Usually running a water softener before an RO system will greatly increase the life of your membranes as Ca and Mg are big factors in reducing their life. If you remove all of those and replace them with Na - by running through the softener - the RO machine will have a much easier time.
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My water sucks. Comes out the tap 350-400ppm because my well is drilled in glacial till. The hydrologic stealth gets it down to 0ppm and I get about two years out of a unit before it’s time to get a new one.
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I should get my water tested, I have city water, and a well for backup that I need to get setup with a softener and purifier.
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I’d run off the well. Repipe the house so only your toilet runs on city water. 
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I have one grow on city water and one on well water. RO at both locations. The ro at the city water location needs to be replaced more often. The water barrels test out at 0ppm, but still smell like chlorine for a day or two after they refill. Plants seem to run better on the well water🤷♂️
Personally I think chloramamine is the difference
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@ralf proposed using sulfuric acid to treat water. One thing I have never gotten an answer about- why is is almost unheard of to have a sulfur toxicity?
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I can’t explain it, but plants will tolerate a lot more sulfur than they use.
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Have been thinking of this… i might learn how to T a pipe off my well and attach it to my house, so i can shut city water off and use well water.
The guys who fixed my well told me how and so did another guy who owns a water company. I just don’t know where to start
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8 pentek filters and a membrane should work 
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@AgTonik About sulfur toxicity.
The short story is that sulfate transporters in roots are self-limiting at the pH in hydroponics. Root transport of sulfate gets saturated at a concentration of around 30ppm in a pH between 5.8-6.2, even less at lower pH values. Sulfur deficiencies are commonly seen in crops when soils are at low pH values due to this.
This is why you don’t usually see leaf tissue S get above 0.5% regardless how much sulfate you put in solution, unless your pH increases substantially to a region where sulfur transport is more favorable (>7.0).
The biochemistry of sulfur uptake in plants is more complicated though, so only take the above as a simplified explanation.
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I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I try to learn something new every day. Our CSO said your article on fulvic acid is right on. You have been an awesome resource for everyone and I hope we can point people your direction for consults.
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@Ralf or any of you guys, how would you clean this water, its well water, that he then runs through a water softener
Here is what the water test shows
PH 7.54
Alkalinity (mg/L) 82
Calcium (ppm) 0.91
Magnesium (ppm) 0.26
Sodium (ppm) 64.24
Chloride (mg/L) 27
Sulphate (ppm) 24
Iron (ppm) 0.12
Nitrate Nitrite-N, Potassium, Phosphorus, Boron, Copper, Manganese and Zinc Not Detected.
I still think the water has clear( ferrous ) iron in it but at what amount I’m not sure.
So I guess the question is how do you clean it, Ideally I would think chlorine injector after water softener then greensand filter tank, pre carbon filter then cheaper 75 to 150 GPD RO system for water he uses, this way the water should be somewhat sterile to from the chlorine.
Or could you go straight to a pre carbon filter then RO system, but my question with method is how quick are you going to go through filters and membrane’s
The AlkCal That @Ralf mention looks interesting, thats great info, I never seen that before, I’d have to study it a bit more to fully understand it, but looks straight forward. The biggest thing there would be the well water as I’m sure its always changing bit, maybe even after heavy rain storms but seasonally for sure.
I’d appreciate any or all you guys opinions on what to do thanks
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I would plumb a bypass for the softener, run it through a “whole house” 5 stage with pre and post micron filters. Pretty sure just that will give you an acceptable base. If you are super picky you could send it to RO after the 5 stage. I run a 20 foot irrigation well, I run a 5 stage carbon filter with pre and post micron filtration with a UV reactor and I get my “tap” at like 60ppm.
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The issues with the well is it has a lot of clear iron in it, upwards of 8 to 10ppm, the softener does a good job a taking care of the iron, but I don’t think it quite gets all of it, if I bypass it, all the clear iron will go straight to the filters. wouldn’t it gunk the filters up pretty quick? asking as I don’t know? but I assume once it oxidizes it would be a lot to handle.
Woah.
@MellowedOut I would soften the water before sending it through an RO. Sending solids into an RO unit is a good way to spend a lot on filters. Iron is one of the main contaminants here too and small amounts that get through won’t hurt.
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I have an aquasana whole house on my Sandpoint/irrigation. My well side of the pump is all rusty… After the filter. Perfectly clean. The carbon filters tens to pick up the heavier metals like lead and iron.
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Those numbers posted above are after the softener, If I installed a pre carbon filter then ran it to an 5 stage RO system, How do you think the RO system would handle that amount of contaminates.
It is choramine. You can get special membranes to get it out.
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I listened to this one in the garden a few days ago. What I took from it was to ph my water to 6 and bubble it for a day, then some bad shit will crash out and I can run half strength nutes for half price. . John from Cutting Edge nutrients is the guest and he’s great. Idk if this has anything to do with what y’all are talking about.
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When you neutralize CaCO3 with acid, what in fact happens to this calcium? Does it react and precipitate out of solution, meaning that the EC of the solution will as well drop? Dropping out of solution as CaSO4 when sulfuric acid is used and as Ca3(PO4)2 when phosphoric acid is used?
Or does it react in a way that this calcium becomes now available? In this case, available in what form if not as CaCO3 anymore?