dieselfuelonly
New Member
Hello all, hoping to get some information and suggestions on storing and treating well water. I've tried to do a fair bit of research myself but am finally getting ready to really start putting everything together and would like some more input.
I have an older well that produces a fair bit of sediment and extremely hard water. The well house, also home to many a spider and slugs, featured a rats nest (in both the figure of speech, and probably the real thing too) of years worth of DIY hackjob plumbing repairs from the previous owners as well as an old cartridge filter (the type with two tall, narrow filters stacked on top of each other with a plastic coupler in between) and a manual backwash sediment filter that I am pretty sure is solidly plugged and probably weighs enough that I'll have to lift it out with my tractor.
Here's the results of a cheapo water test kit:
So far my plan is to remove everything from the well house and demolish it, leaving basically just the well cap which I'll cover with a much smaller structure to shield it. I have a ton of space in a workshop area located between my garage and the house that I'd eventually like to relocate everything water related to. I'll trench and bury power and 3/4" black poly pipe from the well cap into the workshop area where the rest of the fun begins.
I purchased a 500 gallon Norwesco water tank to use as a storage tank. I want to get as much life out of the old deep submersible pump as possible, so I plan on using a float switch in the tank to power up the pump probably when the tank is around 50% to 75% capacity, negating the need for a large pressure tank and switch. I want to add a Dole valve (probably in the 1-2GPM range) to the setup as well to keep as little stress on the well as possible and allow it to work to slowly refill the storage tank as needed. Should I plan on using a relay setup for the float switch or just get a 240v switch that will support the appropriate amps and wire it straight in?
Next comes filtration and treatment. At some point I will add a water softener, but for now I at least need to plan on reducing the sediment. One of my biggest questions is do I treat it before or after the storage tank? I don't see why it would hurt to filter the water before it reaches the storage tank, however what about the water softener - would it be an issue to run the water through the softener and have it sit in the tank? Just curious about the effectiveness of the water softener if the water is left stagnant after treatment in the tank until it is used. I planned on starting with a Rusco 100 mesh sediment filter, should I go further with a 500 and 1000 mesh filter as well?
If possible I'd like to treat the water before the storage tank - come a hurricane or ice storm that knocks out power, the less I need to power the better - it'd be nice to only have to worry about powering the small 120v jet pump that sucks from the storage tank and not about the rest of the system.
Lastly comes pumping the water from the tank to the rest of my house. I figured I'd start with one of the cheapo HF jet pumps and see how it goes. It has a small bladder tank, I figure in the 2-3 gallon range, and I plan on adding a CSV between the pump and the little bladder tank(I feel like the CSV125-1 should work fine?) to the pump to keep it from cycling as little as possible. I've heard that drawing water from the middle of the tank is ideal, should I plan on coming up with some kind of a floating inlet valve for the jet pump?
Thanks for any and all advice, information, or experiences. Greatly appreciated.
I have an older well that produces a fair bit of sediment and extremely hard water. The well house, also home to many a spider and slugs, featured a rats nest (in both the figure of speech, and probably the real thing too) of years worth of DIY hackjob plumbing repairs from the previous owners as well as an old cartridge filter (the type with two tall, narrow filters stacked on top of each other with a plastic coupler in between) and a manual backwash sediment filter that I am pretty sure is solidly plugged and probably weighs enough that I'll have to lift it out with my tractor.
Here's the results of a cheapo water test kit:
So far my plan is to remove everything from the well house and demolish it, leaving basically just the well cap which I'll cover with a much smaller structure to shield it. I have a ton of space in a workshop area located between my garage and the house that I'd eventually like to relocate everything water related to. I'll trench and bury power and 3/4" black poly pipe from the well cap into the workshop area where the rest of the fun begins.
I purchased a 500 gallon Norwesco water tank to use as a storage tank. I want to get as much life out of the old deep submersible pump as possible, so I plan on using a float switch in the tank to power up the pump probably when the tank is around 50% to 75% capacity, negating the need for a large pressure tank and switch. I want to add a Dole valve (probably in the 1-2GPM range) to the setup as well to keep as little stress on the well as possible and allow it to work to slowly refill the storage tank as needed. Should I plan on using a relay setup for the float switch or just get a 240v switch that will support the appropriate amps and wire it straight in?
Next comes filtration and treatment. At some point I will add a water softener, but for now I at least need to plan on reducing the sediment. One of my biggest questions is do I treat it before or after the storage tank? I don't see why it would hurt to filter the water before it reaches the storage tank, however what about the water softener - would it be an issue to run the water through the softener and have it sit in the tank? Just curious about the effectiveness of the water softener if the water is left stagnant after treatment in the tank until it is used. I planned on starting with a Rusco 100 mesh sediment filter, should I go further with a 500 and 1000 mesh filter as well?
If possible I'd like to treat the water before the storage tank - come a hurricane or ice storm that knocks out power, the less I need to power the better - it'd be nice to only have to worry about powering the small 120v jet pump that sucks from the storage tank and not about the rest of the system.
Lastly comes pumping the water from the tank to the rest of my house. I figured I'd start with one of the cheapo HF jet pumps and see how it goes. It has a small bladder tank, I figure in the 2-3 gallon range, and I plan on adding a CSV between the pump and the little bladder tank(I feel like the CSV125-1 should work fine?) to the pump to keep it from cycling as little as possible. I've heard that drawing water from the middle of the tank is ideal, should I plan on coming up with some kind of a floating inlet valve for the jet pump?
Thanks for any and all advice, information, or experiences. Greatly appreciated.