EDIT: the recirc of solution succeeded, but the effect on the media was not effective.. The treating of the Centaur Carbon to rejuvenate did not work as I hoped. I may use this technique to treat the softener and piping leading in, but the Centaur carbon kinda broke up some with the Iron Out followed by chlorine a few times.
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Synopsis:
I used a utility pump to circulate an Iron Out solution thru my media. I then circulated a bleach solution through the media. This was an attempt to rejuvenate the media. Initial indications are good.
In addition to the reconditioning, I did the WH flush and pressure tank flush. Those should be annual. I expect the media reconditioning to last for years.
Details:
I did a cleaning/rejuvenation operation on my backwashing H2S+iron filter. The filter uses uses 1.5 cuft of Centaur Carbon media and has a 5600SXT valve. Tank is 10x54. The media is suggested to be replaced after 7 years, and I have had over 9 years of service.
My plan was to treat this with a solution of Iron Out, with a possible stronger long bleach treatment.
Configurations:
I used a small utility pump in the trash can. This had a garden hose connected. Configurations were:
A. Just ran the hose from the pump back into the trash can
B. hose from pump connected to hose to ditch. This was for emptying the trash can.
C. hose from pump connected to pressure tank drain valve via a female-female hose coupling. Then turn on the valve.
D. Short garden hose connected to pressure tank drain with other end to the trash can (for pressure tank flushing).
Note: if I do this again someday, I expect to use a garden hose wye valve to make switching between B and C easier.
1. I bought a white 32 gallon trash can for the purpose, but I have other uses too.
2. First I turned my WH to vacation setting, and ran several gallons from the drain into the trash can. Nothing impressive, since I had run off some water maybe 2 years ago.
3. Sanitize utility pump and hose by adding bleach to the water in the trash can, and ran the pump for a while in configuration C.
4. I ran a hose out of a window to a ditch. Switched to configuration B, and emptied the water. This is a good time of year to have a hose out the window-- not really cold, and no flying insects yet.
5. Flushed the pressure tank to remove sediment. This used configuration D. Turn off valve following H2S+iron filter. Turn off pump. Open pressure tank drain valve.
5a. run the tank empty. Watch for sediment in the trash can.
5b. Turn on pump for a few seconds then back off.
5c. Repeat 5a and 5b until no more sediment. Could have been 10 times for me. Close drain valve.
5d. Go to configuration B, and pump trash can empty. Clean sediment from trash can.
6. Go to configuration C. I added maybe 24 gallons of water to the trash can by opening the drain valve with the well pump on. The utility pump does not have a check valve, so water can go backwards when the pump is off. Turn off the well pump. I added 2 cups of Iron Out (IO).
6a. Put the filter valve into bypass by starting a regen, and I pulled the power. Ran the filter drain line to the trash can.
6b Powered the utility pump, and water circulated. Nothing impressive happening, so added 2 more cups of IO and again 2 more for at total of 6 cups.
6c, Let it circulate for maybe 3 hours, visiting maybe every half hour. The water got much darker with time. Later the flow from the drain line was visibly yellow, which was ferrous iron.
7. closed drain valve, and went to configuration B to pump can empty.
8. With water still pumping to the ditch, I turned on the well pump to backwash with the higher pressure to clear out the media of IO and sediment. Backwash was maybe in 3 time segments.
9. Repeated all of step 6 through step 8, but used a total of 10 cups of IO this time. Similar to the first time, but not quite as dark. I recirculated for about 5 hours.
10. Turned off pump overnight. In the morning, some more backwash, and pump to ditch.
11. I did a similar treatment to steps 6...8, but used bleach rather than IO. I added incrementally, but ended up using about 3/4 gallon of bleach. Plenty of backwash. I used my high-range chlorine test strips to make sure I had plenty of bleach circulating but not have detectable chlorine after rinsing.
12. put things back into service config. When I put the power back on to the filter, the SXT controller knew it was in backwash. It continued. I skipped ahead to rapid rinse. Since the control thought it had done a regen, the display indicated 3. I scheduled a regen for tonight, and that will put it back into its normal schedule.
So I was too verbose in much of this, but may have left some things out. Questions welcome. The big question is did it help? Thing are good so far, but I am not drinking the water just yet. Soon.
