Re: softened water

[Dave Millman <dave at tactics_com>]

At 12:24 PM 10/18/2002, Robert Chady wrote:

>So, we moved in to a new house and it turns out the well water here is
>pretty pathetic.  High levels iron (18ppm) and tannsin (1ppm).  To get it
>cleaned out, we finally had to resort to a water softener + tannin
>reduction system.  Works great for the removal of the unwanted stuff, but
>now I am in need of a water supply for my aquariums.
>
>My question is, is there any way to take softened water and make it usable
>for a planted aquarium?  I want to get a semi automated setup for changing
>the water on my tank and if I have to start using R/O water, that becomes
>semi difficult (have to add back in salts, hard to automate).

Robert,

One of the members of our Aquatic Plant Study Group has a house-wide water 
softener. He has switched to Potassium Chloride as the softener salt 
because he believes it is a healthier alternative to Sodium Chloride. He 
uses this water in his planted tank, and the results look pretty good!

This is second-hand information; I can't really add any more detail.