[Tony s]

On 5/17/2024 at 12:10 PM, Cjbear087 said:

So basically as long as I’m cutting with unsoftened water the softener water will be fine because it’s going through the ro?

right. if you're running the ro after the softener, it's still going to be straight ro. It should even strip out the salt leftover from the softener

[Cjbear087]

On 5/17/2024 at 6:39 PM, Tony s said:

right. if you're running the ro after the softener, it's still going to be straight ro. It should even strip out the salt leftover from the softener

Brilliant. Thanks 🙂

[jwcarlson]

Yeah, it strips out the salt and just makes "RO".  Same as if you'd do it with regular tap or softened water.

I've kept apistos and rams in straight RO without issue.  Water changes about once a week.  I'm sure there's some trace hardness that keeps the pH from crashing.  But I've never seen the pH lower much below 7.4 with straight RO.