Got it all hooked up (thanks everyone!) and did a test with everything in bypass and got a reading of 15 gpg. I then started my 5600sxt carbon pre-filter with catalytic carbon. Let it run till clear, then a little longer. Ran another hardness test for giggles, the water went to blue nearly immediately (like 1 drop to solid blue). Now the water doesn't have that "greasy" feeling so I know it can't be that soft, is there something in the carbon pre-filter that needs to "flush out" for lack of a better term that may be causing false numbers with the hach 5b kit?