Iron Bacteria (IRB) in an old well. Plan on using Pentair/fleck 5812 valves

[Tony Caciolo]

Hello,
I am a custom home and pool builder in PA and we are seeing more and more house with iron bacteria problems, including the home I am getting ready to build for myself. There is an old 35 gpm 100' deep well on the property (that was an old iron ore mine) so I'd expect a lot of iron in the water. The water on this property stained the toilets and had typical iron problems, so we put in a temporary birm filter until the new house is finished, which is what I need some help designing the system for. The birm filter cleared up the staining, but we still have some iron bacteria (and we did a chlorine shock on the well.) The test was performed on water before the filter:

Lab test results (if not shown, it is 0)
IRB iron related bacteria - present and water still has a slight sulfur smell even after the birm filter
calcium 57.45 mg/L
copper .014 mg/L
magnesium 40.5 mg/L
Manganese .03 mg/L
Ferrous iron and Iron - Not detected (when we first tested the water locally, we got a reading of 1, which is why
we put the temporary birm filter on, which has helped
Potassium .77 mg/L
Alkalnity 200 mg/L
Total Carbonate 36 mg/L
Total Hardness (CACO3) 60
Total hardness grains 3.5
pH 7.08 (might have dropped a little due to transport time since sample was shipped)
Sulfate 90 mg/L
TDS 335

Summary:
Since I am a pool builder, I use all Pentair pool equipment. They make Fleck valves so I'll be using the 5812 app connected valves (since they tie into our pool apps) for remote monitoring. The question is, I don't love the feel of traditional soft water, so I'd love to avoid a salt based softener. But I need to address the Iron Bacteria (and I do think the first test showing some iron can't be ignored.)

Katalox? Ozone? Traditional softener? Alternative scale reduction like FILTERSORB® SP3 (NAC)?
I really don't want to use chlorine. And I am not sure of the best way to introduce ozone. Just to be safe (even though no bacteria was detected, I will have a high flow 35 gpm UV light and a particle filter capable of high flow.

Finally - I do want to keep a high flow rate which is why we are using 1 1/4" fleck valves. Between sprinklers, pool, my wife's absurdly high gpm showers...etc, I'd like to design the system for at least 20gpm.

thanks and sorry for the book!

I know just enough to be dangerous...so I'd love some advice to a newbie!

thanks
tony c

 

[Reach4]

Ferrous iron and Iron - Not detected (when we first tested the water locally, we got a reading of 1, which is why
we put the temporary birm filter on, which has helped

This number is suspect.

Did your try at sanitizing with chlorine bleach help for a while? https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ should help longer against H2S and maybe even IRB.

Some form of iron filter other than BIRM will do better on iron and H2S, but injecting H2O2, then a big contact tank, . 5812 will give plenty of backwash flow. However 20 gpm of flow is a bunch. The 5812XTR2 on the softener can measure the flow, and send a signal to the H2O2 pump according to the flow. The BIRM can be a backwashing filter that mostly mechanically removes the oxidized stuff.

You will want a 5 micron cartridge filter just before the UV.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Tony Caciolo]

We did sanitize and it helped for a while. As of now, the water usage is minimal since I just have a small office in the barn on the property. So the water in the well is not flowing much at all. Our local lab that tested the water originally found iron in the water (think the level was 1). I am also going to get a plate count for the iron bacteria. Birm is just a temp filter until the house is built. I want to get it planned out now, especially since some of our building material products have a 6 month lead time!

 

[Reach4]

I am also going to get a plate count for the iron bacteria.

I would not know what to do with such a number.

 

[ditttohead]

Birm should not be used with H2s. A simple BB filter to reduce junk, high dose UV, then a softener may be a simple solution. Your water is not that bad.

 

[Tony Caciolo]

thanks for keeping it simple!! great advice.