Well with cistern and iron bacteria

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Butlercreek

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We have a low flow well, about 3GPM that pumps into a 2400 gallon cistern with level switches to control the well pump. From the cistern we draw water with a variable speed 10 GPM pump with small pressure tank that feeds the house. Currently have a water softener in the house. The water has a pH of 7.7, hardness of 11 grains and iron content of 4.5 ppm. We also seem to have the iron reducing bacteria. The question is how to get rid of it?

First way I was thinking was to use an ozone injecting iron filter after the pressure tank with katalox light. I am assuming this would work, but would this not allow bacterial buildup to continue in the cistern? Any recommendations here?

The second way that I can see is to inject ozone directly into the cistern, maybe with a bubbler system like those from Triple O. The large volume of the cistern would give long contact times for disinfecting and maybe to also settle out resulting sediment. Would this work, and what if any post filtering would I need in the house, maybe just a katalox light filter? Should the ozone generator only run while water is being pumped into the cistern or continuously?

Is there another method we should consider such as chlorine injection into the cistern, and if so what type of system and what type of filtering?
 
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Reach4

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With chlorine or peroxide in the tank, iron would settle out. You would periodically clean the sediment from the bottom. I am not sure what the best way would be. Suck up sediment with a sump pump that you move around and circulate the water through a washable cartridge filter back into the cistern?

GAC (granulated activated carbon) removes residual chlorine or peroxide (H2O2). Media needs replacing after some time... maybe 3 to 5 years.

Pressure tank is normally after the cistern. So injecting after the pressure tank would not affect the cistern.

If you have a pressure tank involved in filling the cistern, that is not the normal way.
 

Butlercreek

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With chlorine or peroxide in the tank, iron would settle out. You would periodically clean the sediment from the bottom. I am not sure what the best way would be. Suck up sediment with a sump pump that you move around and circulate the water through a washable cartridge filter back into the cistern?

GAC (granulated activated carbon) removes residual chlorine or peroxide (H2O2). Media needs replacing after some time... maybe 3 to 5 years.

Pressure tank is normally after the cistern. So injecting after the pressure tank would not affect the cistern.

If you have a pressure tank involved in filling the cistern, that is not the normal way.
I do not have a pressure tank involved in filling the cistern, just in the pump system from the cistern to the house. So, basically I have two level switches in the cistern. When the level falls below the lower one, the well pump turns on to pump water into the cistern until it reaches the level of the upper switch upon which it turns off. The second, variable speed, pump serving the house has the pressure tank, so this system is basically like a standard well based system, except the water is being pumped from the cistern into the house instead of from a well into the house.

1) Could I just meter chlorine or peroxide directly into the cistern while the well pump is running to disinfect when new water is being added, or would it be better to inject chemicals on a timed basis to keep the cistern disinfected, even if water is is being used in the house and the water is just sitting in the cistern?

2) If I used chlorine or peroxide in the cistern, would a GAC cartridge in big blue filter be sufficient, or would I need something like a backwash carbon filter?

3) Also, would it be expected that all of the iron would settle out in the cistern so I would not need any type of filtering for the iron, and if not, what type of filtering would be best (iron filter, cartridge filter etc)?
 

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1. I don't know your usage patterns, but metering supplemented with manual pouring when you go away for a while.
2. Not big enough.
3. I would expect the iron to turn to rust. Most will settle to the bottom, and some may get pumped into the carbon tank, and gets backwashed out maybe once per week. I am not a pro.
 

Butlercreek

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1. I don't know your usage patterns, but metering supplemented with manual pouring when you go away for a while.
2. Not big enough.
3. I would expect the iron to turn to rust. Most will settle to the bottom, and some may get pumped into the carbon tank, and gets backwashed out maybe once per week. I am not a pro.
So as I understand you one way would be to meter in chlorine or peroxide into the cistern which would kill the IRB and oxidize the iron which would mostly settle out in the cistern. Then a GAC filter with backwash would be used after the pump serving the house. Is this correct? How do I determine how much chlorine to meter in, do I just want to get the water coming from the well to the cistern up to a certain ppm level, or do I want to get the whole cistern up to a certain ppm level? The main problem I see with this system is that I would need the chlorine line from the chlorine pump/tank in the house to the cistern that is outside from freezing in the cold weather we get.

if I want to go another route, would doing nothing in the cistern and adding an iron removal system, katalox light, with ozone injection, work (remove iron and get rid of the IRB)
 

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For bacteria, chlorine is the better killer. Both oxidize iron out nicely.

Yes, you adjust the residual chlorine level in the tank to maybe between 4 to 10 for the chlorine. Somebody may have better numbers to suggest.

The Stenner documentation does go in to calculations if you want to go that route. FYI, a bottle of 6.25% bleach is 62500 ppm.
 
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