We drilled a well today on some acreage. Not to bring up the old thread, but this is a tough area to get a well so it was witched by 3 folks and they all hit on the same spot. We drill hit good water everyone is happy then realize it is salty. Well guy mentions that you can treat it with RO, but also considering trying in a different spot if we can trace a stream from a neighboring property where they have a strong fresh well.

Drillers took a sample to test, so not sure how salty it is, but you could taste the salt.

Does anyone with experience/thoughts on running RO on salty well water. This will primarily be used for house water. We were hoping we could also use it for livestock, but that might not be in the cards.

Any other options out there?

how deep was the well and what county? Depending on the salinity level it may be ok for livestock. Any salinity will be hell on fixtures and appliances. I have looked at RO whole house systems last year, the lower end was 5k plus with fairly expensive maintenance costs.

I have an ro system for my house with a 1500 gallon tank for storage. My water is horrible, leave a hose connected to faucet and it will be cemented on with in 3 months. Had the system for over 12 years and love it. Our ice is as clear as any I have seen.

I believe we were about 270 feet in Palo Pinto county. They also mentioned that you would have salt water byproduct with RO that we would have to deal with.

That is correct, I have a discharge of bad water, don't recall how much bad verses good per gallon

I have bad water too. I put in a whole house RO unit several years ago. I believe it ran me 11k. Was hard to spend but ended up being the best money I have spent in a long time. My faucets and fixtures are perfect. Toilets stay clean. Dishes clean, Ice clean. I lived in another house nearby for 15 years with bad water and no RO and it was a constant battle. As stated previously, there will be discharge. I put in a separate drain field for my waste water just like a septic system uses. I would highly recommend a system. I had Culligan install it and service it quarterly. You could change filters yourself cheaper, but I found I didn't get it done.

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If this is for home use and you have acreage - Capture rain water.

For some of these RO systems, your 1/3 of the way or closer to a rain water capture system. Then you're one less straw in the ground.

Rain capture may be the next option. We are planning on building a barndo so we would have lots of roof to collect. I think we would have to have more storage capacity but similar pressure tank set up as with an RO system

Let me know if you want info on my set up.

30,000 gallon tank.

For those having, or pondering, a whole house RO system, what happens if demand exceeds supply? There has to be a practical limit as to storage tank size.

RO membranes are slow to process water, and planning for family use, not counting any irrigation/car washing/kiddy pool, is the way to size a system?

Our well water tests out moderately salty, marginally suitable for irrigation, okay for livestock/pets. An undersink RO system is used for drinking/coffee/tea. Hard to picture the size of a unit for clothes washing, dishwasher, showers, toilets, etc...

Plus dealing with the discharge side of a RO system...which would be substantial for a whole house system (I think 3-4 gallons of discharge for every gallon RO?)

RO systems will typically have a gallon per day/hour/min rating. If you exceed the capacity of you pressure storage tank your water flow rate will be reduced to that flow.

How would you avoid poisoning the ground with the salt? Any kind of plants you could put in a discharge area, which might take it up?

i have a 1500 gallon storage tank and my family fluctuates between 5-7 people. I have 3 large teenage boys and there friends that stay over. Never had an issue of running out of water, even with long showers from the boys, except when they forget to turn off the water hose when watering the plants outside. I have a seperate line now for the outside watering. I can also bypass the system and run well water when the system is down and the storage tank runs out. As mentioned before, faucets, toilets, water heater, washing machine and dish washer last so much longer and look better because of it.