I concur with Heather about the DIY chatroom. You can find the best answer to your questions there. I would also recommend Canadian Wood Working on the list.
The particles might be the left-out sediments during the softeners' regeneration cycle. You can also try out a sediment filter to reduce the size of those particles to microns. As for the cloudy water, it might be attributed to high mineral levels. If you're concerned about it, you can call for...
Very nice deck. I really wanted to have like that in my house but termites are all over the place. Treating my property will not work because most of our neighbors are infested too.
Looking for a handy soldering iron for working with PCBs/Electronics. Currently looking at some HAKKO's, are they any good? If you could recommend me some that would be great too!