Water Softener for Discus Tank

[puncak82]

I have a water softener installed in my home and have used it to change water for my discus tank almost 1 year with no problem.
One of my discus even laid eggs 2 times on my heater but the eggs never made it.

Most people told me that we can't use water softener for freshwater aquarium. I found out this to be entirely not true.

What do you guys think? Feel free to give any suggestion / opinion .

75 gallon planted tank
6 adult discus, 4 angels, 50+ tetras etc
Dual T5 HO light on for 10hr/day
Co2 Injected with PH controller
Change 80% of water once a week

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5
Temp = 82F
PH = 6.9

[wesleydnunder]

You can use water from a softener for discus. However, remember that a conventuional softener uses brine-charged ionic exchange resin, so you're exchanging "softer" sodium ions for the "harder" calcium and magnesium ions. The exchange is on a 2:1 ratio also so you wind up with a higher TDS after softening, which the discus are more concerned with than hardness.

Mark

[nacra99]

When you say the eggs never made it.
Do you mean that the eggs turned white? Parents ate the eggs? Somebody else ate the eggs??
It's normal to have some white eggs. If all turn white then it could either be the water or that one (or both) of them have fertility issues.
If they ate the eggs, then it's not the water's fault. Next time they lay eggs, put a wire mesh around the eggs so that they are just out of reach of the parent's mouth.

What is your TDS? Like mark said, ordinary softners just swap one ion for another. In fact, most softners just make your tank water saltier.. as mark explained. If you want a good hatch rate, make sure that firstly your pair is fertile, then use DISTILLED or RO water and mix that with your tapwater.
I don't know what the water is like in sugarland, but i breed discus quite successfully with 100% houston galleria area water and get quite a good hatch rate.