Aquariums and Water-Softners

[Anup Pande]

So my wife wants to add a water softener in the house and everything I've read online indicates that not only are water that comes out of the softeners bad for the plants, but they are also bad for fish. However, this is based on what I've read up on salt-based softeners as, apparently, the salt-based systems work off an 'ion-exchange' process which replaces all minerals in the water with sodium ions. The system I am looking at is a salt-free system which physically change the structure of the hardness minerals to take away their ability to bond and stick to surfaces, and to each other through a 'Template Assisted Crystallization' process.

So my question is, will a salt-free system also affect the plants and fish in the same way that a salt-based system would or would it be ok to have it installed without any danger to the tank inhabitants? 

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

Does it use potassium chloride instead?

[lefty o]

water softeners dont put salt in your water. the salt is used to flush out the resin tank. the resin is what removes the hard minerals from the water supply.

[AdamTill]

13 minutes ago, lefty o said:

water softeners dont put salt in your water. the salt is used to flush out the resin tank. the resin is what removes the hard minerals from the water supply.

From this is sounds like both happen. The sodium/potassium salts do what you say in the flush water but are also passed into the product water as well 

http://www.scientificamerican.com//public/resources/favicons/favicon-4c8c70500bd3f01ae8c38cf7dd2771fe.ico How do water softeners work?

WWW.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM

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[lefty o]

trace amounts only, unless you use your water while the softener is regenerating.

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

46 mg/L of sodium for every 100 mg/L of calcium carbonate. But if you have a water softener you might have fairly hard water which would be way more than 100 mg/L of calcium carbonate.

Assuming the high sodium isn't a problem that still leaves a large sodium-chloride imbalance as well as producing water deficient in calcium and magnesium.

[Fishmonger_X]

your fish are fine... dont use water softner...