Many of us ask the question, whether it is necessary to defend the tap water and how much this method helps to purify water. If we take cold artesian water from lime beds as an example, it is very hard and contains a lot of calcium. In the process of settling at room temperature, the salt precipitates and settles on the walls. This is how limescale is formed and without boiling. With this method, we can remove some salts and soften the water a bit. Do not assume that something will fall out and there will be one hundred percent self-cleaning of the water. Heavy metals also have salts that are highly soluble in water and will not precipitate on their own. During the settling of tap water, chlorine is able to “weed out” into the atmosphere. What water should I water my plants with? What kind of water should I put in my aquarium? – Standing water. In practice, you can see that when the water has settled, it can lose something harmful.
How to clean water at home?
There is an opinion about the usefulness of silver in water purification. Silver is a type of heavy metal that dissolves in small amounts in water. Silver ions, having a bactericidal effect, can kill harmful bacteria, thereby making the water suitable for drinking.
To avoid using chlorine, silver ions are sometimes used to clean swimming pools. But there is another side to the coin. Silver ions can have a negative effect on living cells. It is a fact in science that silver ions have a bactericidal property, but for drinking water it is not ideal.
If, say, you put a silver spoon, or even ten spoons, into a jar of water, very little silver will enter the solution due to the fact that silver, as a metal, is poorly soluble in water. Overall, minimal beneficial effect can be achieved.
You can measure water quality with a TDS meter. How to prepare a calibration solution for the TDS meter we wrote earlier.
Hard and soft water
It has been thought that the best soft water is water from precipitation in the form of rain and snow. But since we live in the industrial age, water, these days, has been heavily polluted.Hard water contains elements such as magnesium, iron, lime, calcium salts. All these elements are detrimental to human skin and household appliances, such as dishwashers and washing machines. For the latter now began to appear so-called filters for washing machines.
So, how to soften tap water at home without using household water softeners?
- Boiling. To soften water, you need to boil it for 45-60 minutes. Then the water is cooled and allowed to stand for several hours to precipitate the sediment that we wrote about above. This method removes only some carbonates, giving it some softness, but does not remove the active compounds of calcium, magnesium and iron.
- Softening water with alkalis. The alkali will be borax, baking soda, ammonia, potash, etc. Of the above, the most common is table baking soda. It should be added in the proportion of a quarter teaspoon per glass of water.
- Softening water with almond bran. Almond bran is obtained from the seeds of sweet almonds. The pressed almond oil leaves a cake, which is a thick slab or circle. Subsequently, they are ground in a mill to obtain a not very fine powder, which is used, also, for cosmetic purposes and water softening. The recipe is quite simple: 1 tablespoon per 1 cup of water.
There are many other ways to soften water at home, such as: softening with soap, with juices and brine and others. All these methods will not soften water one hundred percent. That is why we recommend using professional household water softeners. They look like a small urn or cylinder that will easily fit into the interior of your home. Check out the range of softeners such as Ecowater, Galaxy, TapWorks, Waterboss, Kinetico, Jurby, WSA on Aquarum’s website. These units have proven themselves as professional helpers in the fight against hard water.