Advice on iron removal

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fishtanke

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I've suffered with poor water for years and I'm finally going to do something about it. Here's some of the test results:

iron 6.1 ppm
hardness 10 grains
pH 6.9

The well is 300 feet deep and it only recovers at 2 quarts per minute. The foot valve is at 290 ft and the static level is 18 ft. I just installed a 35 gal Flexcon pressure tank yesterday.

There's currently 4 adults and 2 children in the household, but it will eventually be just 2 adults.

What would you recommend for getting rid of this iron? Would I also have to install a softener too?
 

Reach4

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Yes, you really want to get rid of the iron. A softener also would be very desirable.

Systems based on Katalox Light media have gotten good comments. Not cheap media. I would read up on that. There are other media that may do the job. My iron and sulfur filter uses Centaur Carbon, and it works well for me. My iron is about 4 ppm.

An older method is to use chlorine injection and a settling tank followed by an activated charcoal filter to remove the chlorine. It is effective, but it has lots of parts and makes noise.
 

Mialynette2003

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I've used BIRM effectively. BIRM stands for Best Iron Removal Media. I have one customer that uses Katalox & have not heard any complaints. I prefer chlorination because of the weight of some medias. With chlorination, it kills any bacteria as well as oxidizing the iron. Iron reducing medias will not.
 

ditttohead

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Birm is an impressive media when it works. I have used it with simple air injection in ALaska on 15 ppm iro successfully. I would not recommend it, but... 5 years later it was still working just fine.

Katalox Light is an amazing media but can be overkill in some conditions. We have almost stopped using Birm since the Katalox Light has been such a success in some very bad conditions. Katalox light does require a higher backwash rate and is more expensive.
 

Tom Sawyer

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Iron is tough, especially on a private well and pump because you need high flow rates to backwash the media. Fortunately there are other moods that can be used if the flow isn't adaquate for birm, such as clorene injection and a settling tank. Air injection and a settling tank and potassium permanganate. Using a softener for more than about 3ppm is unadvisable by me anyway.
 

fishtanke

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It seems like a birm filter with air injection might be the the easiest way to take care of this iron.

I just checked my flow rate, it was about 20 gpm. Would my well be able to supply enough water for a backwash? How much water is normally used in a typical backwash?

If I go with birm, how much media would be required?

Thanks for the help.
 

Mialynette2003

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Something is just not right or I'm not understanding. You stated your well recovery is 2 quarts per minute but you have a 20 gpm flow rate? You would need 60-80 of water over a 1-1.5 hr period in order to backwash a BIRM unit. Can your well handle that?
 

fishtanke

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I just filled a 5 gal pail in 15 seconds. That would be 20 gal per minute. It wouldn't have anything to do with how fast the water is replaced in the well, which is 2 quarts per minute.

I calculated that there is about 400 gallons of water being stored in the well plus another 30 or so in the pressure tank.
 

Tom Sawyer

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At 2qts per minute recovery, you could run into problems if the cycle times we not closely figured.
 

Reach4

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I just filled a 5 gal pail in 15 seconds. That would be 20 gal per minute. It wouldn't have anything to do with how fast the water is replaced in the well, which is 2 quarts per minute.

I calculated that there is about 400 gallons of water being stored in the well plus another 30 or so in the pressure tank.

You do have submersible pump, right? You used the term "foot valve", and that term is not usually used for submersible pumps.

Is your pressure tank the FL12, FL30, or what?

The FL12 has drawdown at 30/50PSI of 11.9 gallons. After the pressure tank is drawn down, the pump will need to keep up up.

The good news is that the 20 is 20 gpm/sqft. So the actual gpm needed will depend on the media tank diameter, and the actual flow needed will be less. A 10 inch tank is 0.54 sqft area.
 
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