HELP... Well Water Question!

[erichott]

Hello all! It has been awhile since I have participated in the club. We sold our home last April and purchased a new home. During the move I relocated all my reef to my fathers house until we got settled in to our new place. So I am finally looking to set up my system up again but I am in quite a bit of a pickle. My new home is on well water. I have some traces of iron and also hard water. We had a water company come out and install a fancy water sediment filter(down to 1 micron), water softener, and a uv light. In some forums I have read that it is best to install the RODI system after all the water filtration/softening/UV but what I am concerned with is I am running Morton Water Softener Rust Defense Salt(see attached photo). I am concerned that this salt will be harmful for my system and I can’t seem to find any solid information online. I am also curious if anyone else is running something similar?! Thanks for all the help.

 

[Mjl714]

I would use an rodi system at the end. However, have you done any testing to determine the ultimate quality (reef tank) of your current water output?

 

[tripdad]

I have done as your proposing and had no problems. Just make sure RODI has a meter and output is always 0ppm before use. I also installed a whole house water filter system about 2 years ago. That reduced resin consumption considerably.

 

[erichott]

I would use an rodi system at the end. However, have you done any testing to determine the ultimate quality (reef tank) of your current water output?

I have not setup the RODI yet... still in the planning phase and wanted a solid plan first. Thanks for the input. I will definitely test the final output before use.

 

[erichott]

I have done as your proposing and had no problems. Just make sure RODI has a meter and output is always 0ppm before use. I also installed a whole house water filter system about 2 years ago. That reduced resin consumption considerably.

Is this the type of salt you use?

 

[tripdad]

Is this the type of salt you use?

I have from time to time, never exclusively. I have "black iron" and sulphur in my well water. So before the filter I would occasionally use that salt for a few months then go back to the yellow bag. If you installed a whole house filter system like I did you would not need to use that salt anymore. I no longer have any iron residue in sinks, toilets, etc. and use the yellow bag now.The filter I'm speaking of is not a cartridge, it's kind of like another softener set up. Has a valve system, timer, back flush and resin tank. Zero maintenance and no additives ever. Mine is from Challenger Water Systems, but others make them.

 

[Geebs19]

I use that salt in my water softner and have my RODI plumbed after it. Never had an issue yet.

 

[erichott]

I have from time to time, never exclusively. I have "black iron" and sulphur in my well water. So before the filter I would occasionally use that salt for a few months then go back to the yellow bag. If you installed a whole house filter system like I did you would not need to use that salt anymore. I no longer have any iron residue in sinks, toilets, etc. and use the yellow bag now.The filter I'm speaking of is not a cartridge, it's kind of like another softener set up. Has a valve system, timer, back flush and resin tank. Zero maintenance and no additives ever. Mine is from Challenger Water Systems, but others make them.

Yeah mine is like that. It’s like a big cylinder and it auto back flushes every three days. I was using the yellow bags but the water guy said I should throw in a rust preventer mix so I took my other five bags back and got this rust defense kind. I just wanted to make sure the rust defense kind isn’t harmful to the fish.

 

[erichott]

I use that salt in my water softner and have my RODI plumbed after it. Never had an issue yet.

Awesome! Thanks for all the insight. I really appreciate it. Looks like I will be giving it a shot then!

 

[Geebs19]

Awesome! Thanks for all the insight. I really appreciate it. Looks like I will be giving it a shot then!

And I have noticed that my DI consumption has significantly decreased when moving into a new home with the water softner. I know the water in out new place is better, but I have to imagine the water softener is helping reduce the TDS.

 

[LiveWire]

You will most likely need a booster pump to get the pressure needed across the membrane. You may want to check the CO2 levels of your water as well. If you have a deep well most likely your CO2 levels will be high and you will exhaust the Anion resin much faster than the Cation resin in which case I would set up the BRS triple DI saver so that you can change out the Anion resin alone instead of wasting resin with a mixed bed. I agree I would test your well water first before purchasing anything and that will give you a better idea of what you will need to set up.

 

[ca1ore]

Typical house softeners are replacing hardness minerals with sodium. Not sure how that measures in terms of TDS, but I wouldn’t think it would extend the life of your DI resin. I also tend to think that all the fancy softener salts are a boondoggle. I always just use the regular stuff.

 

[erichott]

You will most likely need a booster pump to get the pressure needed across the membrane. You may want to check the CO2 levels of your water as well. If you have a deep well most likely your CO2 levels will be high and you will exhaust the Anion resin much faster than the Cation resin in which case I would set up the BRS triple DI saver so that you can change out the Anion resin alone instead of wasting resin with a mixed bed. I agree I would test your well water first before purchasing anything and that will give you a better idea of what you will need to set up.

That’s for your input! At my old house I was running a booster pump into a BRS 4 stage water saver(two membranes) and I also added the chloramine stage(another carbon) and was running that in my old place.

 

[LiveWire]

Sure thing. I run a booster and a piggy back membrane to cut down on waste water. I was running the universal carbon blocks in my old house but now I run a regular 5 micron and 1 micron carbon blocks with sediment filters.