Re: Seachem Flourish and KH question

["Roger S. Miller" <rgrmill at rt66_com>]

Bob Dixon wrote:

> Because most water purifiers (and I am out on a limb making this
> generalization) replace CaCO3, MgCO3, and a host of less common compounds of
> phosphate and the like with salt.  Yea, NaCl.

Water softeners replace Ca++ and Mg++ with Na+.  Water softeners don't
change alkalinity.  There is a (usually) small net increase in the total
dissolved solids content.  The device is recharge with NaCl brine and a
large increase in salt content is possible if the brine isn't completely
flushed before the water softener is used.

I think tap water purifiers work a little differently.  They are
"deionizers" that replace all cations (mostly Na+, K+, Ca++ and Mg++) with
H+ and replace all anions (mostly Cl-, HCO3-, SO4--, nitrate/ite and
phosphates) with OH-.  The H+ and OH- combine to make water.  There is no
added salt load, and the resins (which I think must be separate if they're
to be recharged) can be recharged with strong inorganic acids for the H+
and strong inorganic bases for the OH-.


Roger Miller

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