Potassium from the water softener discharge

[rot]

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Is it possible to dilute the discharge from a water softener when using potassium instead of regular salt?

Any idea on how much I'd have to dilute it?
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[The Helpful Gardener]

I am stumped rot... potassium salts are still salts so I am not sure how great an idea this is, but I suspect you would really have to dilute it a lot to make it safe...

Are you short on potassium somewhere?

HG

[rot]

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Thanks for considering the question.

Our water softener discharges every few days into the sewer drain. The local communities are getting penalized because of salt levels in their waste water discharges. One town, 10 miles down the highway, has already prohibited the installation of new softener devices. If you want your water softened you need to go threw a service that replaces tanks every so often. The services still use salt I believe and I have no idea where they dispose their salt.

We went with potassium, which is getting more expensive, because it is supposed to have less impact than sodium. I also figured we didn't need the extra sodium in our diet. I remember yacking with someone at a home show somewhere and this guy was telling me he used to let his discharge out by the roses or something when he lived at a trailer park. The notion was a little bit at a time was OK.

I've poked around the internet a couple of times and can't seem to find anything on the subject. I hoped someone here might of come across something or pass along a clue I might search on.

I will look again because now I'm wondering why bother with the more expensive potassium at all. Time to start looking around at alternative softener schemes again. Hopefully a new technology will develop that isn't so expensive and doesn't discharge a bunch of crud for someone else to deal with.

thanks again
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[The Helpful Gardener]

Does it say what the chemical composition of the potassium is in your product is? Likely it is potassium chloride, which does have less impact than sodium chloride, both for you (high sodium is a high blood pressure trigger) and the environment (potassium chloride IS more plant and biology friendly than sodium chloride). But there are other ways to get this job done that are salt free...

First there is reverse osmosis (R/O). It is expensive to set up and very expensive to maintain, as you have to keep changing filters constantly. Plus drinking R/O water has been shown to be unhealthy as it gets the water SO free of minerals that it will steal them from your body. Not a great solution to the issue...

Then there is magnetic systems which are cheap, efficient, chemical free, but are only good for up to 17 grains hardness (300ppm). A lot of places have much harder water than that, so not for everybody...

Finally the new kid on the block is calcium carbonate systems, that trap the minerals and ionically lock them to the calicium carbonate (carbon is our best mineral sink, just like in soil). The motion of the water and interaction of the crystals breaks minute particles of the now buffered (ionically locked to carbon) mineral off and allows them to pass through your water system (and you) without harm, even gathering other free ions as it goes (it cleans the pipes in both you and your house, without robbing minerals like the R/O). And calcium carbonate is the same compound found in sea shells, so really safe for everything; actually good for most soils...

It is about as expensive as the salt systems, WAY less expensive than R/O, about twice what magnetic systems would cost, and the complete solution no matter how hard your water is... none of these remove contamination but the CC system can be fitted with a kit to take care of that; the magnets not so much...

So find out what your hardness is and you should be able to find a saltless solution that fits. If you are less than 17 grains, I'd go magnet; if harder (or contaminant filtering is a want or need), I'd go CC...

Hope that helps...

HG

[rot]

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Thanks again.

I'm pretty sure it's potassium chloride I've got which is not quite the same as potassium. apparently it's the chloride part that's necessary for that ionic business in the softening process. Next time I'm at bulk club I'll double check but I don't think it's anything else but KCI.

I found one thing, some water softener company, that indicated that it wasn't so hot for your plants and being. I will have to search further afield when energy permits.

The calcium carbonate is new to the market compared to when we bought 6 years ago. I didn't like reverse osmosis because I really didn't want to get locked into a particular filter vendor for a kind of must have thing. That and the expense. CC sounds promising.

The electro-magnetic types didn't sound so promising due to energy consumption and they kind of burn out from corrosion.

I'm stuck with KCI for now. I'll look for a more definitive answer on the discharge quality. Somewhere down the line I'll look into alternatives when the expense becomes more viable.

I should know more about our water quality. I have to go back and look at the local info again. When we moved in we noticed the water was surprisingly hard and we had budgeted in our move for such consequences so we got it then and there. Hard water is endemic to the area.

The other thing to do is play the game again and see which faucets outside are not tied to the softener system. We don't get a lot of rain and so we'll need to watch the salt build up in the soil. Good thing I've been on a deep watering kick for a while now.

Thanks again. My pursuit to this situation will soon become passive.

to sense
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[LindsayArthurRTR]

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_carbonate[/url]

Here is a link for calcium carbonate.

Finally the new kid on the block is calcium carbonate systems, that trap the minerals and ionically lock them to the calicium carbonate (carbon is our best mineral sink, just like in soil).

Hmmm...Funny you sould mention calcium carbonate as a method of softening water, as it is the most common cause of HARD water. In fact, we use R/O water for the reef tanks, but we run it through a calcium carbonate reactor to harden the water and increase the pH on it's way through the tank circulation. It's also a by-product of synthetic seawater when the salt is improperly stored. (This is WAY off topic, I know) It does make the water in the tanks crystal clear. Which leads to my next queston...

Do the CC systems you speak of soften water or just filter it. Please explain as I am very interested in this topic

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hey, I'm no expert here, but [url=https://www.waterfilter-usa.com/natursoft-saltfree-softener-13-bathrooms-up-to-75-grains-p-361.html]these folks[/url]say it works and have lab testing to certify it... and it IS just a softener...

My understanding is that the calcium carbonate locks up the salt (much the same way lime locks it up in spring along damaged road edges); the most common hardeners of fresh water are calcium and magnesium. My chemistry isn't good enough to figure this all out but I do know carbon bonds to dang near everything...

Your R/O water has salts restored to it when you are making seawater (using Instant Ocean?). Without that important step you are creating a liquid vacuum that sucks the salts out of what ever it comes in contact with. Considering our high sodium lifestyle here in the States, that could be good for some, but calcium can be another victim there, and who needs to be giving up skeleton? Just not healthy for drinking...

S

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Hey, I'm no expert here, but these folks say it works and have lab testing to certify it... and it IS just a softener...

Now THAT'S pretty awesome !

In short, it's making the tap water a super saturated calcium carbonate solution, which is unstable. The instability causes it to precipitate! Very cool

Biologically friendly too. According to this site, there is no waste water like with other softening systems.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yep, that was pretty much my take too, Lindsay. And calcium carbonate is perfectly healthy for us, plants, microorganisms, the whole biota. Even helpful in buffering soil pH.

I don't see a downside...

HG