Bad Water - Please Help!

[Trey Bauer]

Hello! My name is Trey Bauer and I bought a house a couple months ago in Fort Worth, TX that has a water well. I knew absolutely nothing about well water until we bought this house and still know very little - so any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

During the inspection period, we noticed hydrogen sulfide (the rotten egg smell) in our water. I had the water tested for bacteria and it came back positive for Total Coliform. After disinfecting the well, I took two water samples to be tested and one came back positive for Total Coliform and one negative. 13 days after these tests, I took four samples to be tested - Two each of hot and cold water and each being taken immediately when the water was turned on and then another after letting it run for a couple minutes. All tests came back negative for Total Coliform. The rotten egg smell went away, but last night we started smelling it again from both the hot and cold water. I also opened the spout before it goes through the filter and softner (GE) and it was a lot stronger odor. I took two samples today to the Health Department to be tested and will have the results tomorrow.

I also had a water chemistry analysis done and have attached the results.

We also have an iron problem. Our softner, when we first moved in ran out of salt and our toilets immediately turned orange. It has also stained a bunch of our clothes. After adding the salt, the metal smell went away and the toilets did not stain again. A week ago, I started noticing the metal smell again and readjusted the salt level on the softner and the smell has weakened since then.

If at all possible, could someone please give their opinion on the best way to get quality water. I am not sure if I need to get a carbon filter, green sand filter, UV Light, or just have a new well drilled.

I am also not sure how deep my well is since it was probably drilled in 1977, but I pulled a report on a nearby well and the water static level is 142' below the surface. There is a deeper formation (Tarrant), but it is expensive to drill to it.

I tried to be detailed, but please let me know if any more information is needed. Thank you for your time.

Trey Bauer

 

[Reach4]

At 1.1 iron ppm, you should get a really good result with a good backwashing iron+sulfur filter. My iron+sulfur filter uses Centaur Carbon catalytic carbon (very different from activated carbon), and it is nicely effective. However there is newer greater stuff available now. I suggest you search for Katalox Light in the search box above to see some past discussions. Expensive, yes. Very worthwhile. You could get a chlorinator and a backwashing activated carbon filter instead, but a backwashing Katalox Light filter would probably give a superior result with less maintenance and pieces.

If your sanitizing seems inadequate at some point, I like the method in http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing

If you want another water test at some point and you can wait a couple of weeks round trip, I would consider Test60 from http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Trey Bauer]

Reach4, thank you so much for writing! I really appreciate it. I had never heard of the Katalox Light Filter until now and it seems to be exactly what I need.

I also appreciate the disinfection link. This is much more detailed than the instructions I received from the health department.

 

[PumpMd]

For your iron problem & the smell, two different systems.

http://www.water-right.com/residential/wholeHouseFiltration/impressionIronSulfur.php

PDF]Micronizer Spec Sheet WM107 - Wellmate