# soft water



## bullsie (Sep 22, 2012)

For this next month I can only water my mix collection of Catts, Phals, Phrags, Paphs and a few misc with softened water. Does anyone know how long it takes before they will become adverely affected? I can manage some spring water for the Paphs but can't manage more than that presently. I will be putting in a RO system but that is about a month away. Do you think the collection will be ok till then?


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## likespaphs (Sep 22, 2012)

no clue but any way you could use potassium salt in there instead of the sodium?


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## PaphMadMan (Sep 22, 2012)

I wouldn't worry at all about the Catts, Phals and most Paphs for a period of a few weeks. I would expect the Phrags to more sensitive to water quality. Use your spring water there or among the misc. plants if they need it. Maybe hold off fertilizing to keep the total salts as low as possible.

I assume you have no control over the water supply but if you do, likespaphs' suggestion of potassium salt for the softener is a good idea. Or taking water that has not gone through the softener might be better than softened unless it is very alkaline as well as hard.

Flush the pots with RO water when you have it, and maybe move up your repotting schedule, especially for the Paphs. It is never too soon to repot Paphs anyway. Good luck, but I doubt you will see any problems with your plants.


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## bullsie (Sep 22, 2012)

Thanks, I had planned on potting up my Paphs as they are due, but I see now I will wait till the ro system is installed.


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## The Orchid Boy (Sep 22, 2012)

I have a question about what kinds of water to use... Should I use hard water, softened water, or rain water collected from a metal roof/melted snow? Melted snow/rain water is not always available.


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## Justin (Sep 22, 2012)

Depending on where you live your tapwater may be fine to use. Do you have a water quality report from your municipality?

We have fairly hard tapwater here, so I use a reverse osmosis filter and mix the output back in with 50% tapwater to replace Calcium and Magnesium.


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## The Orchid Boy (Sep 22, 2012)

Outside we have hard well water and inside we have softened well water. I don't know the levels of anything in the water though.


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## goldenrose (Sep 22, 2012)

Bullsie - why not collect rain water? 


The Orchid Boy said:


> Outside we have hard well water and inside we have softened well water. I don't know the levels of anything in the water though.


sounds like a TDS meter might be a good investment to start with.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Sep 22, 2012)

If you don't want to invest in an RO system, why not just get a Tap Water Purifier? Made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, and sold by all the on-line pet companies....Dr. Foster & Smith, Pet Solutions, Marine Depot, etc....It's not expensive, and its basically just a deionizer cartridge with an attachment for faucets. I use it for my reef tank top off water. (NYC water is really soft and pure, but it has trace amounts of orthophosphate. Won't hurt people, animals, or plants...but when using it to top off evaporation from SW tanks, the phosphates eventually accumulate.)


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## Rick (Sep 24, 2012)

likespaphs said:


> no clue but any way you could use potassium salt in there instead of the sodium?



Don't do that.

In toxicity trials with aquatic plants, potassium is worse than sodium in low calcium waters.

I recomend getting a TDS meter, and then getting baseline salt concentrations in your pots before hitting with the softened water. Then if/when you start seeing a buildup of TDS in the potting mix, then start flushing the pots out with RO water.


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## Rick (Sep 24, 2012)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> If you don't want to invest in an RO system, why not just get a Tap Water Purifier? Made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, and sold by all the on-line pet companies....Dr. Foster & Smith, Pet Solutions, Marine Depot, etc....It's not expensive, and its basically just a deionizer cartridge with an attachment for faucets. I use it for my reef tank top off water. (NYC water is really soft and pure, but it has trace amounts of orthophosphate. Won't hurt people, animals, or plants...but when using it to top off evaporation from SW tanks, the phosphates eventually accumulate.)



Sounds like a good plan to me


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## likespaphs (Sep 24, 2012)

d'oh!


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## Ray (Sep 25, 2012)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> If you don't want to invest in an RO system, why not just get a Tap Water Purifier? Made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, and sold by all the on-line pet companies....Dr. Foster & Smith, Pet Solutions, Marine Depot, etc....It's not expensive, and its basically just a deionizer cartridge with an attachment for faucets. I use it for my reef tank top off water. (NYC water is really soft and pure, but it has trace amounts of orthophosphate. Won't hurt people, animals, or plants...but when using it to top off evaporation from SW tanks, the phosphates eventually accumulate.)



That's fine, if you don't mind the expense. The Dr. Foster & Smith unit, with 6 cartridges purchased at a time for economy sake, costs $17.83 (plus shipping) for "25-125" gallons. That means you're paying $0.14-$0.71 per gallon, depending upon your feed water quality.

An R/O system is a much better alternative in the long run, ending up around $0.03 per gallon for most.

I acknowledge that I sell RO systems, but irrespective of that, the numbers don't lie.


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## Rick (Sep 25, 2012)

Another good plan!


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Sep 25, 2012)

Depends on your water quality. If its not so good in the first place, a TWP deionizer is a waste of money. However, my water is very good quality, and I go through maybe 2-3 cartridges/year.


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## Ray (Sep 26, 2012)

Eric, most folks aren't lucky enough to have NYC water quality levels. I think it's pretty much limited to you and folks that get almost all of their municipal water from snow melt.

I'm surprised you even bother with the DI.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Sep 26, 2012)

I only use it for my reef tanks. As I said, NYC water is treated with orthophosphate, I think to precipitate impurities? But it's in very trace amounts. The problem is, with SW tanks, as you replace evaporated water with fresh (and I replace about half a gallon a day) whatever is in your top off water accumulates. I set up my SW tanks with tap water, topped off with tap water.....when I had severe hair algae outbreaks many months later, my water tests showed high phosphates. So I got the TWP for the reef tank only. Otherwise, the stuff is great from the tap, for everything.


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## orcoholic (Sep 27, 2012)

Agree with Ray. RO is the way to go. I went to RO about 2 years ago and the results are fantastic. I add back fertilizer to make an ec of about 1, and bring the ph to about 6.5.

Everything does well.


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## Rick (Sep 27, 2012)

orcoholic said:


> I add back fertilizer to make an ec of about 1



What are your units of EC, and what fertilizer are you making that with?


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