Reducing GH with Water Softener

[HenryC]

I assume you mean 2 cubic feet of activated carbon, not 2lbs. 2lbs of carbon will not do much for you very long, especially at the flow rate you want to replace 1000 gallons of water in a timely manner. I have a 1.5 cu.ft. activated carbon filter prior to my water softner. I have a water meter prior to the carbon filter. The city water prior to the carbon filter is 3ppm chlorine. After 700,000 gallons of water through the carbon filter, I still get 0ppm chlorine out of the filter. I test it monthly and keep waiting the original carbon to exhaust its ability to remove all the chlorine. I have 40lbs of carbon ready to replace it, but so far the original carbon is going strong.

[karipeters]

Here is something to consider...water softeners use salt. Make sure you use the unconditioned 99% pure salt...then remember that there are certain medication water treatments that require that you do NOT have salt in the water...

[koiczar]

Quote: Originally Posted by karipeters Here is something to consider...water softeners use salt. Make sure you use the unconditioned 99% pure salt...then remember that there are certain medication water treatments that require that you do NOT have salt in the water...

Hi Kari

This was a great concern of mine. My original house softener back in the late '70s early '80s produced a small amount of salt from the resin cleaning function. After talking with a couple people on another forum for a couple weeks, and then checking with a couple reliable sources in the industry, I found that they made some changes to how these units perform the recharge process. It was due to the fact that people who had requirements for low sodium diets could not have the older water softeners, so the industry made the necessary changes and "voila" non salt producing units. I installed mine last May. I have checked the salinity level on three occasions since then and there is no detectable salt in the pond. I have dosed ProForm C and Prazipond without incident.

Mike

[farne230]

Your right Henry, it comes with 200lbs of salt in the softener and 2cu/ft of activated carbon in the carbon filter. Henry what was your GH and KH before and after you added the softener and charcoal filter? Henry did you add any filters to reduce tds?
Bob

[HenryC]

The softener and charcoal will not affect your KH at all. My GH and KH out of the tap are 125ppm. Some may question why I bother to reduce my GH since it is only 125ppm, but I have found that my Koi do better with the GH down between 60 and 70ppm. My Torazo Kohaku will get a shimmie or two if the GH is above 90ppm. At 60ppm she does not get any shimmies.

When I used an RO for a while to lower GH and KH, it did also lower tds. My pond tds was down at 160 with the RO. Now that I use just the softener, the pond tds is 210. Since the softener lowers GH by replacing calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions, it will essentially raise your salt level in the pond, but so slightly it will not matter. If you drop your pond from 300ppm GH to 60ppm, you will add 240ppm salt. That is 0.024%. That small amount of salt will cause your tds measurement to go up alittle, so do not be concerned when you see that. It is the low level salt that is causing the measurement to rise, not new contaminents.

Once you have slowly lowered your pond GH to where you want it, you will then need to tune your source with a mix of softened and non-softened water. When you plumb it, make the tee between the charcoal filter and the softener so both sources are from the charcoal filter.

I have my system stablized at the 60ppm GH I wanted but I still test it weekly to be sure.

[MCA]

where have nishikigoi been developed and where do they look their best? The mud ponds of Niigata. And what is the kH and GH? VERY low.

[farne230]

This will be a dedicated single line system. water mains to softener and Charcoal filter and out to outside faucet. The unit will work like a house unit, time set to charge and backwash within a few hours up to 2,000 treated water. I will discharge the full 1,000 or more treated water into pond after removing that amount once a well. Please advise.
Bob

[farne230]

"RobR wrote:
Two cubic feet of carbon should last a long time. I use only 1 cubic foot and that is not only for my pond but the entire house. I changed mine out after 2 years but I still could not get a total or free chlorine reading out of it. I'm going to let the new carbon go even longer and just keep checking every month.
Just make sure you have a backwash head on it. Mine is set to backwash every three days. Works great."

Rob what did you "mean make sure you have a backwash head on it", a BW head on the charcoal filter? if so, why?
Bob

[HenryC]

Quote: Originally Posted by farne230 This will be a dedicated single line system. water mains to softener and Charcoal filter and out to outside faucet. The unit will work like a house unit, time set to charge and backwash within a few hours up to 2,000 treated water. I will discharge the full 1,000 or more treated water into pond after removing that amount once a well. Please advise. Bob

If you use only softened water on the pond, the GH will eventually drop to near zero. You need to have some hardness to the water for the Koi to survive and thrive. If you can install a line prior to the water softener, you can mix the softened water (0 GH) with non-softened water to get the desired hardness.

As to your question about a backwash head on the charcoal filter. The large whole house charcoal filters either need a fine particulate filter in front of them or a backwash head (similar to the backwash head that will be on the softener). Periodically, the backwash head to rinse out the charcoal to remove trapped particulate. Think of it like a bead filter.

[RobR]

Rob what did you "mean make sure you have a backwash head on it", a BW head on the charcoal filter? if so, why?
Bob[/quote]

A BW head for the carbon filter should be a must. Henry stated a few reasons and if you have ever seen the carbon, it is super fine. Definately not like the stuff they sell for aquariums. If you don't backwash, the carbon bed will get compacted and channel no differently then a sand filter would.
I'm trying to insert a pic but its not working.