Water question............

[Myles]

I'm just getting started (again). Many years ago I enjoyed small freshwater tanks and fishes such as guppies, mollies (which I'll never have again) tetras and other normal freshwater tropical fish. Back then I lived in the city and used tap water along with the needed water conditioner. Now I have well water which is very hard and high in iron (brown rings in the sinks). We have a softener. Shouls I use the hardend water straight from the well or the water ran through our softener?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Fishguy2727]

The softener does not actually soften water. All it does is exchange what comes up on a hardness test kit for even more total dissolved solids, which is what actually affects the fish. So it really does not matter. I would go with african cichlids and use water from before the softener, they will appreciate the magnesium and calcium.