filter for mild sediment, occasional sulfur smell

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Lifespeed

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My mother has minor water quality problems from her well: a small amount of sediment, occasional minor sulfur smell in the cold water, and about 5 GPG hardness. No iron detected when she had it tested, but she does get slight iron staining on occasion. Probably not a justification for an iron filter, especially if a softener gets installed.

First I would like to address the sediment and occasional sulfur smell. I am thinking this would be done for both inside and hose bib water and located in the well shed. A one-tank solution would be ideal. Is this realistic - would a single catalytic carbon tank do the trick? I know carbon is not the ideal, most powerful media for sediment OR sulfur, but does an OK job on either especially if the problem is not that great. Also would like to consider the use of a softener/greensand valve to allow occasional disinfection of the carbon by drawing in chlorine during the "brine" cycle. She currently has several BB filters in parallel that sometimes grow algae and get restricted over time.

Given the modest scale of the problem I am hoping to forgo a dedicated sediment filter tank, chlorine injection, contact tank and THEN carbon tank.

Thoughts?
 
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Reach4

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Catalytic carbon with backwash would do well. I would also shock chlorinate the well and the filters and the plumbing system. I would get chlorine test paper/strips and test for 200 ppm chlorine from the well, and chlorine from each tap you have. I wound make sure the hot water taps get at least 100 ppm. Let that all sit for a while. http://deq.mt.gov/wqinfo/swp/PDFs/well disinfection.pdf is one of many descriptions.

I expect your BB filters are in series.
 

Lifespeed

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Her husband put them in parallel (not series) as an attempt to maintain flow as they clogged. It is quite the Rube Goldberg arrangement, hence my attempt to try and get something in there that is more effective and low maintenance. He is an older guy who experienced the headaches of softener ownership 30 years ago and is since then opposed as they are "too much trouble and maintenance". Trying to show him the light that a newer, reliable, correctly-configured backwashing filter and softener would fix their problems. My mom really wants the hard water deposit, clogging and occasional smell problems gone. But the medium-grade nature of the problems enables the argument they "don't warrant fixing"

I have personally seen algae grow in the filter housings. My mom says they eventually get plugged and the water starts to smell bad. It does not appear an ideal solution.
 

Mialynette2003

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Sounds feasible. I was thinking, what if you used a dip feeder in the same fashion as a resup feeder. It would drop a chlorine solution into the brine tank.. This would sanitize it with each Regen. Food for thought.
 

Lifespeed

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The utility shed provides shade, but I guess is not totally opaque. Yes, clear housings and no coliform.
 
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