water softener questions(which resin, turbulator, resin for tannins and size softener

[cjw]

man, i am new to this form stuff, i wrote before but i think it is going somewhere else on this page.
anyway, i am in the market for a new water softener and have been researching the internet. now i am at looking at a fleck 5600sxt on demand
i think i need a 40,000 grains size, and now i have to decide if i need a thing called a turbulator and if i need a fine mesh resin and if the turbulator will not work with a fine mesh resin, now i will give the water test results:
HARDNESS: 16 GPG
IRON: 1.5
PH: 7.5
TDS: 250
TANNINS: 1.1
PEOPLE: 3
IS THERE A MESH THAT ALSO HELPS REMOVE THE TANNINS AND IF THAT WILL EFFECT MY PH?
I READ SOMEWHER THAT THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN USE ON TOP OF THE RESIN TO HELP WITH TANNINS, BUT I DON'T WANT TO MESS UP MY PH LEVEL.

[Akpsdvan]

There are resins for tannin... but in my years here in Alaska I have yet to find one that really works......

If some one has tannin I my self walk away and will not treat it because it is a losing battle over the long run.

Are you sure that there is tannin in the water?
I know that here tannin has two tails, or this is tannin... high ph or 8.5 and low hardness say 1 grain 2 max.. now there are times that is not true , but more times than not here that is the case.

Is the water with out color?
Would a bottle of the water go yellow-orange and then clear as the color is now down at the bottom of the bottle?

[cjw]

I am thinking also to walk away from the tannins and leave it alone. But our water has a little brown color and does not clear up, you really don't notice it unless you compare it to bottled water and then there isn't much difference. The only thing is when we had the water tested the water turned a light blue in the testing tube. The guy who did the testing also said he would leave it alone.
So what do ya think about the turbulator for iron and or the fine mesh for iron? One guy told me that if i use the fine mesh resin i would not need the turbulator and they are not compatible anyway. He told me to use the fine mesh resin because of the iron and well water i have.

[Akpsdvan]

The turbulator is a work horse for me here as the iron is often 4+ppm... and with the turbulator turning over 1.0 cubic foot at 2gpm in 12 minutes is a real plus in keeping the media clean or cleaning up after an oops of no salt ...

Fine mesh gives a little more capacity for the same salt load, but the standard like Sybron C249 is a good long lasting hard working resin that I have used for years.

[cjw]

Well i thank you for all your information, i see that i can order that c-249 as an option, so if i use that instead of the fine mesh then i should go for the turbulator too, it sounds like that is longer lasting than a fine mesh? Are you trying to tell me that i would have to replace the fine mesh sooner than i would the c-249 resin? Ok, now if you were me what would you get for a softener and all the options for it with my water?

[Akpsdvan]

I would look for a unit that has 1.5 cubic feet of resin(C249 or Equal), turbo ... with the new sxt control on either the Fleck 5600 or 2510 either valve would work good as the times can be changed, if you did not wish to have the sxt control then the Fleck 2510 meter unit would be the choice and is the first one that I use over the sxt because of power flux that we have around here .. the motors take a beating and continue to run more than the computer controls..
The 1.5 is often called the 48k because the 48 is the MAX capacity with MAX salt setting... but I try very hard not to get that high because the waste of salt..
If there is a little color that is left over after that, then maybe a 12x54 tank of carbon to remove the tannin... flow rate is going to be the key, the more carbon and more contact time that the water has with the carbon the better the removal.

I like to take one challenge at a time... if it is needed then treat, other wise leave it alone and save money.

[cjw]

Thank you again, and i will look into the information and see what i will do.
The only reason for the 5600sxt demand is that i can figure them out and the metered ones are very hard for me to figure out. We don't have power surges or a lot of bad lightening around here and we have a on demand digital one now for 10 years and it still works. So i don't think we would have any trouble with it.
Yea, now that i said that...... Probably will. We live in michigan in case you didn't know, but near grand rapids in a small town in the country. Very small town, and love it. Bye for now and thanks again for getting back with me with all the information.

[Akpsdvan]

The Fleck 5600 is one those valves that just keeps going and going and easy to rebuild..

The demand is a bit of a miss lead....... clean on demand is a twin set up.. where the unit changes tanks when the meter gets to Zero... where the singles are set up on a delayed regen.. or the meter gets to zero and then the next 2 am the unit cleans.

Sounds like the place that I live in... pop about 4k and the next town over (11 miles)4k... the whole kenai peninsula has about 50k.... often there are a number of eagles that will hang out in a tree or two just out side the house... and then there is MOOSE..........

[Andy CWS]

Tannin (anion) resins can be added to the softener and this should work. I'm afraid I can't see carbon correcting tannin problems. You would be able to get by with standard resins and no need for a turbulator.

I would recommend a prefilter adequate for flow rate to remove sand and sediment from entering the softener.

An RO is an excellent way to round off your water treatment system.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II