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Water quality problems...
I sure do envy you folks that have soft water.
Our water comes from various wells throughout our water district and
therefore is VERY hard. I requested a report from my water district
office and they sent me a nicely detailed report. I will summarize some
of the values.
pH 7.1
Alkalinity (Total) 221 ppm
Bicarbonate 269 ppm (?)
Cabonate 0 ppm (?)
Chloride 39 ppm
Calcium 62 ppm
Magnesium 30 ppm
Harness (Total) 281 ppm
Carbonate 221 ppm
Non-Carbonate 60 ppm
Iron <0.1 ppm
Copper <0.01 ppm
Sodium 13 ppm
Nitrate 0.05 ppm
There are other values. I'm confused on the Alkalinity. I thought KH
was suppose to be Cabonate hardness. This shows that to be zero while
total alkalinity is sky high. This is confusing.
I have the Lamotte Alkalinity test and it confirms the sky high
alkalinity value. I also have the Lamotte General Hardness test and it
also confirms the 200+ ppm hardness of my water.
We use a water softener on our inside tap water (both hot and cold).
According to Lamotte this brings our General Hardness down to about 40
ppm. So the softener is working (accoring to our water company, maybe
too well).
So, in hopes of improving my tap water I am having a SpectraPure RO/DI
50gpd unit installed this weekend. I have spoken to SpectraPure and
they suggest placing the RO/DI unit on the softened water because the
sodium (being more soluble) will not cake the membrane like the "harder"
minerals will in our hard water. So I am following their suggestion. I
am anxious to find out how long the DI filter lasts.
I am hoping that the RO/DI unit will have the gusto to remove most of
the crap from this water giving me water than I can adjust to provide
suitable living conditions for my plants. Oh, and the fish too of
course. :)
I guess I'm looking for comments/encouragement here. :)
Mike