Thanks for the suggestion, Al. My fear though is that if I tap off of the supply line, I'll be back to the water that gives the red residue. You'd be surprised what ~10 ppm Fe will do over time. Several years back I looked into switching to KCl for the softener, but it was about 5 times as expensive as NaCl. I go through a lot since I have >1 acre of lawn under sprinklers. I actually listened to the sprinkler guy at the time of install and I went to the effort of replacing my softener with a larger, more powerful model. This one isn't on a timer, but runs through its refresher cycle as needed based on water usage. It'll run two or three times from October until May, but then 3-4X/week during the summer. As a result, I never made the switch to KCl. Too bad the plant staging area is on the other side of the yard from the house, or I could go for the rain barrel solution. In fact, I just got a sealed 30 gal barrel to store my irrigation water in (from the hose), so that it can sit for long enough to equilibrate thermally before I use it for irrigation.

8Planets, Sensors are being developed right now that can effectively monitor individual levels - it's only a matter of time until they will also be commercially available Great, when a reliable version becomes available to the general public at a reasonable cost, let me know. I would love to have one. But it is ridiculous to claim that nutrient toxicities are inevitable in a recirculating solution without changeouts So you believe that the plants use all the individual mineral salts in exact equal amounts do you? How do you come to that conclusion? Without a doubt it would not be feasible to have a hydro growing career and do nutrient changeouts every two weeks What are you referring to as a career? A backyard grower, or a commercial enterprise? There's a huge difference in how a commercial enterprise monitors their nutrient solutions and plants. Though for the backyard grower, those methods are basically out of the question due to costs (unless you have money to waist). Those methods include regular lab testing of mineral content in the plant tissue. That tells them what the nutrient solution is lacking, or in excess. Commercial operations also custom make their nutrients, and can add only the specific nutrients the plants take up quicker. The regular lab testing tells them when and what to add to make sure their nutrients are balanced, not a PPM/TDS/EC meter. If you are actually concerned with water usage, how do you justify wasting 3 gallons of water for every one gallon you get from your RO system? currently, two of my reservoirs haven't been changed for six months - yet none of my plants have developed problems First there are a whole lot of variables that are not mentioned. Second, have the plant tissue lab tested for mineral content (like commercial operations do regularly). Sure NASA dosen't send samples to earth, that would be a waist of rocket fuel, they have all the testing equipment and materials they need already on the space station. I'm glad you have the same type of funding that NASA has. Want to share some of it with us poor folk? it turns out, toxicities are NOT inevitable if you use a bit of common sense: run your nutes at a lower strength, alternate topping-off the solution with dilute nutes and water, etc. No, that wont make it not happen, but it does slow down the proses quite a bit. Also the size of the reservoir in comparison with the amount of plants, as well as the size of the plants will make a big difference. Not to mention other environmental aspects like temp and humidity that have a huge affect on how much water and nutrients the plants actually take up to consider. Think about this: hydroponics is always touted for being efficient compared to soil-based growing in terms of nutrient use and water use; these claims aren't compatible with the notion that complete changeouts need to be done on a normal basis. Every two weeks - give me a break (you sound like you work for a nutrient company). Consider yourself on break. The notion that hydroponics uses less water and nutrients is completely valid. If you had the same plants in the ground, how much water would you be dumping on them every two weeks? At least 5 times more than any hydroponic system used in that same amount of time (unless it rains a lot where you live). In terms of nutrients, the nutrients are recycled through the system. In soil there are two problems. First is that very little of the soil nutrients are actually water soluble, and the plants cant use them at all if their not water soluble. Where hydroponic nutrients are 100% water soluble. The second problem with soil nutrients is that most of the nutrients that do dissolve in water, never actually reach the plants roots where they can be used by the plant. They just wind up draining down into the water table below. In hydroponic systems the nutrients are brought to the roots, and continually recirculate where they can be used by the plant. And one final thing: homehydro said "If I were given a bag of nutrients in one hand...blah, blah...I cant eat electronic devices. I can grow plants with nutrients." This statement is so ridiculous, it's not even wrong...it's just ridiculous... Really? In what context? Actually the nutrients are almost cheaper than the water. At least the type I use are, so I have no issue changing them out. The nutrients only cost me about 2 cents per gallon of nutrient solution. A 20 gallon reservoir only cost me about 40 cents in nutrients. If I changed it twice a month, that reservoir would only cost me 80 cents a month in nutrients. Times 12, that comes out to less than $10 a year. That's 26 complete nutrient changes. I could change 200 gallons of nutrient solution every 2 weeks for an entire year (26 times) for the same $100 that EC/TDS/PPM meter cost. Where I come from that will grow a whole lot of plants. In what context is that ridiculous? P.S. For the record I don't have any specific time period that I always change the nutrient solution at. There are so many variables, and each system, crop, weather conditions etc are different. I use my experience to judge when to change them. I sometimes change them once a week, but have often let it go 4 weeks before changing them. One to two weeks is just a general guideline I use for new growers. Over time they will gain their own experience, thus be able to judge when to change theirs in the same way.

