# Using potassium chloride softened water



## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

Would water that has been softened with potassium chloride be suitable for a planted tank? If OK, would it be significant enough that I ought to reduce the amount of potassium fertilizer being added weekly?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

What is the GH from your Tap? If you have a very low GH after your softener you may want to supplement some Calcium or Magnesium either with separate chemicals (preferred since you may have residual potassium from your softener) or one of the commercial products like Equilibrium or Barr's GH booster (both contain potassium). 

My house has a water softener and it now uses KCL. My GH from the softened tap is 0dGH. I imagine the residual potassium from the softener is much better for the plants (probably for us too) than the sodium would be. However, I have no idea how much of either the potassium or sodium makes it's way into the water supply afater the water has been softened. 

You may be just fine using your tap water depending on the species of plants you are keeping and your unsoftened GH reading. If possible, you can also use a tap that is bypassed, sometimes the kitchen tap or outside spigots. To find out if these are bypassed, you can test the GH of the different faucets in your house.


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## dnrdarryl (Jul 23, 2006)

I have just switched to KCL softened water myself. Looks like I need to get another test kit. I've never tested GH, only KH and ph.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

My water is from a well. It is 90 grains of calcium hardness, but the water is slightly carbonated, so the pH is 6.6 - 6.7 when the water first comes out of the tap. After agitation or sitting, the pH rises to 8.3 - 8.4 whether softened with sodium chloride or unsoftened. The unsoftened water coats everything in its container with a scale-like coating as the pH climbs. If you leave the softened water in a container long enough, hairlike white crystals form just above the surface. Up to this point, I bring in water for my 150 and 125 planted tanks, but it would be nice not to have to fill 20 or more five gallon buckets with water and carry them into the house weekly, especially since I'd like to set up a 75 planted tank.


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

There are potential problems with to much cloride in the water. It can inhibit the growth of plants to the point of restricting your options of what you can get to grow to the easyer species. I will have to find the link to a study done that indicated that the cloride from road salt has caused problems for native plants in waterways.

It has been a while since I saw that so it might take me a bit to find.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

SnakeIce said:


> There are potential problems with to much cloride in the water. It can inhibit the growth of plants to the point of restricting your options of what you can get to grow to the easyer species. I will have to find the link to a study done that indicated that the cloride from road salt has caused problems for native plants in waterways.
> 
> It has been a while since I saw that so it might take me a bit to find.


 I think the way a softener works is by replacing the calcium and magnesium that is bound to the chlorine (chloride) with either sodium or potassium. The chloride gets washed away with the calcium.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

I've gotten some more information on this topic. My family doctor says that it is a good idea in case you ingest some softened water. I have also found a little more about California's endorsement of potassium chloride softened water. It looks like that was then. Now they are going further.

MRWPCA : Switch to Potassium Chloride Softeners

Ecosmarte Water

It is more like they are gradually banning individuals from using softeners at all, unless they get one which has a replaceable resin chamber that would be exchanged by a technician every time it is used up. Or unless they use reverse osmosis, a process that does not work efficiently or reliably with very hard water.


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