Advice on iron removal and water treatment

[Nick Bethard]

Hi guys,

We just moved into a home with well water. We noticed a sulfer smell periodically and also noticed that the toilets get a film built up relatively fast. Back when it was warm, we brought a jug of water to an event for the kids to play with (water toys...) and the remark was made that it looked like creek water.....

The house has a water softener that seems to be functioning fine (although I need to check and see if the backwash setting needs adjustment). I just got the water test results back and it seems we need some iron removal. Based on some looking I did (some here), it seems a Katalox light system might be in order.

I need to check my well pump's flow rate yet, but I can do that later and adjust the specific amount/size of filtration as necessary, but I'm pretty certain that our well's flow rate is pretty high.

The house also has a sterilizer light, but it needs a new bulb as the one in it is ancient.

Water test results:
Nitrate/Nitrite - <0.10 (below detection threshold of the test)
Sulfer - <1.8 (below detection threshold of the test)
Hardness - 340 mg/L
Iron - 2 mg/L
pH - 7.33
TDS - 509.6 mg/L

They also tested after the softener as a courtesy:
Hardness - 0 mg/L
Iron - <1 mg/L
pH - 7.48
TDS - 526.3 mg/L

Also, coliform test results were OK (nothing found).

I'm open to any and all sugfestions. Thanks for your help and expertise!


Nick

 

[Reach4]

For little money, you could start with cleaning your softener. Iron Out is good for cleaning. Some mix it with the salt so it helps clean the iron off of the resin during backwash too. Try searching this forum for "iron out" with the quotes. Look at the older posts especially. Others add citric acid to the salt; it smells better.

Get a Hach 5-B to see if there is hardness leakage before the regenerations.

On the H2S smell, is that mostly on the hot water?

I would also sanitize my well and plumbing. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my writeup for bottom feeding deep wells.

This is not to say that a new KL tank before the softener would not be worthwhile. It would take a lot a of load off of the softener.

 

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[Nick Bethard]

Sulfer smell is cold and hot. Not related to the water heater...when it happens its both sides. When it doesn't stink, neither side stinks.

I'll look at the sanitizing post later and see what I can do. It sounds like a good idea.

I have no issue spending money...just want it to be right. I'm planning on also putting in pre-filters to make sure no sediment is getting into the system and also probably a carbon filter too.

 

[Nick Bethard]

Flow rate of my well pump seems to be right around 7.5 gpm. I'm thinking for our main house, size everything for 10 gpm just so I have a little headroom. For the guest house, there's only one full bathroom, no washer/dryer, no dishwasher, so I'm thinking 5 gpm is just fine.

See attached for a drawing I did of what I'm thinking based on the research I've done and my (inadequate) knowledge. Let me know what you guys think as far as where I'm planning wrong or should make adjustments.

 

[Nick Bethard]

Hopefully someone can comment on my plan.

My wife had a simple idea to clean things up quite a bit...just run a line from the main house to the guest house. It'll be cheaper than buying all that extra gear and there's less to maintain this way. Take a look at my adjusted drawing, thanks!

 

[Reach4]

I would not put such a fine filter before the KL. The KL serves as a filter anyway. They say 5 microns, but maybe that is an exaggeration. I would put the fine filter after the KL. That would only catch what the KL filter missed, and would catch any KL particles that came thru.

The KL will be before the softener. You put those two in the same box, so was ambiguous.

I would put at last a boiler drain valve before the softener. Let you fill your drinking water bottle with unsoftened water, or use that water to water houseplants. That also can accept a GHT pressure gauge.

You would want to be able to put a pressure gauge on both sides of the cartridge filter, and it is best to be able to bypass that filter.

I would have the fine filter, if used, after the softener. Fine filters and carbon block filters add backpressure.

Maybe put a spring loaded check valve in the line to the guest house to prevent any possible backfeed.

An unusual idea (to me) I have is to feed the guest house cistern via a pressure relief valve set to maybe 38 or 45 or 50 PSI on a 40/60 system . That prevents the cistern from taking water from the main house if the load at the main house is unusually high at some point. I don't know what valve I would use. I think I would want it to be able to take a fair amount of flow to minimize well pump cycling.

Your fine filtering actually seems like considerable overkill. The RO unit would have filters anyway.

My comments are not based on experience.

 

[Nick Bethard]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll be sure to plan bypasses in everywhere so stuff can be maintained. Also, the check valve to the guest house plumbing is a good idea for sure.

My thought with the first 'sediment' filter was just that...have a pre-filter before everything to keep 'junk' from getting into the system. It sounds like 5 micron is overkill for that...I was originally going to go with 20 or 50 micron for that, but the flow rating for the 4.5"x10" filters is 15 gpm regardless if its 5/20/50 micron, although I didn't consider pressure drop/back pressure.

Sorry for any ambiguity on the KL, my plan was to have it right after the sediment filter, then have the carbon block filters (I had read somewhere it was recommended to have output of a KL system go through carbon) and fine filter, then go into the softener, then sterilizer. Something else I didn't illustrate in my drawing was that all the hose bibs will be tee'd off prior to the first filter...no need for plants to get water that's been filtered at all (although I have a separate hose bib after the softener that feeds into a DI resin tank for washing cars).

I don't know that I understand the pressure relief valve idea...maybe you can expand on it? The tank in the guest house isn't a cistern...its the pressure tank from the well. The current system has the pressure tank and switch over there already, although with a MUCH smaller pressure tank (15 gallon I think). Space in the main house basement is very limited, so I want to keep the large upgraded pressure tank in the guest house. Because of the configuration, the line from between the tee at the top of my drawing and the pressure/holding tank has to be two way...normally the main house is pulling water from it, but when the pump is on, the pump is pushing water to it. Hopefully that makes sense.

Also, the current pressure switch is set as 40/70. I'm guessing they did that to reduce pump cycling with the tiny pressure tank. That results in noticeable pressure differences between cutoff and cut-on, so I'm going to change it to 50/70.

 

[Reach4]

My thought with the first 'sediment' filter was just that...have a pre-filter before everything to keep 'junk' from getting into the system. It sounds like 5 micron is overkill for that...I was originally going to go with 20 or 50 micron for that, but the flow rating for the 4.5"x10" filters is 15 gpm regardless if its 5/20/50 micron, although I didn't consider pressure drop/back pressure.

I put my backwashing iron+H2S filter first. But if I had significant sand etc, I might screen that out first with a 100 micron screen filter for example. I would not put a 20 micron filter there.

Sorry for any ambiguity on the KL, my plan was to have it right after the sediment filter, then have the carbon block filters (I had read somewhere it was recommended to have output of a KL system go through carbon) and fine filter, then go into the softener, then sterilizer.

I think usually for a deep well, no sterilizer is needed. Sanitizing the well and plumbing should make things good.

Others may think otherwise.

I don't know that I understand the pressure relief valve idea...maybe you can expand on it? The tank in the guest house isn't a cistern...its the pressure tank from the well. The current system has the pressure tank and switch over there already, although with a MUCH smaller pressure tank (15 gallon I think). Space in the main house basement is very limited, so I want to keep the large upgraded pressure tank in the guest house. Because of the configuration, the line from between the tee at the top of my drawing and the pressure/holding tank has to be two way...normally the main house is pulling water from it, but when the pump is on, the pump is pushing water to it. Hopefully that makes sense.

I misunderstood. In that case, you may want to make the pipe between houses big enough, and put the only pressure tank and pressure switch there. Big enough might be 1 inch or 1.25 inch.