Simply Koi and More Koi

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

Hi James,

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

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

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

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

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

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.