And then I found this Watts Premier RO system on Amazon for $177: Watts Premier RO-Pure 531411 4-Stage Reverse Osmosis System Product Description From the Manufacturer If quality and convenience are what you're in the market for, then this is the water filtration system for you. These filters change out at the push of a button. You don't need to turn off the water supply to the system and there's no waiting for the system to depressurize. Each individually contained filter just snaps into place, including the membrane. This four stage reverse osmosis system consists of a stage 1 five micron sediment filter that traps particulate matter like dirt, rust and silt that will affect the taste and appearance of your water. Stage 2 is a five micron carbon block filter that reduces chloramines, chlorine as well as other materials that cause bad taste and odors, these are called PRE-filters because they filter in front of the reverse osmosis membrane. Stage 3 is the heart of the reverse osmosis system, the RO Membrane. This 50-Gallon per day semi permeable membrane will effectively reduce TDS, total dissolved solids, Sodium and a wide range of contaminants such as Lead, Arsenic, Perchlorate, Chromium, Copper and Radium. It will also remove over 99.95-Percent cysts such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. The larger production membrane of this state of the art system also means this system has been designed to reduce Nitrates and Nitrites from your drinking water. It is important that this system is properly installed and maintained with a minimum incoming water pressure of 40 psi for it to operate as designed. Stage 4 is a high quality carbon filter, this is called a POST-filter because it filters after the membrane. The filtered water passes through the membrane and enters the 3-Gallon storage tank. When you're ready for a taste, it will leave the storage tank and pass through this fourth stage on its way up to the faucet. Crystal clear, high quality and great tasting water! It is system tested and certified by the WQA by the WQA against NSF/ANSI Standard 58. The Watts RO Pure Annual Filter Pack is $55. Seems like it could be the same model as the Atlantic Blue system, but with different color filters. Seems like this might be the best way to go. Please steer me in the right direction, if you have any thoughts. TIA.

Consider that you might have gotten the "newbie" on the phone. Call back and ask the same question of another rep and see if they give you the same answer. Fleck says the 5600 is limited to a 12" tank so no sales person gets to change the specs. Step 8 = 48,000 Step 12 = 8 (days calendar override) Step 17 = In order to program this step you need to know the BLFC size. If the BLFC is .5 gal/min, which is common, then each gallon = 3 lbs of salt. At 1/2 gpm, 5 gallons = 10 minutes so set step 17 at 12 minutes (fudge factor or reserve, whatever definition makes you happy). "I ask because when I buy a 2.5 cube softener, it will surely be called a "80,000 grain softener" even though your recommendation is to program it like a 48,000 softener"... for the LAST TIME, if you refer to the softener as a 2.5 cu ft softener then so will the sales person and there will be NO MISUNDERSTANDING about what you are ordering. A 2.5 cube softener can be marketed as an 80k softener but you'll be using 15 lbs of salt per cu ft to get that 80k. That's 37.5 pounds of salt each regeneration versus getting 48k at 6 lbs per cu ft or 15 pounds of salt each regeneration out of the same 2.5 cu ft of resin with the same SFR. In the simplest terms... the K, or hardness removal, capacity of a softener is determined by the volume of resin and the salt dose used to regenerate that volume of resin NOT THE SIZE OF THE TANK. A correctly sized resin tank's function is to allow enough room (freeboard) above the resin for the resin to move during regeneration. You water conditions and water usage dictate the correct size of the softener. The cost of the correctly sized softener is the cost. You can change the other variables and get a smaller softener using the 5600... stop using so much water or move to a place that doesn't have 25g hard water. I've shown you how to correctly size the softener using only 15 lbs/regen so the salt savings alone will cover the increased cost of the correctly sized softener and what those savings don't cover you can amortize over the 10, 15, or 20 years that softener will serve you. Money is tight and very few have any to burn. You're wise to treat your water because not doing it can get more expensive down the road in plumbing and appliance/fixture repair. If you just can't swing the 2510SXT @ $885 delivered then click here and buy a Clack for not that much less. And all this knowledge cost you what? Invoice to follow.