Regarding iron and manganese. A softener is not the best way to remove iron and manganese and should be used for such only if the amounts are small. Every ppm (part per million) of iron or manganese has to be treated as if it were 4-5 gpg (grains per gallon) of hardness. 1 gpg = 17.1 ppm. If you calculate that out, 1 ppm of iron has 68-85 times the impact of 1 ppm of hardness.

Attached you will find a good article about brine efficiency. Start with this and then come back with further questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brining efficiency

I just glanced at the 1st couple of paragraphs of the article but yeah, that's what I'm looking for.
I'll read it fully later when I get the chance but one question.
I have found a few other sites that have gone a little technical also.
As far as efficiency goes ( in theory), it WOULD be best to get a system as large as possible (cubic foot wise) but that would lead to rengeration times that are too far apart, and too much time in between regeneration is bad for the resin?

Right?Wrong?Not evan close?

I know, if I finish the article it'll probably answer it.

Thanks

Correct. You want your softener to regen every seven days. If you go longer consistently, the bed becomes compacted, which damages the resin beads, leads to channeling and overall poor performance.

You also need to be aware that the lower the salt dosage for regen, the more hardness bleed you get from the softener. A little hardness bleed (a few ppm) you will never notice, but you need to stay within a reasonable salt dosage, For practical purposes, that means no lower than 3 lb salt per cubic foot of resin.