Why is my well waters Total Disolved Solids(ppm) higher after filtration?

[Court the Jeweler]

Hey guys, recently I've been speaking with my mom about the calcium in my water after finding out it was calcium deficiency hurting our tomato plants. We have a PPM tester that uses the .5 conversion scale, I believe it's called Hanna. The water from the sink and fridge is both 186 ppm. We have a salt filter for the house. The water from the spicket that doesn't go through the salt filter was 170-171.

Is it that it picks up magnesium when it goes through the salt filter adding to the total dissolved Solids? Besides sending a water sample off for a test, is there a way to find out which has more calcium between the filtered and unfiltered? Common sense tells me there would be more calcium in the unfiltered water, but the higher PPM has me confused. Thanks for any comments!

 

[Reach4]

A TDS meter, which measures in ppm, does not measure calcium or magnesium or sodium separately, but it measures the totals.

A softener, which uses a salt tank, removes calcium and magnesium, and replaces them with sodium. The TDS reading can go up some during that process, but not a lot. It is an exchange process.... I suspect your "salt filter" is a water softener.

You should not water plants with softened water. Usually the outdoor spigots are piped with water before the softener.