The Effects of Utilizing Softened Water For Home Aquariums
Owing to the many ill effects of hard water on our daily tap water use at home, it is occasionally necessary to put a water softening process to take care of this dilemma.
In the case of home aquariums, though, softened water may stimulate terrible health effects for your fishes, but of course, the outcome may still vary from a case to case basis.
For one, softening water works by altering the chemical composition of the hard water by lowering magnesium and calcium deposits in the water and exchanging them with more-beneficial sodium ions.
Now, I said this is mostly beneficial only because it helps with non-aquarium uses, but in the case of home aquariums, by and large, you would never desire any alteration in the chemistry of the water where your livestock reside.
Most fishes are very reactive to differences in water pH and are not suited to swim in conditions where the water is tested with an acidic pH level.
Softening water is basically dropping the pH point of your normal tap water after a few chemical reactions to balance with its hardness.
With this fact alone, it is already not sensible to expose the livestock in your home aquariums to softened water if you are worried about their security, and similar to any other fish lover, who would not be worried, right? Anyhow, even with this information, many people will still oppose that they have been using softened water for their fish tanks without seeing any adverse effects on their livestock.
This may have been caused by many factors.
Maybe their fishes are by now familiarized to that particular water setting from the time they are bred in captivity, or perhaps because the acidity is not that significant to provide any great effect to the health of the fishes, but in any case, what works for them may not work for your fish tanks too.
So if you are uncertain about this subject, it is more prudent to stay on the sure side and not use softened water for your own home aquariums and keep on utilizing the same water you have been using for your livestock since the day you kept them.
In the case of home aquariums, though, softened water may stimulate terrible health effects for your fishes, but of course, the outcome may still vary from a case to case basis.
For one, softening water works by altering the chemical composition of the hard water by lowering magnesium and calcium deposits in the water and exchanging them with more-beneficial sodium ions.
Now, I said this is mostly beneficial only because it helps with non-aquarium uses, but in the case of home aquariums, by and large, you would never desire any alteration in the chemistry of the water where your livestock reside.
Most fishes are very reactive to differences in water pH and are not suited to swim in conditions where the water is tested with an acidic pH level.
Softening water is basically dropping the pH point of your normal tap water after a few chemical reactions to balance with its hardness.
With this fact alone, it is already not sensible to expose the livestock in your home aquariums to softened water if you are worried about their security, and similar to any other fish lover, who would not be worried, right? Anyhow, even with this information, many people will still oppose that they have been using softened water for their fish tanks without seeing any adverse effects on their livestock.
This may have been caused by many factors.
Maybe their fishes are by now familiarized to that particular water setting from the time they are bred in captivity, or perhaps because the acidity is not that significant to provide any great effect to the health of the fishes, but in any case, what works for them may not work for your fish tanks too.
So if you are uncertain about this subject, it is more prudent to stay on the sure side and not use softened water for your own home aquariums and keep on utilizing the same water you have been using for your livestock since the day you kept them.
Source...