Sand coming from the Well

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Guy Fantasy

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Hey Everyone,

I really need some advice. My well was drilled in 2007, its about 49 feet. Its got horrible hardness (35 grains) and iron(2 p.p.m). But the last year or so Ive noticed some sand in the filters, very fine sand. I change the sediment filters about every 6 months and the sand fills about 1/4 of the bottom filter case. I think the driller set the pump to 13 gpm. It seems the more the pump runs it stirs up the sand. I really need your advice here. I had the driller come back and he didn't know what to do about it. I was looking into the Lakos sandmaster filters but...Im not sure what direction to go.

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated
 

LLigetfa

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Is that 49 feet of casing or is there a rock bore? The sand may have filled the space below the pump and you may need to air lift clean the well. There is probably not enough room for a Lakos separator in the well so you would need one of the above ground models.

You might want to consider slowing the pump GPM with a dole valve.
 

Guy Fantasy

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Hey Thanks for the reply. Its 49 feet of casing no rock. I looked into the Dole Valves, where are they installed just before the pressure tank or does it have to go on the pump? What would you slow the pump to.... 10 GPM ?
 

Valveman

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I would try pumping the well hard for a few days. It is always better to develop the well and get rid of the sand than simply trying to filter it out. A filter is a last act of desperation when you can't get rid of the sand.
 

LLigetfa

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I would expect that a 7 year old well that is still producing sand most likely won't clear up by developing it. My well will still produce sand decades after it was drilled if I don't rate limit the pump. In my case, I have a micronizer that essentially rate limits the pump by controlling the amount of bypass.

A dole valve goes inline anywhere between the pump and the pressure switch. You can test by installing a ballvalve first and partially close it to find the sweet spot. You could in fact just leave the ballvalve in place forever and use it as a dole valve. If you do I suggest you remove the handle so someone doesn't inadvertently turn it off.

Instead of a dole valve, you might consider a CSV as that will only slow the GPM to match your usage. With some wells, the repeated cycling causes a surge development that motivates the sand, so by reducing that surging, it might reduce the sand without the downside of rate limiting that a dole valve does.
 

LLigetfa

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Something like this may be adequate to cut down on replacement filter cartridges.
http://www.lakos.com/gwi-products/twistiiclean
http://www.twistiiclean.com/

Keeping the sand out in the first place is of course always better and kinder on the pump. The in well separators do that but the sand then builds up under the pump and you don't have the depth for that. At first I kept raising the pump as the sand level rose but finally had to bail out 15 feet of sand to get back to where I started.
 

Reach4

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If you want to deal with that iron, and maybe more, you can put in an appropriate backwashing filter. That would filter out sand etc as a byproduct of its iron,sulfur, etc job. The backwashing filter would go before the sediment filter, and after the pressure switch. Such a filter will leave less for the water softener to do.

I don't know if the fine sand would then be backwashed out, or if the sand would stay in the filter until you swap the media out in maybe 10 years (depending on media).
 

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Most residential wells are never properly developed. Just drill a well, stick a pump in, and hope it develops over time. Some will, some won’t. Many can be developed years later and the sand will completely go away.

I would try to pump it out first. If all else fails there are lots of filter possibilities.
 

Guy Fantasy

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I Will try that for sure. I've got a hydrant installed right on the well head so it makes it easy to let it pump out.

I just remembered that I increased the pressure switch cut off to 80 psi on the pressure tank, (over a year ago) would that be causing the sand? I think it was around 50 psi (set by the driller. )
 

LLigetfa

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When you increase the cutoff PSI, it can reduce the drawdown capacity of the tank. That in turn can increase the cycling. Cycling can "surge develop" the well. I say "can" and not "will" because there are other factors.
 

Reach4

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I expect that 60 PSI-80 PSI would decrease the velocity of the incoming water. I agree it would increase the number of cycles a bit, because there is more drawdown at lower pressures.

It is important to set the bladder precharge to 58 if you set your pressure switch to 60-80.

Every 6 months to change the sediment filter does not seem bad at all. Some people need to do that in weeks. This does not mean that you should not do that pump hard for a few days thing. Hard, in this case, means fast flow. Your outside taps may bypass the filter, so that would be good. However to drain into the yard, or storm drain, you will want to wait for 0C or warmer weather unless you really want an ice rink. Remember to disconnect the garden hoses before it gets very cold.
 
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LLigetfa

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I expect that 60 PSI-80 PSI would decrease the velocity of the incoming water...
Some of the factors I made mention of. Depends on static levels and pump curves. He may have too much pump and be on the left of the curve. If you get far enough to the right of the curve it can self-regulate sort of like a CSV.

You would need a hydrant that can allow a lot of flow along with a short garden hose to develop the well by pumping it hard. What I did was to lift the pump out of the pitless and let the full bore 1" pipe rip. At this time of year in this part of Ontario, it would make a skating rink for sure if I tried that. There is a good chance that sand may get motivated to flow and fill my casing again and I'd have to bail it out before I could set it back down in the pitless so it is not something that I would try at this time of year. I would leave well enough alone until Summer.
 

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What I did was to lift the pump out of the pitless and let the full bore 1" pipe rip.
That would be really good for giving unrestricted flow. However it means that the pump will be 4...5 feet higher than usual during the process.
 

LLigetfa

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the pump will be 4...5 feet higher than usual during the process.
I used a 10 foot length of 1" pipe and a coupling to make up for it.

The downside of running a pump full bore is the upthrust may destroy it. In my case I was replacing the pump anyway.
 

Guy Fantasy

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Thanks for all your input everybody, your all a great help.
I just removed the filter today after about 1 month, and the sand in the filter wasn't to bad, there was sand present. The toilet tanks have sand in too so maybe the filter isn't catching it all.
I really need to install a new softer and iron filter but they say that sand will wreck them. Is a water filter good enough to protect them? or should I use the twist clean?
 

Reach4

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Regarding the sand in the iron filter, it might be no problem. Maybe you could get a little higher tank than you already would, although the amount of sand you are accumulating might not come to much. If in doubt, you could add the Twist 2 Clean. You might even put in a slightly taller tank than you would otherwise in case there is some sand accumulation. I thought Ditttohead might offer some thought son this.. I guess it would be the fineness of the sand that determines if it washes out.

Some iron media handles sulfur and some even handles manganese. My filter with Centaur Carbon media handles sulfur and iron nicely for me.
 
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