Sanity check on well water filtration setup (iron, manganese, hardness, arsenic)

[flinx777]

I’m setting up a full well water filtration system and would really appreciate a second set of eyes before I purchase everything. I've spoken with several local companies, and they quote extremely high prices for a proprietary all-in-one filtration system, pitching it to me even before they have seen my water report.

So, after researching this for some time, getting a full water test (see link below), and spending time figuring out what we need to filter out, here's what I came up with. I bought this property about 1.6 years ago and have never owned a well before, so there's a bit of a learning curve right now. It's a lot of money to invest, and before I buy everything, I want to make sure I'm setting this up correctly.

Water test highlights:​

• Hardness: ~34 GPG (very hard)
• Iron: present
• Manganese: ~0.08 mg/L
• Arsenic: present
• Sodium: ~143 mg/L
• TDS: ~1000 mg/L

Full report here if helpful: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kB702INIBekWGqqtP0Vccm7_lLoOce4R/view?usp=drive_link

Property setup:​

• The well and pressure tank are in a well house (downhill)
• The main house is uphill
• Garden irrigation is near the main house
• I have a barn downstream (at the top of the hill above the well house) that is part of this setup. I plan on adding a softener to the barn later (still confirming plumbing layout)

Measured flow rate: ~12.5 GPM at the well (before going into the current filter I have installed)

Proposed system layout​

WELL HOUSE (primary filtration)​

Flow order (planned):

Well → Pressure Tank →

Spin-down sediment filter →

Big Blue 5-micron sediment filter →

Katalox Light backwashing filter (iron/manganese) →

Catalytic carbon backwashing filter →

UV disinfection (VIQUA VH410) →

Distribution to the main house.

Equipment in the well house:​

1. Spin-down sediment filter (100 mesh, reusable)
2. Big Blue 4.5” x 20” housing (5 micron cartridge)
3. Katalox Light system (12x52 tank, ~1.5 cu ft, Clack WS1)
4. Catalytic carbon system (12x52 tank, backwashing, Clack WS1) ... we're adding this as there is a farm operation about a mile from us, and the creek that feeds our well passes through their area.
5. UV system (VIQUA VH410) ... while no biological concerns were noted in the report, we have a shallow well and wanted to avoid any future problems by adding this to the filtration system.

MAIN HOUSE SETUP​

Incoming line → main shutoff → tee split:

Branch A (irrigation):

• Water to go to this branch BEFORE the softener
• Supplies garden and future water storage
• No softened water (avoid sodium in soil)

Branch B (house):

• Water softener (~64k grain, Clack WS1, 2.0 cu ft resin)
• Then distributed through the house
• Under-sink RO for drinking water

Goals:​

• Remove sediment and particulates
• Remove iron and manganese
• Reduce arsenic and organics (carbon stage)
• Disinfect water (UV)
• Protect plumbing (softener)
• Keep irrigation water unsoftened

Questions:​

1. Does this overall system design and order look correct?
2. Any concerns with placing catalytic carbon after Katalox Light?
3. Is UV placement at the very end (well house) appropriate?
4. Do you see any issues with the flow rate (~12.5 GPM) for proper backwashing?
5. Is splitting irrigation before the softener the right approach?
6. Would you change anything before I purchase?

Appreciate any feedback—just want to make sure I’m not missing anything before moving forward.

 

[Reach4]

I would move the 5 micron cartridge filter to after the carbon and just before the UV.

Backwash the KL at 8 to10 gpm in a 10 inch tank.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[flinx777]

I would move the 5 micron cartridge filter to after the carbon and just before the UV.

Backwash the KL at 8 to gpm.

Thanks ... that makes sense and aligns with what I’m hearing elsewhere as well.

I’ve updated the plan to move the 5 micron cartridge to just before the UV for final polishing, and I’m using a 30–50 micron pleated filter earlier in the system to handle the heavier sediment load.

From what I understand, that should:
• Protect the Katalox Light and carbon tanks from unnecessary clogging
• Keep the pressure drop low upstream
• Ensure the UV gets properly clarified water

On backwash, I measured ~13 GPM sustained at the well, so it sounds like I’m comfortably within the 8–10 GPM range needed for a 12” KL tank.

Appreciate you confirming, this has been really helpful.

 

[Bannerman]

To program a softener equipped with 2ft3 softening resin (64K grains total resin capacity), to provide the best balance of salt efficiency, soft water quality and useable capacity, the usual recommended programmed Capacity setting will be 48,000 grains. To regenerate 48K grains each cycle will require only 16 lbs salt (= 3,000 gr/lb efficiency) vs 40 lbs salt to regenerate 64K grains (100% of total capacity = 1,600 gr/lb).

In addition to your actual >34 grains per gallon hardness, the softener's hardness setting will need to be further increased to compensate for the additional capacity that will be depleted during each regeneration cycle due to the hard water utilized for regeneration. As such, the programmed hardness level needed will be 34.16 (actual hardness) X 1.2 (compensation factor) = (40.99 calculated) = 41 gpg as programmed.

Since the ? iron and 0.0844 manganese will be removed by the Katalox Light filter prior to the softener, no additional hardness compensation will be further needed to address removal of those elements.

As you didn't specify the number of resisdents using soft water, I will utilize 2 persons within the initial estimate calculation below.

2 persons estimated to each use 60 gallons/day = 120 gallons X 41 gpg compensated hardness = 4,920 grains per day softening load.

