soft water, What does it affect?

[acidise]

Hi there, I have had a tank running for about 6 months now and have only used the water softener water in it. I am trying to find out what this causes in tropical freshwater fish. OR, How I can clean up the outside (bypass) water to be safe for the tank. It is softened by salts and it isn't technically soft water as related to chemistry, only to humans. I can only find that I shouldn't be using it but what kind of harm does this cause fish?
ALSO

I have a problem with fin rot on my Albino Cory, he only has stubs and 1/4 of his tailfin left, been this way for about 1.5 months now, no redness, no breathing problems, no cotton, was fine for 4 months previously with the same rounded pea gravel. where do i ask about that?

second is a clown pleco, different tank, diffferent city, different water. previous one died, few months later, bought another one, and 1 day later is looking slightly fuzzy on his front half. other one died covered in fuzz over half his body and red over that half too. where do i ask that? thankyou

[L number Banana]

Hello and Welcome from a fellow Canuck or rather a female Canuck! Sorry you lost a clown pleco, they're one of my favourites

You can post the cory question in this area: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6

and the Clown Pleco question here: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5

There's a little "read this first" bit that guides you through posting with health questions. Don't forget to mention the salt softened water.

Wish I was more experienced to help answer the water softener question but I'll have to leave it to one of the regulars. Can you switch to rainwater until you know for sure?

[MatsP]

A "standard" water softener will cause the minerals (hardness) in the water to be replaced with salt - that's why you have to load it up with salt. For there is absolutely no benefit in this - if your tapwater is hard [which it most likely is, as you have a fitted water softener - they are pretty worthless and pointless if you already have soft water in the tap], and you keep fish that likes soft water, you need to remove the minerals, not replace them with other minerals. That's like putting your mucky clothes in a washing machine, and get them out full of sand and mud - sure, you got rid of the sweat and some grime, but you get other dirt instead.

So, my suggestion is to either get regular tap-water, or use equipment that ACTUALLY fixes the problem with hardness, such as a RO system. But for most commonly kept species, they will do just fine in hard water. If anything, hard water is slightly EASIER to maintain, since it will not pH crash.

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Mats

[acidise]

Thankyou for the advice, I will get a few more buckets and just keep some outdoor tapwater on hand when it's water change time to get it up to Temp. I think landlord man might have just gotten a rainbarrel too so if possible i'll snag some of that instead too. Thanks again for the advice. PS. super tough and hard to scrape off green algae speckles on glass and filter tubes on the sides that receive light is what ????? AND can my salty softwater be causing it. PPS. Was having a big problem with brown algae, (im guessing diatoms,) easy too clean off but takes over my plants and murderizes them, getting much better now with a second CO2 reactor and much better light source and plants are growing much more vigorously, are the plants now outcompeting the diatoms for food? or am I just hoping for too much?

[MatsP]

Hard spot algae can be hard to deal with. If it's only a bit here and there, I'd just leave it. If it's taking over the tank, then think about adjusting the time you have lights on to a shorter time. Plants are much more tolerant to short light-time than algae.

I don't think the ion-exchange softener affects algae in either direction.

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Mats