Water Hardness

[Weird Fish]

Hi,

This may seem like a stupid question but when testing the water hardness from a water softener do i use GH or KH?

May have answered it myself :-

Tap Water
GH 18dKH
KH 12dKH

Water Softener output
GH 0dKH
KH 12dKH

Are these results what i should expect?

Thanks James

[Gazza]

Hi James,

I think you know the answer now and what are you looking to do

[Weird Fish]

Hi Gazza,

I'm trying to make my water a bit more RO friendly. I got a water softener the same as yours off Alan at purewater products this week, I've set it all up and got it running into a triple prefilter then 4 x 100gpd membranes in series, it was 3 but I've just added another to try to get a better % of good to waste water as I'm on a water meter. I'm currently getting 60/40 but would like to get it to 70/30, I've been running RO now for about 8 weeks 24/7:

Before

TDS - 532ppm
KH - 7dKH
GH - 13dKH

After

TDS - 185ppm
KH - 2dKH (adding bicarb to maintain this)
GH - 3dKH

Didn't get instructions with the water softner, Alan has been great helping me set it up.
I may need to pick your brains

Cheers James

[Gazza]

Hi James,

Good stuff you will notice the difference with the softener they work a treat and even my pore filtration is lasting longer

Pick my brains well that wont tale long No problem mate any time

[benyiii]

Can I suggest if you are going to push the product/waste ratio any higher you add an additional membrane particularly given your input tds is fairly high (im assuming)

Note following RO primciples 4 membranes can be pushed to 60% and 5 to 67%.

I have been running 5 at around 65-75% efficient for nearly a year now with no problems thus far.

Ben

[Weird Fish]

Thanks Ben

I will add another membrane at the begining of next season, I was a little late this year going down the RO route and I'm only using RO to top up after filter cleaning over winter.

Thanks James

[Brek]

Wow, some of the figures quoted make me happy about my water, my tds is 180 from the tap, gh is around the 100-120 mark and kh around the 60-80 mark, depending on when I check it, so RO looks a very doable option on my budget, and not on a water meter (yet). Night be able to get the membranes of a mate who dialyzes at home, if they have a stricter tolerance before they replace I might be able to use the old membranes.