Water treatment

IdahoBonsai

The person that lived in our house before we did was only here for 5 years from new construction. There was scale and buildup EVERYWHERE!!! The water was drinkable since it did not have horrible smell or taste, but we just new that the high mineral content was not good for the house (several water based items replaced so far) or us (we did not want to go through the same process as the house in future years.)

Currently the only question is this: Are the people that decry softened water right or wrong? Urban myth or not. I am basing my current shunning of the softened water based soley on the TDS and not on any analysis. That is fine for now. We will wait until later this year (after the irrigation season is well under way) to test our water again. In the mean time I am erring on the side of caution. The RO water sure does taste brighter than the unfiltered water and city water tastes absolutely flat in comparison.

dtree, do you know what your TDS is for both the pre and post filtered water?

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Steven

South Central Idaho

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agraham

I was always under the impression that softened water replaced the calcium with sodium?.....is that not correct?

If it is indeed the case.I would think that using softened water would be ill advised.

andy

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IdahoBonsai

From Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softener

How it works

The water to be treated passes sequentially through two kinds of ion-exchange media;

negatively-charged resins absorb and bind metal ions, which are always positively charged. These resins initially contain sodium ions, which are displaced into the water stream by the more strongly-attracted di-positive ions of magnesium and calcium.

positively-charged resins initially contain chloride ions Cl–, which are replaced by the more highly-charged carbonate and bicarbonate ions.
As the water passes through both kinds of resin, the various hardness ions replace the sodium and chloride ions, which are released into the water. For most purposes, the low levels of salt in the treated water are innocuous, but for applications in which no ions of any kind are wanted, a similar process can yield deionized water.

Bolding added by me.

I guess without testing, it would be tough to know if the levels were innocuous or not.

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Steven

South Central Idaho

pdbbonsai

I use Potassium Chloride in my water softener. Not having any clue if this is damaging to my bonsai or not....I use it in the winter to water my tropicals. I try to use rainwater as much as possible.....It never occured to me until writing this that I could probably melt snow just as well....geez I am in a constant state of brain freeze living here in the arctic simulator. Anyhoot, I also let my water sit at least a 24 hour period during the winter....
Does anyone know if Potassium chloride is harmful? I understand that the use of salt in a softener is not good.

Ms Vic......I do have a by-pass valve (spigot) between my water softener and my pump. If your husband would kindly add that to your system it may save you lots of money, and all you would have is the natural (hard or not) water to use....just let it set a spell before ya use it.

Paul
Paul

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dtree

IdahoBonsai - My water comes out of the tap at 400-500 TDS depending on the time of year. After filtering it is 0-5. I replace some of the filters then not because the water is bad but the process starts to slow down. I must admit to being a tea fanatic as well, so nothing but the best water for my oolong.

rockm

"For most purposes, the low levels of salt in the treated water are innocuous, but for "

This may be only part of the story. I'm no expert here, but bonsai soil is meant to have high cation exchange, that is, it is supposed to hold onto minerals. I'd bet adding even small amounts of salt can add up in such a soil over time.

Vance Wood

There are a few Pines that are salt tolerant, Japanese Black Pine comes to mind but allowing any salt into the limited environment of a bonsai pot is flirting with disaster. Can I prove this? No, not without destroying a tree or two, but I also know better than to put a loaded gun to my head as well, this I cannot prove personally either. There is a thing called common sense.

I agree with Rock, any amount of salt will build up. This I do know about salt, it does not dissolve in water, it goes into what it called a colloidal suspension. This means that when the water evaporates the salt remains. This is how you can harvest salt from sea water. This would make it almost impossible to flush the salt out of the soil without over watering the tree. Over time it is possible the salt could build up to toxic levels, the smaller the pot the shorter the time.

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