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Re: salt worries




On Mon, 29 May 2000, Dave Gomberg wrote:
 
> Does anybody but me worry about adding sodium salts to gain a desired anion 
> or chloride salts to gain a desired cation?   Wouldn't we be better off 
> with potassium in place of the sodium and with bicarbonate in place of the 
> chloride???????

There's nothing inherently wrong with adding either sodium salts to
provide the anion or chloride salts to add the cation.  Both sodium and
chloride are benign when used sensibly.

That said, there are cases where it's reasonable to be careful about your
choices in order to create or preserve a reasonable balance among the
dissolved salts in your water.  If your water already carries a lot of
sodium (compared to potassium, magnesium and calcium) then you might want
to avoid using sodium salts.  Likewise, if your water is high in chloride
(say, it has more than 5 times more chloride then some other anion) then
you may not want to use chloride salts.  The same could be said about
avoiding bicarbonate salts if the water is already well buffered, or
sulfate salts if the sulfate is high.

My tap water is very high in sodium, so I won't add sodium salts, but it's
quite low in chloride so I feel free to dose with chloride salts.


Roger Miller