Photo taken near the end of first IO treatment round. Note yellow water coming out of the black drain line. I think this is due to ferrous iron. I over-compressed the photo for uploading (13,725 bytes). Original was 2,385,524 bytes before cropping and compressing.
==================================================================
Synopsis:
I used a utility pump to circulate an Iron Out solution thru my media. I then circulated a bleach solution through the media. This was an attempt to rejuvenate the media. Initial indications are good.
In addition to the reconditioning, I did the WH flush and pressure tank flush. Those should be annual. I expect the media reconditioning to last for years.
Details:
I did a cleaning/rejuvenation operation on my backwashing H2S+iron filter. The filter uses uses 1.5 cuft of Centaur Carbon media and has a 5600SXT valve. Tank is 10x54. The media is suggested to be replaced after 7 years, and I have had over 9 years of service.
My plan was to treat this with a solution of Iron Out, with a possible stronger long bleach treatment.
Configurations:
I used a small utility pump in the trash can. This had a garden hose connected. Configurations were:
A. Just ran the hose from the pump back into the trash can
B. hose from pump connected to hose to ditch. This was for emptying the trash can.
C. hose from pump connected to pressure tank drain valve via a female-female hose coupling. Then turn on the valve.
D. Short garden hose connected to pressure tank drain with other end to the trash can (for pressure tank flushing).
Note: if I do this again someday, I expect to use a garden hose wye valve to make switching between B and C easier.
1. I bought a white 32 gallon trash can for the purpose, but I have other uses too.
2. First I turned my WH to vacation setting, and ran several gallons from the drain into the trash can. Nothing impressive, since I had run off some water maybe 2 years ago.
3. Sanitize utility pump and hose by adding bleach to the water in the trash can, and ran the pump for a while in configuration C.
4. I ran a hose out of a window to a ditch. Switched to configuration B, and emptied the water. This is a good time of year to have a hose out the window-- not really cold, and no flying insects yet.
5. Flushed the pressure tank to remove sediment. This used configuration D. Turn off valve following H2S+iron filter. Turn off pump. Open pressure tank drain valve.
5a. run the tank empty. Watch for sediment in the trash can.
5b. Turn on pump for a few seconds then back off.
5c. Repeat 5a and 5b until no more sediment. Could have been 10 times for me. Close drain valve.
5d. Go to configuration B, and pump trash can empty. Clean sediment from trash can.
6. Go to configuration C. I added maybe 24 gallons of water to the trash can by opening the drain valve with the well pump on. The utility pump does not have a check valve, so water can go backwards when the pump is off. Turn off the well pump. I added 2 cups of Iron Out (IO).
6a. Put the filter valve into bypass by starting a regen, and I pulled the power. Ran the filter drain line to the trash can.
6b Powered the utility pump, and water circulated. Nothing impressive happening, so added 2 more cups of IO and again 2 more for at total of 6 cups.
6c, Let it circulate for maybe 3 hours, visiting maybe every half hour. The water got much darker with time. Later the flow from the drain line was visibly yellow, which was ferrous iron.
7. closed drain valve, and went to configuration B to pump can empty.
8. With water still pumping to the ditch, I turned on the well pump to backwash with the higher pressure to clear out the media of IO and sediment. Backwash was maybe in 3 time segments.
9. Repeated all of step 6 through step 8, but used a total of 10 cups of IO this time. Similar to the first time, but not quite as dark. I recirculated for about 5 hours.
10. Turned off pump overnight. In the morning, some more backwash, and pump to ditch.
11. I did a similar treatment to steps 6...8, but used bleach rather than IO. I added incrementally, but ended up using about 3/4 gallon of bleach. Plenty of backwash. I used my high-range chlorine test strips to make sure I had plenty of bleach circulating but not have detectable chlorine after rinsing.
12. put things back into service config. When I put the power back on to the filter, the SXT controller knew it was in backwash. It continued. I skipped ahead to rapid rinse. Since the control thought it had done a regen, the display indicated 3. I scheduled a regen for tonight, and that will put it back into its normal schedule.
So I was too verbose in much of this, but may have left some things out. Questions welcome. The big question is did it help? Thing are good so far, but I am not drinking the water just yet. Soon.
Photo taken near the end of first IO treatment round. Note yellow water coming out of the black drain line. I think this is due to ferrous iron. I over-compressed the photo for uploading (13,725 bytes). Original was 2,385,524 bytes before cropping and compressing.
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