I hit a cliff this evening and I just needed a place to vent and possibly cross check what I did at this point although nothing here is going to be ground breaking to anyone. I'm at a complete loss at this point and ready to jump off a cliff. I've never felt so defeated at this point. I feel like I've spent what needed to be spent, always went above and beyond and I can't get this water under consistent control. I don't care to add up all the equipment and plumbing but it's 20K+ labor not included.
The well is a shallow well at 20' deep. "Legally" we can only position the well in one spot on the lot due to set back requirements from septic and neighbors. For sanity check after all of the below, I had an irrigation well drilled just to make sure we weren't unlucky in our first well. At 25' the same water, at 30' clay, at 40' pure salt [ocean]. A new well simply isn't an option - even though we already tried that after everything we've been through for 6+ months.
The quick notes on the water coming out of the well, although it changes day by day it seems. I've invested in prosumer/basic commercial equipment at this point to be able to test on my own nearly DAILY.
PH - 5.8-6.2
TDS - 800-1000
Iron - 15 PPM fairly consistently
Tannin - 2PPM-3PPM depending on weather conditions and what soaks into the ground
H2S - Unknown but existing
No signs of manganese
Hardness - Just about the only thing consistent at 15 grains although 6 months ago when this started it was at 6 grains.
Water Temp - high 50 to low 60 degrees
Well produces 10+ GPM consistently after the pump and through the plumbing. 1 1/4" to pump, 1" PEX A [NOT B] to Carlon Water Meter. Bucket method, meter method, and pulse counter connected to meter confirm 10+ GPM but let's say 10 on a bad day. All 1" plumbing is true 1" - no sharkbites, no nonsense etc.
Fleck 2510SXT valves w/ 1" Bypass on Katalox and Tannin
Fleck 9100SXT valve w/ 1" Bypass on Softener
Mortens Crystal Salt
H202 Injection - Stenner ECON FP 16GPD [15 Gallon Tank] - Neutra Sul 7%
Soda Ash Injection - Stenner ECON FP 30GPD [35 Gallon Tank] - 10% Mix with Purified Water
Test/Sample ports everywhere in the chain except between the water softener and tannin filter.
Well Pump -> Meter -> Johnson Inline Static Mixer [Soda Ash Injection] -> Tee for H202 Injection -> TWO 13x54 Katalox Tanks in PARALLEL with 2.5 CF of Media w/ 2510SXT -> Twin 10X54 48K Grain [96K Combined] Water Softener CN8 Media -> 13X54 ResinTech SBACR-HP Tannin Filter -> 4.5x20" Big Blue w/ Matryx CTO Cartridge -> Viqua VH410
After taking a sample today after the Katalox Filter - I was getting nearly 5PPM bleed through. It doesn't matter what the injection is set at, the results are always the same - bleed through. I've now had the H202 Injection set at a whopping 10 seconds which is the equivalent of 250+ ppm of H202 with no detectable residual of H202 after Katalox. The "by the book" dose of H202 for my iron should be 7.5-10PPM @ 7%. At the current injection rate I would be looking at 400$ in H202 per month.
Furthermore, after cranking up the soda ash injection to a full 10 seconds and dumping .42 oz of the 10% mix - no detectable change in PH after Katalox or from any faucet. Faucets producing high 5 low 6 PH consistently.
Katalox Backwash = 10 minutes - 3 mins rinse DAILY each tank. That's 250+ gallons of water each night on just Katalox
The water softener seems to be picking up the slack with the bleed through - 0 hardness and .01-.03 PPM iron bleed through. Valve is set to assume 40 grains of hardness - 15 grains for actual hardness and 5 x 5 or 25 grains for the bleed through of the iron.
The tannin filter appears to run out of steam after just a day. Salt load set to 30 pounds with day override every 3rd day.
Between the salt and the H202 - it's easily 500-600$ per month in consumables and up until I got the CTO filter - I couldn't get rid of the H2S smell in the hot water and there was a hint of smell in the cold. The CTO took care of the cold, and Corro-Protec powered rods took care of the H2S smell in the hot water [two 40 gallon tanks].
Every day - something needs to be regenerated - we go trough thousands of gallons of water per week in just regeneration cycles as well. It's completely out of control and its completely inconsistent. Yesterday the tannin filter decided to [after just 18 hours and about 300 gallons] produce yellow water. Regen fixed that quickly [not really - it's like 2 hours].
I'm at a complete loss. My garage looks like a municipal water treatment facility for a 4 bedroom home. What in the world am I missing ?!?!