48,000 grains useable capacity / 4,920 load = 9.7 days - 1-day reserve allowance = 8-9 days estimated regeneration frequency.

If there are additional resiidents, then the calculation should be modified appropriately.

When a softener is not utilized for the removal of iron or manganese, the general recomendation will be to utilize a sufficiently sized softener so that regeneration will not be needed more often than 1X per week, but not less than 1X per month.

For instance, if there are actually four residents, a 2 ft3 softener is then estimated to require regeneration every 3 - 4 days (more often than 1X per week).

Instead, a softener equipped with 3 ft3 resin, will supply 72,000 grains useable Capacity when regenerated using 24 lbs salt

72,000 / 9,840 load (4 ppl) = 7.31 - 1-day reserve = 6-7 days estimated regeneration frequency.

Although planning to use 1.5 ft3 Katalox Light media, you specified a 12" X 52" tank which is usually utilized for 2 ft3 media. Since the cross sectional area of the tank largely influences the backwash rate needed, it would be best to backwash the KL media at 12 gpm for a 12" diameter tank or 8 gpm for a 10" tank.

Unless you have visible sediment or debris in the water directly from your well, a pre-filter should not normally be utilized. As the K-L media will provide sediment filtration down to 3-microns, there will be little benefit provided by a 5 micron sediment filter downstream of the KL filter, but no harm in doing so.

 

[flinx777]

To program a softener equipped with 2ft3 softening resin (64K grains total resin capacity), to provide the best balance of salt efficiency, soft water quality and useable capacity, the usual recommended programmed Capacity setting will be 48,000 grains. To regenerate 48K grains each cycle will require only 16 lbs salt (= 3,000 gr/lb efficiency) vs 40 lbs salt to regenerate 64K grains (100% of total capacity = 1,600 gr/lb).

In addition to your actual >34 grains per gallon hardness, the softener's hardness setting will need to be further increased to compensate for the additional capacity that will be depleted during each regeneration cycle due to the hard water utilized for regeneration. As such, the programmed hardness level needed will be 34.16 (actual hardness) X 1.2 (compensation factor) = (40.99 calculated) = 41 gpg as programmed.

Since the ? iron and 0.0844 manganese will be removed by the Katalox Light filter prior to the softener, no additional hardness compensation will be further needed to address removal of those elements.

As you didn't specify the number of resisdents using soft water, I will utilize 2 persons within the initial estimate calculation below.

2 persons estimated to each use 60 gallons/day = 120 gallons X 41 gpg compensated hardness = 4,920 grains per day softening load.

48,000 grains useable capacity / 4,920 load = 9.7 days - 1-day reserve allowance = 8-9 days estimated regeneration frequency.

If there are additional resiidents, then the calculation should be modified appropriately.

When a softener is not utilized for the removal of iron or manganese, the general recomendation will be to utilize a sufficiently sized softener so that regeneration will not be needed more often than 1X per week, but not less than 1X per month.

For instance, if there are actually four residents, a 2 ft3 softener is then estimated to require regeneration every 3 - 4 days (more often than 1X per week).

Instead, a softener equipped with 3 ft3 resin, will supply 72,000 grains useable Capacity when regenerated using 24 lbs salt

72,000 / 9,840 load (4 ppl) = 7.31 - 1-day reserve = 6-7 days estimated regeneration frequency.

Although planning to use 1.5 ft3 Katalox Light media, you specified a 12" X 52" tank which is usually utilized for 2 ft3 media. Since the cross sectional area of the tank largely influences the backwash rate needed, it would be best to backwash the KL media at 12 gpm for a 12" diameter tank or 8 gpm for a 10" tank.

Unless you have visible sediment or debris in the water directly from your well, a pre-filter should not normally be utilized. As the K-L media will provide sediment filtration down to 3-microns, there will be little benefit provided by a 5 micron sediment filter downstream of the KL filter, but no harm in doing so.

Really appreciate the detailed breakdown … this is extremely helpful.

The softener sizing makes sense. In my case, the property isn’t occupied full-time (used more intermittently for business), so I suspect actual water usage will be lower than a typical household. I’ll factor that in when sizing to avoid excessive regeneration intervals.

Good call on hardness compensation … I’ll plan to program around ~41 gpg once the Katalox is handling iron/manganese upstream.

On the Katalox tank sizing, that’s helpful insight. I measured ~13 GPM sustained at the well, so it sounds like I’m within range for a 12” tank, but I may also consider a 10” tank to provide a bit more backwash margin.

On sediment filtration, I included a staged approach mainly to protect the media tanks and UV system, even if sediment isn’t visibly high, but I understand your point that the KL will handle fine filtration as well.

Thanks again, this has been incredibly helpful in dialing things in.

 

[Reach4]

and I’m using a 30–50 micron pleated filter earlier in the system to handle the heavier sediment load.

Earlier you said spin-down. Either should be good enough. I a courser filter will limit rocks that might be big to backwash out. I use a Centaur Carbon backwashing filter as my front end filter, but I probably should have something like a wye filter before that. I think the amount of rock pulled up from the well is probably pretty small. Guess it depends on your well.

Since you would be pushing a lot of GPM during backwash, a courser filter may be better -- especially if the cartridge is not a big one.

This is sediment I cleaned out of my water heater before putting in the backwashing H2S+iron filter. That is a fairly low volume, even tho it was surprising to find from the water heater.