Pink water

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Wanted to get some possible opinions on a one time problem I've never been able to figure out. When I worked for a previous employer, I had a customer that had pink water. Bright pink in fact. It was a cabin in some remote woods she rented as a BNB. she had no iron, no manganese, no odor, and almost no hardness (also no permangenate), yet her water was noticably bright pink. The company tried to treat it with H2O2 injection to no effect. I've seen toilets and the occasional shower that get a pink residue, so I did some research and found out it's caused by a bacteria known as Serratia marcescens. it's an airborne bacteria that thrives in damp environments with little to no ventilation. apparently soap scum is another factor to it's production. The only thing I could figure is maybe air was being introduced in the well causing the bacteria? It bugs me I was never able to get a conclusive answer.
 
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ditttohead

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We have seen pink water rarely, usually biologic. Try bleach, not h2o2. In general H2o2 dosing must be a lot higher for bacterial issues compared to bleach. If the pink clears up or turns white, then try a simple sub micron filtration to remove. Many of our better customers have a pilot test kit that we build for them A simple pump and a bag of different filters so they can take the water, run it through a small filter at a low flow rate to simulate a whole house filter application and test the results. Popular pilot test filters include softening resin, clinoptilolite, Kstalox Light, Filter Ox, eco-mix, carbon, bone char, and some simple sub micron filters. A little experimentation is cheap and will usually help you resolve some fairly complex water issues.
 

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We have seen pink water rarely, usually biologic. Try bleach, not h2o2. In general H2o2 dosing must be a lot higher for bacterial issues compared to bleach. If the pink clears up or turns white, then try a simple sub micron filtration to remove. Many of our better customers have a pilot test kit that we build for them A simple pump and a bag of different filters so they can take the water, run it through a small filter at a low flow rate to simulate a whole house filter application and test the results. Popular pilot test filters include softening resin, clinoptilolite, Kstalox Light, Filter Ox, eco-mix, carbon, bone char, and some simple sub micron filters. A little experimentation is cheap and will usually help you resolve some fairly complex water issues.
Great. Thanks for the feedback. I was on the fence between some rare mineral or a biologic. I think you may be correct in that it's some form of biologic. I'll try the CL + filtration if I ever see it again. Do you think it would require retention or would be a mixer suffice? isn't a biologic killed on contact?
 

ditttohead

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Biologics typically require contact time. Bleach can also be used for reduction of color... literally bleaching the contaminants. I have seen many successful uses of chlorine for decoloring, but what they are really doing is changing the color from oranges/browns to white... white does not show up in water, it appears clear.
 

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Biologics typically require contact time. Bleach can also be used for reduction of color... literally bleaching the contaminants. I have seen many successful uses of chlorine for decoloring, but what they are really doing is changing the color from oranges/browns to white... white does not show up in water, it appears clear.
Great. thank you. Honestly I hope to never see pink water again but, if I do, I'll be more informed.
 
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