I feel if I could resolve the iron everything would just fall into place. How I feel must be like a dead horse getting kicked. My 100x300 lot appears to be on a completely different planet. NONE of the 3 houses on the north, south, and west sides have an issue. Minor iron that gets handled by a 9" single tank water softener and a big blue sediment pre-filter. All wells literally within a 300' radius. Talk about getting the shaft.
The well is a shallow well at 20' deep. "Legally" we can only position the well in one spot on the lot due to set back requirements from septic and neighbors. For sanity check after all of the below, I had an irrigation well drilled just to make sure we weren't unlucky in our first well. At 25' the same water, at 30' clay, at 40' pure salt [ocean]. A new well simply isn't an option - even though we already tried that after everything we've been through for 6+ months.
The quick notes on the water coming out of the well, although it changes day by day it seems. I've invested in prosumer/basic commercial equipment at this point to be able to test on my own nearly DAILY.
PH - 5.8-6.2
TDS - 800-1000
Iron - 15 PPM fairly consistently
Tannin - 2PPM-3PPM depending on weather conditions and what soaks into the ground
H2S - Unknown but existing
No signs of manganese
Hardness - Just about the only thing consistent at 15 grains although 6 months ago when this started it was at 6 grains.
Water Temp - high 50 to low 60 degrees
Well produces 10+ GPM consistently after the pump and through the plumbing. 1 1/4" to pump, 1" PEX A [NOT B] to Carlon Water Meter. Bucket method, meter method, and pulse counter connected to meter confirm 10+ GPM but let's say 10 on a bad day. All 1" plumbing is true 1" - no sharkbites, no nonsense etc.
Fleck 2510SXT valves w/ 1" Bypass on Katalox and Tannin
Fleck 9100SXT valve w/ 1" Bypass on Softener
Mortens Crystal Salt
H202 Injection - Stenner ECON FP 16GPD [15 Gallon Tank] - Neutra Sul 7%
Soda Ash Injection - Stenner ECON FP 30GPD [35 Gallon Tank] - 10% Mix with Purified Water
Test/Sample ports everywhere in the chain except between the water softener and tannin filter.
Well Pump -> Meter -> Johnson Inline Static Mixer [Soda Ash Injection] -> Tee for H202 Injection -> TWO 13x54 Katalox Tanks in PARALLEL with 2.5 CF of Media w/ 2510SXT -> Twin 10X54 48K Grain [96K Combined] Water Softener CN8 Media -> 13X54 ResinTech SBACR-HP Tannin Filter -> 4.5x20" Big Blue w/ Matryx CTO Cartridge -> Viqua VH410
After taking a sample today after the Katalox Filter - I was getting nearly 5PPM bleed through. It doesn't matter what the injection is set at, the results are always the same - bleed through. I've now had the H202 Injection set at a whopping 10 seconds which is the equivalent of 250+ ppm of H202 with no detectable residual of H202 after Katalox. The "by the book" dose of H202 for my iron should be 7.5-10PPM @ 7%. At the current injection rate I would be looking at 400$ in H202 per month.
Furthermore, after cranking up the soda ash injection to a full 10 seconds and dumping .42 oz of the 10% mix - no detectable change in PH after Katalox or from any faucet. Faucets producing high 5 low 6 PH consistently.
Katalox Backwash = 10 minutes - 3 mins rinse DAILY each tank. That's 250+ gallons of water each night on just Katalox
The water softener seems to be picking up the slack with the bleed through - 0 hardness and .01-.03 PPM iron bleed through. Valve is set to assume 40 grains of hardness - 15 grains for actual hardness and 5 x 5 or 25 grains for the bleed through of the iron.
The tannin filter appears to run out of steam after just a day. Salt load set to 30 pounds with day override every 3rd day.
Between the salt and the H202 - it's easily 500-600$ per month in consumables and up until I got the CTO filter - I couldn't get rid of the H2S smell in the hot water and there was a hint of smell in the cold. The CTO took care of the cold, and Corro-Protec powered rods took care of the H2S smell in the hot water [two 40 gallon tanks].
Every day - something needs to be regenerated - we go trough thousands of gallons of water per week in just regeneration cycles as well. It's completely out of control and its completely inconsistent. Yesterday the tannin filter decided to [after just 18 hours and about 300 gallons] produce yellow water. Regen fixed that quickly [not really - it's like 2 hours].
I'm at a complete loss. My garage looks like a municipal water treatment facility for a 4 bedroom home. What in the world am I missing ?!?!
I feel if I could resolve the iron everything would just fall into place. How I feel must be like a dead horse getting kicked. My 100x300 lot appears to be on a completely different planet. NONE of the 3 houses on the north, south, and west sides have an issue. Minor iron that gets handled by a 9" single tank water softener and a big blue sediment pre-filter. All wells literally within a 300' radius. Talk about getting the shaft.
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