GAC bacterial growth, control methods.

[DuckyDucky]

Hello Everybody,

As some of you know we moved in to a house that had existing filtering system.

- City Water Chloramines
- Current seupt, two tanks made by Enpress ?( or that's what is says on label )

Systems looks very similar, Except the tanks are blue and taller.

Two tanks are chained, linked together for extra efficiency ? ( Main goes to tank 1 from then to tank two and then to rest of home )

Tank's were refreshed with new Calgon Centaur carbon.

I been reading a lot that carbon filters are breading grounds for E. Coli. and other Microbial's.

I guess that the first tank, is little more disinfected with chlorine coming in, but seconds gets chlorine free water, Should I be concerned about this.

Are there any steps that can be taken to make sure that I don't have anything growing there, Tanks are back-washed once a month, per previous owner recommendation.

Should I remove second tank ?

Have a great night!

 

[ditttohead]

You probably have a carbon tan and some sort of "Anti-Scale" media.

The carbon should be replaced every few years, and the plumbing should be sanitized intermittently especially if it is pex or PVC.

All non chlorinated water contains some biologics, the issue is quantity. Keeping it under control is the goal.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[DuckyDucky]

Incoming water has chloramines, and it might be strange but two tanks are actually GAC, I'm worried that first one will be OK because some residual chlorine but second will be covered with biofilm ? Is one tank safer bet ?

Thank you very much for your professional advise

 

[ditttohead]

Nope, no difference. It is unlikely the chloramine will make it through the tank, unless the incorrect media was used. If it is properly designed then no problem. Remember that you incoming water is chlorinated so biological issues will be greatly reduced. Change the media intermittently and sanitize your plumbing and the tanks when you change the carbon media.

Your choice, Chloramine, or no Chloramine but a very slightly elevated bacterial potential. Consider the majority of well water systems in houses have virtually no bacterial control methods.

 

[Tech1]

Carbon is actually used to remove some chlorine/chloramines from the water. Which is a good thing. Though this would be a farily expensive edition, next carbon swap I would add some KDF-55 to the carbon tanks. Its an absolutely beautiful media.

More recently I have been running into organo-chloramine. The cities have been dosing the water to much, especially without treating the nitrates and nitrites first. Really nasty stuff. Kind of licks like yellow/clear slime that smells like a pool. Been successful at removing it using GAC with KDF-55 mixed in. Have not had an issue since with any of my customers.

 

[ditttohead]

Do not add KDF to the carbon tank, it will simply clump into a ball and become useless. It is an amazing media but it must be applied correctly. It is ground copper and zinc and requires backwash rates nearly 3X that of GAC medias. A separate tank for the KDF, a stacked tank, or even a media guard are all proper methods of doing KDF.