Water Softner?

[Ninja420]

Should I use water that's been through a water softner?

 

[growshopfrank]

If you want to kill your plants its a good idea

 

[Brother Bear]

Eh, i have to cart water from the spring for years now cause the ladies in the house won't give up their damn salt water.

 

[Suby]

Water softeners use a form of salt, a surfire way to kill a plant.
They remove Ca and Mg from the water and replace it with Na (sodium).

When surrounded by water that contains a larger amount of salt
there is a general rule that water will try to move between the inside and
the outside of the cell wall to make the amount of dissolved things
equal. So a high concentration of salt outside the cell wall will "suck"
the water out of the cell and eventually cause the cell to collapse.

Your outside water line should not be hooked up to the softener, it would be pretty destructive to water or worse wash your car with it lol.
It is a chore to truck it in pail by pail, if your water needs are great then setup a valve and a spout before it enters the softener.

Sub's

 

[spurr]

FWIW, a cheap and safe water softener: filter water through un-lime amended s.peat moss.

 

[bradybunch]

What if softner out line goes into a RO unit?

 

[h.h.]

What if softner out line goes into a RO unit?

I'd hire a new plumber.

 

[WelderDan]

Install a "T" fitting on the inlet side of the water softener and put a spigot on it. Attach hose when necessary. Disconnect and roll up hose when not needed.

If you're fairly handy and the softener was installed with PVC, you should be able to do it on the cheap.

If it's copper line and you're not handy at plumbing, well it'll cost you a bit more to have a plumber do it.

 

[h.h.]

Actually I can understand how your plumbing could dictate an RO filter on a soft water system. Not really an ideal situation. You're adding salt, just to take it out. If you can use a separate line for your RO water.
That said. RO water lacks electrolytes that we need and in fact can dilute the electrolytes in our bodies. Minerals are also lacking, not good for us and perhaps depriving our plants as well.
Use the "T" fitting as suggested, add a simple charcoal filter to get rid of any chlorine and call it good.

 

[mexcurandero420]

Just put quartz into your water can and it will soften your water.

Keep on growing

 

[bradybunch]

I find this topic very inconsistent after reading different threads. Although, I know that sodium is a bad thing to have in your feed, but I've found other 'senior' members with >1K posts use Softners between tap and RO unit with no problems. Also, I have a buddy in CO that has been using tap-softner-ro water with his grows since mid 2012 with no problems.

My issue:
Spent 6-750 bucks on an Axeon 1000GPH RO 4x21" unit with a two part sediment-carbon filters just this past July.
This unit is hooked up to my shower head via a 5' hose, so TAP to RO unit. I took measurement with my big blue lab pen and the first reading of 100ppm didn't light up. I thought I was good to go.
Six weeks later, I noticed that the RO water was coming out at 100ppm's, since my pen doesn't mark intervals of 10, I really don't know if its 110 or 120ppm. My tap reading is 300ppm, so I immediately got on the phone with AXEON and they told me that the membrane is supposed to last between 3-5yrs and the sediment/carbon filters are supposed to be changed every 6 months. They went on to say that the membrane is not designed to take straight chlorine (hard water) because it'll clog up. They recommended a water softner (salt). They said that the RO unit will filter 96-98% of the sodium.
I see me spending this money every six months to have clean water and I still have to let it stand for a day to let Chlorine out.
Memrbrane = $185
sediment/carbon = $50

I know other ppl with cheap RO units that have to wait a day just to fill up a 55gl. I need RO water way faster than that, which is the reason why I went with the better 1KGPH Axeon unit.

 

[touringfunkband]

Sorry. I was me that accidentally click not helpful on your post. I don't know how the fuck i did that.. But I did not mean to do it.

 

[Treetroit City]

I run my ro after my softener. The goal of the ro is to soften the water completely. Why would you rather start with harder water?

In fact spectra pure recommends softening water first to extend the life of the ro membrane.

I'll add that after 2 + years on the original membrane my ro sill tests at 0.0 on my brand new bluelab.

 

[bradybunch]

I run my ro after my softener. The goal of the ro is to soften the water completely. Why would you rather start with harder water?

In fact spectra pure recommends softening water first to extend the life of the ro membrane.

I'll add that after 2 + years on the original membrane my ro sill tests at 0.0 on my brand new bluelab.

TC, Thats what I meant.

In order to not spend money on a new membrane + sediment/carbon items every six months I would need to soften the water before it goes into the RO.

The 'inconsistencies' I'm talking about has to do with ppl saying that you should not even have a water softner before it goes into the RO unit because of the sodium.

I've been on the fence exactly because of this. Truth is that I purchased a badass RO unit and the membrane + filters lasted six months only. I found a high end Ultra Kenmore water softner on craigslist for 250 bucks unopened/new.

Now I just need to educate myself on how to run this bad boy before my new membrane and filters arrive.

FYI:
uswatersystems.com has the best prices in the country for anything related to water systems. They also have tons of videos and DIY's. I price checked all over the net and local water companies and couldn't find better prices.

 

[h.h.]

Can't run chlorine thru a RO system??
Water softeners replace the calcium and magnesium in hard water with sodium. RO is a filtration system and will filter out the cal/mag and/or sodium. Sort of pointless as well as ironic. While I don't want sodium, minerals provide benefit. It's much easier to hit an outside tap. Save your money and just use the carbon filters for chlorine if anything at all.

 

[Yesca73]

U do not have to use sodium in water softener
Potassium bags are available at a higher price of course. Thats what I use in my water softener.

 

[supermanlives]

I went organic to get rid of ro and all that crap hydro requires. I been using tap water at 383 for 18 years now. not one complaint. my spot here is 81 out of tap but I aint growing here damnit

 

[bradybunch]

Can't run chlorine thru a RO system??

You could but city chlorine will tear thru filters every several months. It gets expensive.

U do not have to use sodium in water softener
Potassium bags are available at a higher price of course. Thats what I use in my water softener.

Thank you Yesca and icmag! I will looking into this in the morning. The higher price won't be an issue since I'm only using it for this and not the house.

I went organic to get rid of ro and all that crap hydro requires. I been using tap water at 383 for 18 years now. not one complaint. my spot here is 81 out of tap but I aint growing here damnit

You just let the water sit overnight to let the Chlorine out, right?
What organic nutes do you use, any compost teas?

Thanks!

 

[bradybunch]

U do not have to use sodium in water softener
Potassium bags are available at a higher price of course. Thats what I use in my water softener.

Whats your PH?