I am not an expert, just an informed consumer who had some water problems at my new (2 years ago) house in a new town. I suggest contacting your local water utility and perhaps a water treatment company or three(beware, there are a lot of rip offs in that industry that want to sell you everything you don't need but there are honest folk also! Sort of like pool store industry!). There is a lot of info on the 'net also. The main caution I will give you is to DO YOUR HOMEWORK and get several opinions. It would not hurt to pretest your water with your pool test kit first so you can see if the pH, Hardness, and Alkalinity readings are similar to the ones you get from the water softener and treatment companies you call. Be aware that the hardness test that many of them do are for Total (calcium and magnesium) hardness and therefore might be a much higher reading than the one the pool test kit (calcium hardness) will give you but it is a starting point. If you have access to any metal tests (copper, iron, etc.) it would not hurt to do them also. Final thing, if the water treatment company is using test strips instead of drop based and titration tests same cautions apply as to testing your pool with them. I lucked out on the third guy that came to test my water. He had drop based test kits, was very knowlegeable, did extensive testing on my water both before the units were installed and several times after, and gave me a few options on the best ways to deal with the problems. He also suggested that I start with the least expensive way and add to it if there was a need. Guess who got my business? I have to say he was completely right in his recommendation (he talked me out of reverse osmosis for drinking water and put a whole house carbon prefiler on). He even tested for bacteria in the water! The water coming out of my taps is even safe to use in my salt water reef aquariums and that is amazing! Needless to say I fill my pool and spa with this water also. I just add a bit of calcium to bring it up to about 140 ppm for my heated fiberglass pool which gives me a near perfect saturation index and Hamilton index.
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