Air in water after new iron AIO system installed

[HealthfullyHeidi]

We're on a well, had an old chlorination system and softener replaced with a new AIO iron/sulfur filter w/Katalox lite media with a Clack valve installed. Had the existing softener rebedded. Also added a peroxide system to kill bacteria. The new system works great at softening the water and removing iron, sulfur, and bacteria. The "problem" is that we now have those micro air bubbles throughout the entire house.

Small caveat: Upon initial install, we had an ozone system installed, not a peroxide system. We noticed the bubbles and told our guy about it. He suspected that the ozone wasn't working properly so he took it off to take it back to test it. In the meantime, I believe the air bubbles went away, but I can't remember 100%. We opted to change to a peroxide system so we could manually increase/decrease sanitation as necessary. Sulfur bacteria was a problem for us. Once the peroxide system was installed, air bubbles came back.

Installation company is baffled, said their parts vendor said it "just happens sometimes with the AIO's" but he's never seen it remain consistent like ours is. The AIO regens every night. Cycles are set at: 20 sec backwash air, 10 min backwash, 60 min draw down. The softener regens every 3-5 days (I can't remember which). We've tried changing the draw down time to 30 min, no change. Tried changing the backwash to 60 sec, no change. We also thought it might be the peroxide system but I've done a manual regen of both tanks with the peroxide off and no change. I know it's not hurting anything to have those micro air bubbles in the water but it just looks funny. It's worst at the sink closest to the system. Water comes out stark white and takes a few minutes to fully clear up.

What can be done to fix this? Everything I've read said to reduce the draw down time but that didn't work. HELP!

 

[Beets]

I am not a water professional, but was considering AIO for my personal use and I read every document I could find on this website related to AIO. Dissolved air is a common complaint of AIO.

There are many other threads you read, but here is one thread where ditttohead offers a minor solution:

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/air-injection-iron-filter-causes-sputtering-from-faucet.87549/#post-628107

Ditttohead and bannerman have many good posts on AIO.

Typically folks will install AIO OR a system that injects chemicals. Either system can handle H2S/iron independent of the other. I suspect the AIO is causing the milky water. You might be able to disable it completely. Hopefully one of the smarter folks will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any of the smarter folks contributing to your post yet. You may want to include a water analysis if you have one as they are more reluctant to comment without complete information.

There is one other thing you said that I would challenge. Hydrogen peroxide is a poor disinfectant in my experience. You can read about my experience here:
https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/any-guesses-on-what-bacteria-i-have.98953/

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

AIO, AIO3, ozone injection, micronizers etc all create potential air problems in water. This is common and to be expected. Some water supplies are worse than others but we train our dealers to fully explain the potential for this problem to occur. No real good solutions for removing the milky water. In general we do not use h2o2 for disinfection...

 

[iblackihiawk]

AIO, AIO3, ozone injection, micronizers etc all create potential air problems in water. This is common and to be expected. Some water supplies are worse than others but we train our dealers to fully explain the potential for this problem to occur. No real good solutions for removing the milky water. In general we do not use h2o2 for disinfection...

I was going to ask in my thread but I also have this issue.

Is there anything wrong with the air bubbles? Typically when I fill a glass (even out of my 5 stage RO system) there are bubbles (small) that dissipate within idk 10-15 seconds however the water is very "cloudy" before this.

It smells/tastes fine and as long as it is safe I don't have issues with the water not being "perfectly clear" I just want to make sure there's nothing "wrong" with this.

Thanks.

 

[Cowdogs]

I was going to ask in my thread but I also have this issue.

Is there anything wrong with the air bubbles? Typically when I fill a glass (even out of my 5 stage RO system) there are bubbles (small) that dissipate within idk 10-15 seconds however the water is very "cloudy" before this.

It smells/tastes fine and as long as it is safe I don't have issues with the water not being "perfectly clear" I just want to make sure there's nothing "wrong" with this.

Thanks.

I too have the micro bubbles with my AIO system. I've grown to like them. The water turns clear if you let the bubble rise to the surface. Another poster here on Terry Love says seeing the bubbles is good thing as it lets you know your system is working as designed.

When we have guests, I do a demo to show them the cloudy water they see is just air bubbles, and will clear up in less than a minute.

 

[ditttohead]

Agreed, totally normal and expected, good idea to show guests or they may be a bit surprised when they see it the first time.

 

[WorthFlorida]

This brings back memories. As a kid (1950-60's), most of my relatives lived in Brooklyn. When visiting some relatives and you filled a cold glass of water from the faucet (and it was cold), it was cloudy with air bubbles. As an eight year old it was neat to watch it as bubbles dissipated from the bottom up. I alway assumed it was the filtering process by the NYC water department. Completely harmless. When you change the filter for the refrigerator, you'll see the same until all the air is purged from the carbon filter.

 

[LLigetfa]

Typically when I fill a glass (even out of my 5 stage RO system) there are bubbles (small) that dissipate within idk 10-15 seconds however the water is very "cloudy" before this.

We never drink water straight from the RO tap but rather put it in a decanter that goes in the fridge.