water softener water for hydro

I am getting ready to get a hydro setup going and i have a water softener (runs water through salt crystals) and I am wondering if this is still ok to use this water to fill my res. for my hydro setup?? I keep reading all tis stuff about flushing to remove salts and here i am ready to start with saltwater basically. any tips?? am i just paranoid??

wow 9 people have looked and dont have shit to say!!!

I would say you should probably use bottled water. Don't use distilled water.

i heard water softener was bad for hydro

Sammael said:

I would say you should probably use bottled water. Don't use distilled water.

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I use distilled water and it has been the easiest shit ever. A gallon of it from wally world is already at a ph of 6.0... I literally stopped checking ph like my 3rd week into vegging haha I'm either really lucky or distilled water is the shit... havn't had any problems yet!

No go on the water softener

The instructions for the aerogarden specifically say do not use softened water. Just buy gallon jugs of distilled water from walmart. Or, get a reverse osmosis filter.

You want your water to be as close to zero ppm (parts per million) to start with as you can get it. Softened water will probably work the first few weeks you start to seed but once you start adding nutrients the plant will just burn right up.

i have a RO system but it takes like an hour to produce one gallon. goes to my ice maker and a tap beside the kitchen faucet. i wonder if i can rig a filter system to clean my water after it get salt buildup. push from bi through filter to other bin and keep my water instead of flushing it out all the time. my res is 55 gallon! im not buying water to fill the damn thing that is for sure!! so i guess as long as i get my ppm down to 0 or close to it then the water is good to use? even if it has been used already??

Im fairly new to RIU, but I do have a lot of experience in water quality so maybe I can help on this one.

DO NOT USE THE SOFTENED WATER!. The added sodium will screw everything up. You are better off using tap water than softened. If your tap water is more than 15 to 20 grains hardness then use General Hydro nutes specified for hard water. However you said you have an RO? The limited tank capacity of RO (2.2 Gallon) can be a problem but the AG only uses 1 gallon (you didnt say you had an aerogarden but Im assuming cause this is in the aerogarden section). Plus you can add a second storage tank to the unit for like $50 and double the capacity to 4.5 gallons (this is what I did). You can also simply empty the resevoir to a pitcher, put in the fridge and wait for the RO to refill, increasing storage.

DO NOT TRY TO REUSE NUTE WATER! You cant filter out TDS (salts) with a "rigged" filter.

How many gallons do you need at a time is a good question? Did I read 55? This is an Aerogarden thread so you may be confused.
If I were you, I would reconsider the 55 gallon res and got to a 22 or less. 55 gallon DWC sounds nice at first, but thats a lot of nutes to add when doing by weekly res changes, not to mention a pain in the ass to empty, as it will weigh a couple hundred pounds! I was going to do that and chose to go with 4 - 10 gallon containers instead. Much more manageable.

I have a softener and an RO and only use the RO water in my AG. Also RO will lower the ph a little as well. Beware of calcium deficiency when using RO or distilled water as it has no calcium or magnesium, so make sure your nutes have some cal/mag or buy some botanicare cal mag and add it.

Also, regarding rigging a filter to the AG to remove the softener salt, nearly impossible. The micron size that sodium dissolves to is so small, only RO and distillation will remove it. Thats the main reason RO's are frequently sold with softeners, to remove sodium. A carbon filter wont touch it.


Also, the softener does not run the water through salt crystals to soften the water. It runs it through a tank of resin that exchanges positive ions (calcium and magnesium) for negative ones (sodium). The salt is simply used to clean the resin bed. The salt tank is a brine drum to hold salt and dissolve it to a brine rinse (salt water) that will remove the trapped calcium when injected into the resin tank) That being said the water in the brine tank would be fatally toxic if you fed it to your plants(TDS 15,000 ppm). The softened water from your faucets are not nearly as bad, but will still have elevated levels of sodium which not good.

Hope this helps! Peace!

very very helpful and informative!! thank you very much.

yes i am new here and sorry i posted in the wrong section. i must have not been thinking. i am using a hydro system (ebb and gro) with 24 pots and expanding to 48 in the future. the res is a 55 gal drum. i got a friend that wants to buy the set-up from me, maybe i should sell it and get something new?? any good ideas??

the water softener will have a bypass setting i bypass to water my yard and outside plants

He's right, switch the bypass valve to untreated water but run the water for 5 minutes first as the water in the pipe is still softened and needs to be flushed. Some of your hosebibs may be unsoftened but you need to test it first to be sure.

As far as ideas for your next set up, what size light do you have in mind.

i will have to check into that, knowing my luck i eill have water all over the basement. i have city water and i hate this damn thing anyway! never wanted it when i bought the house,.....but it came with it. someone showed up last month from the company that installed it and replaced the water filters in the RO system, they said the previous owners asked them to do it and it would not cost me anything. they said it needed done. we have owned the house for almost two years now. i guess they had some credit at the company and threw it to us. i will keep the RO, but the softener can go to the curb!!!

Well, the softener will preserve you pipes, water heater and appliances, make cleaning easier and help with dishes and laundry, and save$ on soap (only use half doses in laundry and dishwasher) so dont be so fast to trash it. Plus they go for $1000 - $3000 installed. If ur water is more than 8 grains hard, you'll probably be pissed if you get rid of it. If it is less than 8 you may not notice any difference. Sears will test it for free fyi.

Also, I was inaccurate regarding the ion echange of the softener. I said it exchanges positive ions for negative. Although it does exchange calcium and magnesium for sodium, they are all positive ions, the calcium has a stronger charge so sticks better to the resin. The resin is what has the negative charge to attract the positive ones. Just wanted to correct myself before I look like an ass giving bad info.

old thread, but I bumped it because it came up in the search and answered my question about using the water softener to water plants.. not good.. or really bad? really bad is the answer... I know why my last crop suffered... but the current one won't... =)