Clear water after well flush, orange next day

[trailsrider]

When flushing well at pressure tank, water pumps crystal clear after 10-15 minutes (I've also flushed for 48+ hours), but within 24 hours, water will begin to look orange/ferrous again.

We had water tested after a flush and the results for iron/sediment/hardness were all ideal.

I also raised the pump at one point from 44ft to 38ft (54ft well) but that did not seem to improve anything.

My question is whether this iron is coming up from the aquifer, or is our steel well casing oxidizing enough to make our water ferrous enough that it needs to be pumped for 10 minutes/day to clear?

The interior of the casing does appear rusty above grade where I can easily see, not sure if that's enough to warrant the orange color we see for 30-50 gallons/day.

FWIW I do have a spin down, sediment, and iron filter, so this isn't affecting our plumbing much, but it is concerning that the color returns to orange so quickly after a flush.

 

[Reach4]

I would flush some more. 48 hours continuously, or 15 minutes per hour? Not sure.

Did you sanitize? https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my write-up. I am not saying sanitizing addresses what you are posting about, but while flushing stuff, consider sanitizing well and plumbing.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bannerman]

We had water tested after a flush and the results for iron/sediment/hardness were all ideal.

Post the lab report so we may view the amount of iron and other contaminants present. Water pH?

When developing a well or clearing debris, especially with a difficult to clear problem, it's usually best to maximize the flow rate from the pump, thereby increasing the flow velocity to maximize the amount of debris carried upwards to the surface.

Since the piping distance between a pump and pressure tank can be significant, and will often include additional couplers, elbows, tees, reducers and other sources of flow restriction, it is usually best to disconnect the drop pipe directly at the well head, or disconnect at the pitless adaptor, to pull the drop pipe pitless connector the short distance up to the top of the casing, to allow the pump to pump out directly onto the surface surrounding the well casing.

Ferrous iron (aka: clear water iron) remains clear as it is dissolved in the water. Ferrous iron that is oxidized, is converted to a ferric state which results in orange or brown water, and solid particles (rust). There are various methods to remove ferrous iron from well water including oxidation using air, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, ozone or potassium permanganate (pot perm), thereby allowing the resulting ferric solids to precipitate out or be filtered out using a sediment type filter. Other options include catalyzing the iron with media such as Katalox Light, installed within a backwashing filtration system. KL media also functions as a sediment filter to remove the ferric debris, allowing the debris to be regularly flushed away to drain during each backwash cycle.