Citric Acid Water "Softener"

[Spike Cover]

My grandson's parents have a whole house cartridge that supposedly produces water that acts like soft water w/o using and ion-exchange (salt recharging) system.  It's the NuvoH2O system that uses citric acid to chelate the Calcium carbonate.  This reduces the pH and supposedly keeps the calcium carbonate from forming scale.  Their site says it's good for plants and animals.

My question is: what effect, if any, will using this water in aquariums have on the health and well-being of the fish and aquarium plants?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

[devonjohnsgard]

Feb 4, 2018 4:12:59 GMT -5 Spike Cover said:

My grandson's parents have a whole house cartridge that supposedly produces water that acts like soft water w/o using and ion-exchange (salt recharging) system.  It's the NuvoH2O system that uses citric acid to chelate the Calcium carbonate.  This reduces the pH and supposedly keeps the calcium carbonate from forming scale.  Their site says it's good for plants and animals.

My question is: what effect, if any, will using this water in aquariums have on the health and well-being of the fish and aquarium plants?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Interesting. I would still dose electrolytes salts even still. It's recommended for water that doesn't go through any softener, so it would still be recommended in this case. We don't know how the ions are being effected or what the original sources ions look like, so just to make sure, just dose them to know for sure they're present.

You could also purchase an ORP meter to know for sure how the water is effected. Likely. you would still want to dose the salts.

[Carl]

Off the top of my head, I would say it is probably not safe to use.

However you can test this water separately by place this water in say a 20 gallon sterile container, then place an AAP Wonder Shell in the container. If the Wonder Shell dissolves normally, no problem. However if it just "sluffs off" leaving a pile of debris, then this water is going to resist healthy mineral Cations fish require

Further Reading:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2016/01/use-of-ro-di-softwater-in-aquariums.html#softener

Carl

[spike]

Feb 5, 2018 14:04:31 GMT -5 Carl said:

Off the top of my head, I would say it is probably not safe to use.

However you can test this water separately by place this water in say a 20 gallon sterile container, then place an AAP Wonder Shell in the container. If the Wonder Shell dissolves normally, no problem. However if it just "sluffs off" leaving a pile of debris, then this water is going to resist healthy mineral Cations fish require

Further Reading:
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2016/01/use-of-ro-di-softwater-in-aquariums.html#softener

Carl

Thanks.  I'm wondering where I would get a 20 gallon sterile container for a wont-break-the-bank price.  Or are you just recommending a pretty clean container, e.g., maybe a polyethylene carboy used to carry RO water from my LFS?

Spike

PS and BTW, my grandson has used the citric-acid-softened water for several aquariums and is having fairly good success so far.  However, the basis of my concerns relates to if the chelated calcium is ever available to the fish and, if not, I suspect this may cause problems over the longer haul.  Since no one seems to know, I guess a long term "fish test" would be proof of the pudding, so to speak.

[devonjohnsgard]

Any container would work. If the shell just turns into a pile, like Carl said, it will cause issues in the long run.

[spike]

Thx

[Carl]

Feb 9, 2018 14:23:43 GMT -5 devonjohnsgard said:

Any container would work. If the shell just turns into a pile, like Carl said, it will cause issues in the long run.

Yes, example a rubbermaid container that has been washed and rinsed well

Carl

[spike]

Thx again.