Whole House Water Filter and Water Softener - Seeking Advice

[drjosay]

Hi Reefers.
Been a while since I last had a system running. Been doing a lot of home improvement projects the last 12 months and one of the last ones I plan is installing a water softener in the home.
As I was planning, I found a particular system that also includes a whole-house filter unit connected to the water softener unit. It's a secondary tank that uses activated carbon to remove chlorine/chloramine before reaching the water softener.

Couple thoughts (please feel free to comment on any or all):

1. If I run a line off the activated carbon tank (after removing all chlorine/chloramines, but before the water softener), would I really need to run that through an RO/DI unit? My thinking is if the chlorine/chloramine is removed, all I'm left with are TDS. Not toxic, just TDS.

2. Do I still need to run a line through an RO/DI for the filtered, soft water?

Ultimately, I will probably do a Fish Only tank. However, I understand if I move into any type of corals or sea anemones, I will need 0 TDS. Been there before.

Appreciate any thoughts/feedback.

Thanks

[bertoni]

Tap water can vary widely in its contents, even within a single city. Water supply systems often get water from multiple sources. Where I live, we get water from Hetch Hetchy part of the year, and well water during other periods. The difference is very noticeable. I'd use RO at least, even for a fish-only tank, because some anti-corrosives are very toxic. You might be able to get away with a water treatment product, but I wouldn't trust the activated carbon bed to produce safe water, especially if the water supply is using chloramine.

This article might help:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm

[hkgar]

There are no short cuts. After the softener run the water through a RO/DI system. I have a water softener and the water is 241 tds after the softener. I don't have a whole house system but I have a drinking water system and TDS after that is about 70

[drjosay]

In theory, should I get longer life from my RO/DI membranes, DI Resin, and Carbon blocks if my whole house filter removes the Chloramine before hitting the water softener?
Just looking for any positives from the whole house carbon filter. Im on city water and they do treat with Chloramine.

[bertoni]

The carbon filter will help break down and remove the chloramine, but I don't think it will extend the membrane life. It should help a bit with the DI and carbon in the RO setup. Ion exchangers that remove iron and other such metals can help with membrane life.

[Frogmanx82]

I’m scared of whole house filters because bacteria starts growing everywhere. Toilets get nasty and all sorts of slime starts coating the lines. You need to think about that. The water won’t be clean. Certainly not rodi quality. I wouldn’t drink it either without some point of use filter.

[drjosay]

Frogman, it sounds like you think I should skip the whole-house filtration altogether. Just opt for the water softener and use an RO/DI unit for anything marine based?
I've never heard of bacteria blooms throughout the house from a whole-house filtration system. I'll have to check into that. Any references, or just your personal experience?

[NaturalReef]

I have been using the whirlpool whole house water filter with great results. No chlorine in 9 years. What I do is once a month flip the built in bypass for a day or two and unfiltered water runs through the house pipes and fixtures and removes any bacteria via chlorine.

[drjosay]

Great. From all the products I've researched over the last year, nearly all of them recommend flushing out at least once a month (bypassing). Makes sense. I'm fairly convinced at this point the smartest thing for my reef tanks is to run my city water through an RO/DI unit- regardless of which filtration/soft water system I may setup for the rest of the house. Thank you all for that.

Looks like I'll be onto other sites to research everything I need to filter out for city water and chloramine disinfectant.

[Frogmanx82]

I just won't go with a whole house filter after seeing what happened to my ice maker/water dispenser on my fridge when I had to bypass the filter due to a leak. All kinds of stuff started coming out and realised it was the slime coating on the lines that was getting killed by the chlorine.

I can tell you too that I quit using filtered water in my dogs dish because without chlorine it gets nasty, same with hummingbird feeders. I can't imagine what toilets would look like without chlorinated water. You must have to add something in the tank to keep it from being an issue. There is a reason they put chlorine in the water in the first place. Its got issues too but at least sanitation isn't one of them. I can't believe once a month is sufficient to flush the lines and it would seem a pain in the butt to have to open every line and flush all the toilets. Do you flush the hot water heater too or do you just have to keep it hot enough to be sterile?

Like I said, I'm not a fan of whole house filters.

Natural reef, no chlorine in 9 years except for every month. Hmm, hardly no chlorine.

[drjosay]

I realize this probably isn't the proper thread or forum for such questions, but Frogman brings up a good point about bacterial and parasitic growth if chlorine/chloramine are taken out of the plumbing system. When I looked into upgrading to PEX plumbing, I was told by all vendors and contractors I would need to filter out any chlorine based disinfectant b/c the chlorines will degrade the piping. Looks like I may put the water softener/plumbing work on hold until I can get some concrete information. But- I did come to the realization there is still no substitute for using my RO/DI unit for any of my reefing water needs. Thank you all for taking time to share and help me out. Will post pics once I get everything set up... eventually.

[hkgar]

So what about us poor folks that have well water. Are our pipes getting slimy? What about if I have a drinking water filter system?

[EMeyer]

I was thinking something similar from a different angle. I'm on well water and having redone a bunch of plumbing in my house I can say with confidence that no, my pipes arent getting slimy. Perhaps its something to do with the water softener. Water softeners make disgusting water anyway, it feels like you can never rinse the soap off you. Literally feels like slime.

I'll take my super clean non chlorinated well water over nasty swimming pool city water any day!

[hkgar]

I do have a water softener, tough to rinse off but much better smell. Now about the d**n iron.