We have a well and our water was hard. Calcium carbonate (the white spots, etc.), alot of iron, and also copper. We have Culligan, who came and tested. It depends on what is wrong with your water. This was the second person we had over the years because the other person put in the salt tanks and something else. It slipped my mind the kind of fine stone they put in to catch the iron, but it didn't work. Now we have something called neutralizer, which is another kind of fine stone. We also need to change filters every two months because the iron builds up. We do have soft water now. We drink it, and our water tastes ok. They say it is just a minute amount of salt that goes into the water. Before the pipes would rust out, our hot water tank would go every year, our clothes would be yucky from the hard water and not being able to produce suds. Now it is cleared up. I would suggest it you do get anything that you learn to do the stuff yourself, as if they come to add all the things needed it really gets expensive. We only try to get them to do service once a year. This past year they said the neutralizer thing was getting clogged with iron and wanted $600 to do it. It hadn't been changed or cleaned for 11 years. We don't have that kind of money so we went to another place, got the stuff, and did it ourselves for $129.