Water Softner System....Good or Bad?

Hello peeps. First time, long time. Love the site:thumbsup:

Searched on the subject of water softners with varying degrees of imput. Some pro's on here say it is a good thing, others say it is bad. I have well water with a professional softner system and would prefer not bring water home from an off site supply.

I do understand the process of softened water and can't comprehend of why it would be bad as the salt never hits the tap....

Pharmacan said: "A water softner runs your water through a substance called "zeolite" which attract the minerals in the water and hold them. Every now and then the zeolite needs to be scrubbed with brine (salt water) to remove the minerals from the zeolite. The final step of the scrubbing process is that the zeolite tank is back flushed to remove all impurities, including the brine."

while Weedhound, darn cute dog BTW, said: "You can try it but they tend to raise the sodium content of the water while removing the minerals you want such as calcium and magnesium which will cause deficiencies so water softeners generally aren't reccomended for hydro growing"

Who is correct???

Well who do you think IM going to vote for...???? :D:D:D:stoned:

LOL Weedhound!

I was hoping to get a wrestling match between you two and I would go with the winning advice...;)

There are a couple different types of water softener systems, using different ion-exchange substrates (Potassium permanganate is another common one). Generally, as WH pointed out, the goal of a water softener is to remove the minerals that form scale or deposits on your ceramic fixtures. However, the ion is exchanged with a Na or K ion in these systems. The resulting salts are more soluble than minerals such as lime, so they don't damage your tiles, but plants FAR prefer the minerals (in moderation, of course!).
So if you are choosing between tap, softened, or distilled/RO water, you may very well be better off picking up a RO machine to further purify your water, or running tap water 'cut' with distilled water to bring the total hardness down to a more acceptable level.

Since you are running hydro, your best bet is an RO machine and then run with added CalMAg Plus to add back a CORRECT level of trace minerals for your plants to enjoy.

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Since you are running hydro, your best bet is ....

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That's creepy Stinky....how did you know since I never said anything about....wait, I don't want to know....:) Thanks for the tips.

Just tested the soft water. PH 8 and 290ppm. A little down and this appears to be nice water, maybe. A RO system is not currently in the works, but would be nice.

Any other comments on using soft well water?

Thanks

Weedhound replied to you about hydro... oh wait... it's because I'M PSYCHIC!!! mwahahah! :D

290 ppm is not bad in TAP water where you are reasonably assured that most of the hardness comes from a substance BENEFICIAL to plants... 290 ppm of potassium or sodium is NOT good. I thought I explained the difference in my earlier post?

Thanks Stinky. You did a fine job explaining but went above my noobie head throwing in periodic table letters in the mix:upsidedow

Weedhound's post copy was from an older post, I think back in '06, so it was not about my partictular situation. I still think you are psychic...

You know, there is a local company that will test your water, $45, giving you a readout of all the goodies. Maybe I should do that first and post the results then determine if I need to ship some city water up to the country.....

Thanks again and thanks for the rep Weedhound.:thumbsup:

I'd save a few bucks and email the company that makes your water softener to ask what ions the softening process leaves behind. Be as specific in your question as you are here.

Your socks don't match by the way :D

And what color is my shirt Stinky?

js...I use well water. The thing you are going to want to know before you decide to use it IS.....will the ph stay stable? My well water does not....the ph will rise back up over several days no matter WHAT I put into it. I have both tropical fish and hydro so stable ph is very necessary....(hint, hint, hydro....:D)

Test your water by adjusting to different ph's and leaving them overnight....does the ph remain the same or drift around? That...imho.....will be your deciding factor on whether to use your water or run it through an RO system or something.

Stinky.....nope.....it's green.....:S2:

Man, these waterguys know their stuff.

He says my system, as with others of the same class, remove Ca, Mg, Iron leaving a trace/if any amount of Sodium. So the salt in the water is a defunked myth. A link to the specific conditioner:
http://www.waterelated.com/waterelat...0specsheet.pdf
Am I golden or am I golden with my H2O?

Weedhound, I will do a couple of test buckets overnight, adjusting the ph and post the results tomorrow.

Many thanks you two. I would hate to kill my taters. BTW, Brad in 9 days, love that guy.:D

So I got lost....your water softener removes the calcium mg, and iron that you want. Are you going to use CalMAg to replace them?

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

So I got lost....your water softener removes the calcium mg, and iron that you want. Are you going to use CalMAg to replace them?

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If that is what is required, I will. He said these elements are the cause of hard water. If I remember correctly, there is an outlet before the conditioner that would give me access to the untreated water in the basement...decisions decisions.....

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Originally Posted by jst300z

He says my system, as with others of the same class, remove Ca, Mg, Iron leaving a trace/if any amount of Sodium. So the salt in the water is a defunked myth.

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Sodium is not the only salt you need to worry about. The term 'salt' encompasses more ionic substances than Sodium chloride. Did you ask what WAS left behind? For an ion-exchange to work, the ion has to exchange with SOMETHING... I'm guessing Potassium, which is a common one, and luckily it's better for plants than Na, but you still need to know what is there so you don't find yourself scratching your head later over a lockout.

You can try to get a MSDS for the chemicals in the thing...

I called my water softener company yesterday to ask about this and he assured me that the amount of sodium left in the water is so small that is negligable...but i'm having him come out and give me a quote on an RO system anyways..its only 27 bucks a month and it will make my coffee taste better :)

Is 7.2-7.4 an ok PH?

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Originally Posted by sensilights

I called my water softener company yesterday to ask about this and he assured me that the amount of sodium left in the water is so small that is negligable..

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Sodium is not the only salt you need to worry about. .... For an ion-exchange to work, the ion has to exchange with SOMETHING... I'm guessing Potassium,

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Okay so there's little SODIUM... and 'negligible' is all relative. You gotta get an actual ppm on the concentration of remaining salts.

That pH is too high and will have to be brought down with pH down before use.

edit: are sensilights and jst3z the same person btw?

no i'm me lol :P I did ask about other dissolved solids in the water and he had never heard of potassium or anything other than a slightly elevated sodium content i'll grill him some more next week when he comes out to talk about the RO system

thanks for the speedy response btw :):thumbsup: