Help with Katalox light and sulfur

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Jakefinley007

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Hello all I am having problems with my katalox filter. here were my last water test results water hardness 68gpg, iron 3ppm, sulfur 1-2ppm, tds 1550ppm. I have a Katalox Filter System with 10" X 54" Tank & Fleck 2510SXT and I had no issues for a year, it actually seems the sulfur went away in my well as when I would change my pre filter I no longer smelled it. where I live we have been in a drought and after a few heavy days of rain the sulfur in my water has been terrible not sure if that is a coincidence? the katalox filter doesn't even last for 5 gallons of clean water before it starts to smell again. I changed the backwash from every 3 days to 1 and still no help. Any recommendations of what I can do its been three weeks of me pretty much having no water in the house due to the terrible smell. Should I replace the media try a different media like greensand. Thank you all for the help

 

Reach4

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Have you read some of the threads about making sure you backwash your KL with enough GPM to get bed expansion? https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/katalox-backwash-how-high-lift.99907/ is one. I am thinking that a shorter but higher gpm backwash may be better.

When you say sulfur, I expect you mean H2S. Regular water tests check for sulfate, but few check for H2S. I expect you did get such a test. 2 ppm is a low number for sulfate, but high for H2S. The nose is a very sensitive detector.

If you were considering an atmospheric tank, and a pressure pump that gets water from the tank, those can be useful in venting out H2S.
 
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Jakefinley007

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yes H2S my whole house smells like rotten eggs. what would be a good way of determining my GPM wait for my next backwash or could I go to my nearest faucet and see how long it will take to fill up a 5 gal bucket and should I use both hot and cold water or just cold? thank you
 

Jakefinley007

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Thanks for the reply LLigetfa. Has any one used the sulfur eliminator here? I've been doing a lot of reading on it and see good and bad things. I've heard it causes alot of iron build up and some people say that it will ruin your well casing cause it to rust faster. is this true? Also I don't have a spigot on my well so i would have to figure that part out. But couldn't I have the filter inside and the run the 1/4 line with the mister outside to the well instead of having the whole unit outside? Seems like that would be an easier route for me
 

Reach4

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Normally people using the "sulfur eliminator" don't have a pitless adapter. You would need the tap for the sprayer at the pitless or below. Also your comment on iron seems important. That would seem to be for people with H2S but minimal iron.
 

Jakefinley007

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Unfortunately I am still having sulfur problems I have added a waterite microionizer and that seemed to help a little but I am still getting sulfur. I think my next best bet is to replace the media in my AIO filter, it is currently katalox. Should I stick with katalox or should I try a different media like greensandplus or pyrolox? I keep seeing that greensandplus is good with low tds water. currently my tds is around 500. also does greensandplus and pyrolox filter the water down to a specific micron as katalox advertises it filter down to less than 5 microns? thank you
 

Reach4

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Many under-backwash KL. If you have a tan (unpainted) tank have you shone a bright light thru during backwash to see what the bed expansion is? Pyrolox takes much more backwash gpm. I have not looked up greensand plus lately. I seem to remember it to be a more-lightly coated version of KL.
 

Jakefinley007

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just did a backwash the bed expansion was about 4 inches. I also just lowered my pressure tank back down to 40/60 today from 50/70 so the microionizer would draw in more air cause it seems to stop sucking in air at around 55 psi. not sure if that would decrease the bed expansion
 

Reach4

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It will have a small reduction. There is a DLFC flow control button, but that is not a perfect flow regulator.

Four inches is not the worst. You have what -- about 36 inches of media starting at the bottom dome? So 4 inches would be about 11% bed expansion. While I would like to see 30% or so, could be worse.

Your idea about reducing the pressure to let the micronizer suck air is good. I hope that extra oxidation helps. If you get excess air, there is a thing you can build to capture that excess air and release it.
 

Jakefinley007

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correct right around 36 inches. any way to increase the bed expansion or would I need to get a pump that could produce more GPM?

As for the excess air I am using an old water softener tank with the media removed and a air vent plumed into the brine fill port though it does not seem to release as much air as I thought it would
 

Reach4

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Look at the pressure gauge while doing the backwash. If the pressure holds the cut-in pressure, the pump is not the limiting factor.
If the pressure drops to maybe 20 or 25, then the pump would be the limiting factor.
 

Reach4

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My guess is the micronizer is the limiting factor. I guess a supplemental pressure gauge before the micronizer would tell that.
I had not considered that, and the pressure gauge would not distinguish micronizer pressure drop and the pump not being able to keep up.
 

Jakefinley007

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Before installing the micronizer I was getting about 5 inches. so I just did a backwash today and I looked at the pump the whole time. the pump kicks on at 40 psi and held 40 for about 3 minutes and the slowly went down to 30 psi by the end of the 14 min backwash
 

Reach4

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Nice. Pump is keeping up. However I think that means your pump could not support a higher backwash.
 

Jakefinley007

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what would you recommend? the last two days the sulfur smell was gone now after todays backwash it is back
 

BIGBREW

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what would you recommend? the last two days the sulfur smell was gone now after todays backwash it is back
Where are you located? This NY sulfur is a PITA. I have bad sulfur, I am in the Fonda area. I was using an AIO for my sulfur problem but the AIO was only tanking care of 80-90% of the issue. I put 7% peroxide in front of my AIO and that was a big help.
 

Jakefinley007

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so i had a guy come out yesterday to test the water and he never even tested the water all he did was try and sell me a chlorine injection system and a bunch of other stuff totaling $9000. he said a chlorine system is the only way to deal with sulfur and its solves so many other issues.

Bigbrew i am located in the rochester area
 
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