Question about water softener?

when i took off the metal plate shown here in these two pics a href="http://f.imagehost.org/view/0832/0209001401a" rel="nofollow"http://f.imagehost.org/view/0832/0209001…/a a href="http://f.imagehost.org/view/0805/0209001401" rel="nofollow"http://f.imagehost.org/view/0805/0209001…/a , a white chunk came off with it that didnt seem to fit with anything, was this white chunk just an obstruction? maybe a calcium/lime buildup or something? these pics arent mine, just showing you what part im talking about. i dont see any white piece that basically just looks like a rock in these pics. also when it goes though the recharge it doesnt seem to be drawing any brine or putting any water in either. it seems and sounds like its just in the flushing stage the whole time through.