Help needed! Finalizing my water softener/treatment system

[reggiedunlop]

New member here but have been lurking anonymously for some time in the forums reading quite a few posts...so much useful information on this site. Thanks to all of the folks that take time to answer questions and share knowledge. I hope that I can give back some day too once I become more informed.

Some specifics about my situation...I purchased my house in CT about 8 years ago and inherited a whole house water treatment system that was already in place. The house is 2700sf and we are a family of 4 with average to above average water consumption. The existing set up is as follows: 250' well (3/4 hp pump, approx 10gpm, set at 150') --> 62 gal pressure tank (40/60 cut in/out) --> 10x54 calcite/corosex (3:1) with a Fleck valve --> 10x54 carbon filter straight thru no valve -->12x52 Pyrolox with Fleck valve --> 32000 grain softener with unknown media and Fleck valve --> 1" copper service line to house. Note: all 1" copper between tanks with lots of ball valves, spigots and 90 elbows.

The system was installed and maintained by a local dealer that has since gone out of business. The primary reason for the system was to correct low pH and the previous owner was freaked out by the level of manganese in the water (only about 0.22mg/L). There is also a low-level of radon in the water.

We have been suffering from terrible water pressure since we purchased the house that has only continued to get worse. It was never great to begin with, even when the system was well-maintained. The system has recently become unusable. If a toilet is flushed, the shower slows to barely a drip. Water trickles out of many of the faucets, the garden hose is unusable, etc.

I have already replaced the pressure tank with an Amtrol WX-255 81 gallon just last week. The previous tank was definitely waterlogged when I removed it. However that did not remedy the problem. So I've decided to remove the treatment system all together and start over from scratch. Everything else has now been cut away and the water pressure in the house is amazing.

But I do need to correct a few things so will need to refresh some of the components and add them back in.

Here are the results of my water test as performed by Aquatek Labs:
Bacteria.....all negative
pH.....5.9
Turbidity.....1.10 NTU
Chloride.....27 mg/L
Sulfate.....23 mg/L
Calcium.....16 mg/L
Magnesium.....3 mg/L
Hardness.....53 mg/L
Sodium.....10.8 mg/L
Copper.....0.04 mg/L
Iron.....0.34 mg/L
Manganese.....0.22 mg/L

This is what I am thinking for my new system: well --> pressure tank --> in line 10" 'big blue type' sediment filter --> 10x54 Calcite/Corosex (3:1) --> 10x54 64,000 grain softener with ResinTech CG8-NA --> 10x54 AquaSorb CS Activated Carbon. I really want to keep this as simple as possible. I also feel like the Pyrolox tank was unnecessary given the values above. So I want to remove that all together.

A couple of observations when removing the old system...the pipes between each of the components were half-filled with a reddish fine grit "mud". The mud looks nothing like any of the medias in the tanks so probably not displaced media. I also found trace amounts of the same mud in the PE water source line pre-pressure tank. Also the 10x54 straight thru carbon tank was completely filled with the same reddish mud almost to the top. That tank hadn't been serviced in about 6 years. I'm pretty sure that was the bulk of the low water pressure culprit.

So, based on the description above, does the proposed system seem reasonable? Are there any other suggestions or better ways to do this? Does the carbon tank need to be backwashed? If so, I was thinking of picking up one more Fleck valve or trying to repurpose the old valve from the Pyrolox tank that I plan to remove anyway.

Thanks!

 

[ditttohead]

Hard to say, it really depends on what the "mud" is. The Pyrolox system should have been getting about 20 GPM backwash rates to function properly, it is unlikely that your system would be able to do that. Most of the older Fleck valves that were commonly used did not have this much backwash capability and since your well is only producing 10 GPM... it is unlikely the Pyrolox was ever getting backwashed adequately.

You may want to start with a simple 2 or 3 stage 4.5" x 20" high quality filter system to see if that takes care of the mud issue. If it is not oxidized iron and/or manganese then you may be successful with a simple BB setup with staged filtration. Start with a simple 5 micron then go to a 1 micron filter to see if that takes care of it. I would avoid the cheap no name brands of BB filters, stick with Pentek or Atlas Filtri or something of similar quality. Most of the ones sold online are simply the lowest cost company from the lowest bidder, avoid these. The rest of your equipment sounds reasonable.