WHOA! Steer clear of the water softener! It took me 6 months to figure out that our water softener was killing my plants when we moved. You don't want salt in your water your plants use. After that it took me another 2 months to learn that my well water even without the softener was to high in Ca and Mg and was ovwerloading my plants, it was pitiful. I can't affords a Reverse Osmosis system so I have to collect snow them melt it in my garage. That's alot of labor for close to 50 plants needing to be watereds every 2 days by hands while pregnant.