Full test results - Your advice please

[CaptainJK]

Hi all,
I'd be grateful for your advice. My full NTL tests are attached.

Current water system: ~400 ft well, 20 year old home with 1" copper piping, cartridge-style sediment filter is only "treatment"

Current water observations: Our water is clear and tastes very good. (I am somewhat concerned about degrading the taste of our water with whatever treatment we install.) Our main issues are related to hardness - glass spotting, difficulty getting soap to suds-up, etc. Our secondary issue is iron-colored sediment in toilet tanks. I originally thought that this was typical sediment, but I now wonder if it is caused by the iron bacteria. The "sediment" isn't bad which may be because my iron levels look low on the lab tests.

In addition to a softener, do you think I should treat my marginally low pH? My water pressure is currently good, but not great, so I'd like to minimize any additional drop in pressure from a treatment system.

Thank you for your help.

John

 

[ditttohead]

For your application I would start with a complete well and plumbing sanitization. Here is an article on sanitizing your plumbing. https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/282-283 There are several posts on well sanitizing in this forum that I am sure someone will post shortly.

If this gets rid of the bacterial issue then a simple softener is likely all that would be needed. The softener can easily handle trace levels of iron. Especially with the slightly low pH. Your high tds and other water parameters will likely show your LSI well within the acceptable range but I have not run the numbers, https://www.lenntech.com/calculators/langelier/index/langelier.htm

 

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[Reach4]

There are several posts on well sanitizing in this forum that I am sure someone will post shortly.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/

It is aimed primarily at bottom feeding wells, especially where pellets are not used. The pH emphasis would apply to all wells. Your 6.7 pH makes adding acid (white vinegar usually) less important for your well than for my 7.8 pH, but getting it down to 5.5 would make the chlorine a lot more active against the bacteria.

I was surprised at the IRB (iron bacteria) test with 140,000 cfu/mL. . Most people don't test for that. I don't know how to use the CFU number, but that seems high. I was also surprised at the iron levels below test detection sensitivity that went along with it. Does that mean the bacteria have sequestered the iron so the test does not see it? I think so.

 

[CaptainJK]

I do plan to perform a well/plumbing sanitization at a point in the near future where we can avoid using water for a couple of days. Hopefully it will eliminate the IRB issue and eliminate the need for a chlorine treatment system.

If I calculated the LSI correctly, I believe my LSI is about negative 1.4. Does this warrant treatment beyond the softener? If so, is the recommended approach a calcite neutralizer tank to bring the pH up?

Thanks very much for your help!
John

 

[ditttohead]

There are a lot of variables to LSI, it is not totally definitive but rather algorithmic based guesstimates.

Do you have copper plumbing and do you get any green/blue staining ion any of your porcelain sinks?

 

[CaptainJK]

Do you have copper plumbing and do you get any green/blue staining ion any of your porcelain sinks?

We do have copper piping, but do not get blue/green staining.

I read somewhere that with over 20 GPG of hardness and 1" pumbing that I should install a water softener with 2 cubic feet of resin. Given that I may need to install an acid neutralizer tank which I understand raises the hardness further, does 2 cu. ft. sound right?

Thanks very much!
John

 

[ditttohead]

It would be a good idea to increase the softener tank size to accommodate the pH neutralizer. Larger softener tanks are not a problem for most residential applications. In our extensive testing tank sizes up to 16" diameter are acceptable for most applications. Some may disagree but with our extensive testing of tens of thousands of units over the years... 14" is my preferred maximum tank diameter for regular residential applications. Sometimes due to capacity or special applications the larger tanks make sense.

For your application 1 13" diameter tank is fine.

 

[CaptainJK]

With the great help here and from other reading, I'm currently considering the following setup. I would very much appreciate your input. Putting aside the hardness added by the AN, I have about 54,000 grains of hardness to remove per week. My pH is 6.7 and I have no iron. My measured well flow rate is 11.7 GPM.

Sediment pre-filter:
Rusco 60 spindown (~250 micron)

Acid Neutralizer:
2.0 cu ft calcite downflow in either a 12 inch or 13 inch dome port tank using a Fleck 5810 SXT head. I measured my well flow rate based upon the pressure tank cycle volume and time to be 11.7 GPM. Is the recommended backwash flow rate based solely on the amount of calcite or is it also based upon the diameter of the tank? I'm considering the 13 inch tank just so I have the flexibility of going up to 2.5 cu ft of calcite in the future if needed.

Softener:
3 cu ft. of resin in a 14x65 tank also with a Fleck 5810 SXT head.

I'm a bit confused about where to run my drains from the softener and the neutralizer. The only option I believe I have close by is my basement sump, but I've read that most pumps aren't made with withstand the salt water. My sump pump sends the water up a PVC pipe which exits the house near the basement ceiling and then goes immediately underground outside. A picture of this white PVC pipe is attached. Is there an acceptable way to tie the control valve drains directly into this pipe? If I could, then I wouldn't need to worry about the sump pump discharging the regen water. There is a check valve immediately above the pump.

Thanks for all of your help!
John

 

[Reach4]

My sump pump sends the water up a PVC pipe which exits the house near the basement ceiling and then goes immediately underground outside. A picture of this white PVC pipe is attached. Is there an acceptable way to tie the control valve drains directly into this pipe? If I could, then I wouldn't need to worry about the sump pump discharging the regen water. There is a check valve immediately above the pump.

I think if if you put a check valve into the drain line, and teed into the white pipe that would work. You could tee the two controller drains together before the new check valve. Not totally "acceptable" maybe. For fully acceptable, you would need an air gap, and the sump pump discharge would probably send water out of the air gap when it pressurizes the white pipe.