What is the best order ? Softener ,iron filter and chlorine injection

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Daynasdad

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I have a softener ,an iron filter and a chlorine injection system on my well water.
What is the best/correct order to pipe these 3 devices in ?
Thanks for helping !
 

Reach4

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Chlorine injection, contact tank, backwashing coconut activated carbon tank to filter out ferric iron/rust particles and the chlorine.

Or, no chlorine. Backwashing iron filter, maybe cartridge filter, softener.

If limited to your list, chlorine injection, iron filter, softener. But you would need to be able to control the chlorine since you would not be taking out the chlorine. That would not be such a good method.

What is ppm of iron, and what other flaws does your water have? H2S? How deep is your well? Unless it is shallow, for bacteria you could probably just sanitize your well and plumbing once per year or so.
 
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Akpsdvan

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Why is the chlorine needed? is it that the company loves to move them and make money off them?
A good iron filter then softener should do the job.
 

Bannerman

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A softener is usually the last in order of the devices you mention with chlorination being the first.

As Akpsdvan suggested, chlorine is now often not required with the newer iron filter medias. What is the media in the iron filter and what is its capacity?

To obtain knowledgeable advice, you should post your water test results and a description of your water usage requirements and well setup.
 
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Gary Slusser

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The facts are that next to no water treatment dealers do a Coliform/e-coli bacteria test. There is no collecting of data to enable private well owners to find info on the subject either. So many private residential well owners do not know the possibility or probably of their well being contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria. IOWs, the number of contaminated wells is higher than one would guess. And shocking a well can cause serious water system and/or water quality problems, so doing so should only be done when necessary, and because 12 months have gone by since the last shock does not make it necessary.

BTW, the depth of the well (especially rock bore types, the most common) has nothing to do with there being bacteria contamination or not.
 

Reach4

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BTW, the depth of the well (especially rock bore types, the most common) has nothing to do with there being bacteria contamination or not.
Reasonable point. How about casing depth as an indicator? Didn't the wells you serviced usually have full casing?

I think you will agree that a shallow well is more likely to have E. coli.

And shocking a well can cause serious water system and/or water quality problems, so doing so should only be done when necessary, and because 12 months have gone by since the last shock does not make it necessary.
What problems other than the softener resin?
 

Gary Slusser

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Casing depth has noting to do with it either because.... water comes into the well (a man made hole in the bedrock) at any level it can due to the folds/seams in the rock layers. The water can travel any distance from all around the well at a any depth below the end of the casing. That is mostly true about sand and gravel fully cased wells too because they have slotted casing sections where the water bearing sand and gravel is. And the problem is widespread where the topography is hilly/mountainous. Rock bore wells usually have the casing into the bedrock about 10-25'. Where I am from (the NE/PA) all wells are the rock bore type. Have you ever seen water running out of the raw side of a hill/mountain where the roadway was cut through it? That is someone's well water if anyone lives up on top the hill.... I worked on wells to 500+' deep; average was 300' Most shallow wells were two line jet pump type to 150' depth and singe line was normally no deeper than 50' and cased 5-10' in bedrock. Static water level was usually 25-150' deep with recovery rates of 10 gpm or more. Most wells were 6" but there was some 5.25" although rare (the diameter is up to the driller).

Shocking can cause difficult to treat water quality problems, problems with the pump, its power cable, metal drop pipe, pitless adapter seals, waterproof power cable connections, steel casing and pressure tanks etc.. Chlorine also can get into the power cable to cause problems if there are spots where the cable insulation is damaged. Chlorine is heavier than water and all the water below the inlet to the pump is unable to be removed by most homeowners unless they have a very large output air compressor and the know how to do it or... they lower the pump to the bottom of the well (which most won't) so.... chlorine sinks below the inlet to the pump, which may not be a good thing.
 

ditttohead

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Most modern iron reduction system do a fair job with iron without the need for chlorine or other oxidants but... dissolved oxygen, orp, pH and many other factors still come into play in determining the effectiveness of iron reduction medias, most of which are based on manganese dioxide ore. Regular testing should be done to determine the effectiveness of the iron reduction system since a softener after it will often mask problems with the iron reduction system because the softener removes iron, just not efficiently. Chlorine injection and monitoring is important if e-coli is found to be present. A redundant method should also be considered in case the chlorine injection fails or is accidentally not maintained properly. A properly sized UV is an excellent choice.
 

Daynasdad

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I have a softener ,an iron filter and a chlorine injection system on my well water.
What is the best/correct order to pipe these 3 devices in ?
Thanks for helping !
To answer the question "why chlorine injection?" I'm using chlorine and a contact tank to treat sulfur.
I plan on piping in the following order chlorine injection,contact tank,iron filter,then the softener .
Thanks for the help !
 

Reach4

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For such a system, you can/should substitute a backwashing activated carbon filter in place of the iron filter. The activated carbon will be cheaper, and will probably do a better job of removing the chlorine. The chlorine, with contact time, will have already turned the iron and H2S into solids that the carbon particles will filter out.
 

Daynasdad

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To answer the question "why chlorine injection?" I'm using chlorine and a contact tank to treat sulfur.
I plan on piping in the following order chlorine injection,contact tank,iron filter,then the softener .
Thanks for the help !
What level of chlorine am I shooting for ? 3ppm ?
 

Daynasdad

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Another question
I'm changing the media in the softener (I believe it was fouled /damaged by the iron) I was using just chlorine injection a contact tank and the softener for two years and things were fine ( soft and no sulfur odor)
Then softener stopped working. Should there be some gravel at the bottom of the softener or just all media ?
 

Reach4

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Most seller omit the gravel on typical home softeners. Many people think it is worthwhile but not necessary. It is expensive to ship.

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=C858-15 gives lower levels if you can insure 20 minutes of contact time. Your 3 ppm sounds pretty good to give some margin. I think 4 ppm is the max allowed in drinking water for safety. http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/disinfectants.cfm As long as the carbon can remove the chlorine, it sounds good. I have seen suggestions to change the activated carbon every 3 years, but it may last longer.
 

Daynasdad

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Another question : can the media in the softener be damaged by either
A- High levels of chlorine.
Or
B- Iron particles
I had a softener downstream of my Chlorine contact tank with nothing between it. The softener worked well for 18 months or so then stopped.
???
 

Reach4

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A- yes. 10% crosslinked resin will be damaged slower.

B- I suspect so, but I am not sure.
 

Pepper01

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Chlorine injection, contact tank, backwashing coconut activated carbon tank to filter out ferric iron/rust particles and the chlorine.

Or, no chlorine. Backwashing iron filter, maybe cartridge filter, softener.

If limited to your list, chlorine injection, iron filter, softener. But you would need to be able to control the chlorine since you would not be taking out the chlorine. That would not be such a good method.

What is ppm of iron, and what other flaws does your water have? H2S? How deep is your well? Unless it is shallow, for bacteria you could probably just sanitize your well and plumbing once per year or so.

I've been reading your discussion. It's helpful - thanks. I am a homeowner. We had a couple of problems. Existing situation was: deep well (tested no bad bacteria) into pressure tank then into oxygen/carbon filter system with new cartridge, then into 500 gallon storage tank, then pressure tank via pressure pump, then UV light. Problems: Sulfur smell increasing over last few months, and Gray gross film in storage tank (which sits idle over winter), and water hardness of 10 from Well. Solution: now Well water goes into pressure tank to new chlorine injection tank (6-1 water to chlorine solution, pump synced with storage tank float which operates the well), then to carbon filter (existing and new, but removed oxygen valve and replaced), to water softener using salt, to storage tank, to pressure tank via pressure pump, to UV light, plus drip chlorine into storage tank (10-1 water to chlorine solution synced with pressure tank pump), then also and finally for my peace of mind, a 5 micron filter just before the UV light to catch any sludge from storage tank. Result: no more sulfur smell, but, after 3 days, water in storage tank has turned dark brown with particles of brown something floating and black something further down the tank on the side surfaces. Pretty gross. I am assuming it's the result of the chlorine drip into the tank causing rust and possibly some manganese reaction? Maybe over time it will resolve once newly conditioned water replaces old water in the storage tank? Wondering if we should run the hose a while to clean out tank. Or possibly drain tank and clean. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

Reach4

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but, after 3 days, water in storage tank has turned dark brown with particles of brown something floating and black something further down the tank on the side surfaces. Pretty gross. I am assuming it's the result of the chlorine drip into the tank causing rust and possibly some manganese reaction? Maybe over time it will resolve once newly conditioned water replaces old water in the storage tank? Wondering if we should run the hose a while to clean out tank. Or possibly drain tank and clean. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Remove crud from the tank. What will that take? A scoop? A suction pump? A pool bottom cleaner? I don't know.

I would sanitize my well and plumbing. You might be able to use your storage tank for the flooding volume. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my well sanitizing write-up.
 

ditttohead

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http://watercheck.myshopify.com?aff=5 Get an updated water test. Water and wells change over time. Pool cleaners can work very well. Atmospheric tanks are often used a junk catches. Install a second bulkhead a couple feet off the bottom and draw the water for the house from there. Use the bottom bulkhead as a cleanout/drain port.

Without an updated water test we can only give you wild guesses. Sanitizing the entire system is an absolute must to get started.
 
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