SuperGreg
Member
Hey all, so last year I completely rebuilt my entire filtration system. Due to the presence of iron bacteria, clean water store recommended chlorine injection, which would also help oxidize the iron present. Despite the fact that I'm told on this forum that only mechanical filtration is needed when chlorinating iron, they still sold me an iron filter which I guess is good because now I can use it without chlorine.
I have tested my water post install and chlorate was right at the max threshold, so I was slightly concerned about that. Also I have not been able to find NSF rated chlorine despite people saying it is available. That and the hassle involved in refilling the tank every 1-2 months made me decide to just stop using the chlorine injection for now.
My questions:
- With no chlorination happening, should I leave the carbon filter in place? Is there any issue with it being hooked up and not seeing any chlorine? Clean water store had mentioned that it would be best for some chlorine to make it to the carbon filter for the sake of the filter itself but I'm not sure why.
- What should I look for or keep an eye on in the system to see if iron bacteria is causing a problem?
- My well water is *extremely* high in silt/sediment. I'm thinking the contact tank is still going to help settle some of this out, and I regularly flush the system out with a hose bib at the bottom of the tank.
I'm curious though - To flush the system I run a hose out the back door from this hose bib and run it until the water is clean. While chlorinating, I would get a blast of dirty water then it would run clean about 5 seconds later. After stopping chlorination, I get dirty water for several minutes or more.
Also, my spin-down filter never really had anything collect in it while chlorinating, but now it slowly builds up sediment at the bottom.
My question is, why would that be? What is happening to this silt during chlorination? Is this expected?
For reference here is my system design:
I have tested my water post install and chlorate was right at the max threshold, so I was slightly concerned about that. Also I have not been able to find NSF rated chlorine despite people saying it is available. That and the hassle involved in refilling the tank every 1-2 months made me decide to just stop using the chlorine injection for now.
My questions:
- With no chlorination happening, should I leave the carbon filter in place? Is there any issue with it being hooked up and not seeing any chlorine? Clean water store had mentioned that it would be best for some chlorine to make it to the carbon filter for the sake of the filter itself but I'm not sure why.
- What should I look for or keep an eye on in the system to see if iron bacteria is causing a problem?
- My well water is *extremely* high in silt/sediment. I'm thinking the contact tank is still going to help settle some of this out, and I regularly flush the system out with a hose bib at the bottom of the tank.
I'm curious though - To flush the system I run a hose out the back door from this hose bib and run it until the water is clean. While chlorinating, I would get a blast of dirty water then it would run clean about 5 seconds later. After stopping chlorination, I get dirty water for several minutes or more.
Also, my spin-down filter never really had anything collect in it while chlorinating, but now it slowly builds up sediment at the bottom.
My question is, why would that be? What is happening to this silt during chlorination? Is this expected?
For reference here is my system design: