[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by Bjeanj

I dug out a small, deep (4’) pond in my backyard years ago, and stocked it with goldfish. Refreshed the water from our rain barrel. At the start of winter, I netted them out to a temporary aquarium as I wasn't sure how much/deep the water would freeze.

About a month later, I was cleaning it out, and noticed it needed more water, so (stupidly) I got a bucket of water from the bathtub and poured it in. Sadly, the fish did not survive the water FROM A SALT WATER SOFTENER! I’ve never seen fish bloat up that fast, and boy did I feel bad.

I am going to guess there was something wrong with either your softener on there was something in your bucket. We have had a 35 gallon fresh water tank for 6 years with a salt based water softener, and I have changed the water dozens of times, and never lost a fish, 5 or 6 of the fish are original to the tank, 6 years old.