What's in my well water ? Help! *UPDATE*

[Jason Walker]

Hello everyone recently for the first time since I lived in this home (Moved in the house in 2014) I have some sort of sediment in my toilet fixtures. My well is 160FT deep and the bottom of the well is Gray Sandstone. Please see attached photo for Formation description for top to bottom of the well. I have also included a picture of what the well water looks like in the toilet along with what it looks like when I wipe the sediment with a paper towel. I assumed it was shale so I got a spin down filter with a 60 mesh screen to help filter it out before it came into the house plumbing. After spin down I also have two 5 micron house filters and the sediment is still passing through. Once I find out what it is then hopefully I will be able to get the right mesh screen to stop it. I seen this gray sediment in both toilet fixtures in the house. It clears up it seems when the temperature gets warmer, but when it drops I see more in the toilets for some reason. Any help would be appreciated !!

Thank you
Jason

Link to spin down filter: https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-738-rusco-sediment-trapper-filter-ss-screen-t-style-1.aspx

 

[Reach4]

Spin-down filters are for heavier stuff more like sand.

Tell us about your two 5-micron filters. Are they in series?

Any smells?

How is the tap water taste?

Your photos.... looks like a cloudiness in the toilet-- maybe even fine air bubbles. Is the paper towel from wiping down the tank, or the bowl? How long had it been since you did that same wipe-down previously?

Try putting that paper towel into about a cup of water that has about a teaspoon of bleach stirred in. Any color change?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Valveman]

Just in the toilets? Could the septic be backing up on you? Sometimes people new to well water life don't know they can't use much chlorine or it will kill the septic system.

 

[Jason Walker]

Spin-down filters are for heavier stuff more like sand.

Tell us about your two 5-micron filters. Are they in series?

Any smells?

How is the tap water taste?

Your photos.... looks like a cloudiness in the toilet-- maybe even fine air bubbles. Is the paper towel from wiping down the tank, or the bowl? How long had it been since you did that same wipe-down previously?

Try putting that paper towel into about a cup of water with about a teaspoon of bleach stirred in. Any color change?

Thank you for the reply!!

I have two big blue’s 20” in series with 5 micron filters.



Stage 1 filter : http://www.123filter.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=64_30&products_id=51

Stage 2 filter:
http://www.123filter.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=64_30&products_id=52

The water comes from the well into the pressure tank. After the pressure tank it goes into the spin down filter 60 mesh into stage 1 — 5 micron filter into stage 2 — 5 micron carbon filter. After the filters it goes into a water softner and out into the rest of the house. The water softner is new this year and did it also with the old softner. I also emptied the pressure tank a few times and kicked on and off the well pump to blow out some settled sand. Its been clear for weeks until the colder temps came back. The water taste great and personally I like it much better then bottled water. I have no smell at any sink besides one randomly and only when i first turn it on. Once I installed the carbon block filter tho I have not smelled any odor. Its for maybe two seconda when its turn on before I had the filter then it went away. I will test paper towel results back shortly.

The paper towel was from wiping the toliet bowl. Two days ago it was cleaned and no residue. Then yesterday morning the water started to cloud up and with water sitting in the toliet this sediment worked its way down and onto the bowl. I wiped it with paper towel a couple hours ago.

Thanks again!

 

[Jason Walker]

Here is the wipe down paper towel from toliet bowl added to 1 cup water with 1 tsp bleach. It washed some sediment away, but did not change the color of whatever this sediment is.

Thanks again for help!

Spin-down filters are for heavier stuff more like sand.

Tell us about your two 5-micron filters. Are they in series?

Any smells?

How is the tap water taste?

Your photos.... looks like a cloudiness in the toilet-- maybe even fine air bubbles. Is the paper towel from wiping down the tank, or the bowl? How long had it been since you did that same wipe-down previously?

Try putting that paper towel into about a cup of water that has about a teaspoon of bleach stirred in. Any color change?

 

[Reach4]

The reason I suggested the bleach test was that if the black was a mold, I would have expected a big change in the black.

Maybe try applying a drop or two of undiluted bleach. Inorganic sediment would not be affected I think.

What is in the tank? Maybe there is a supply of sediment from before you put in your filters.

 

[Jason Walker]

Just in the toilets? Could the septic be backing up on you? Sometimes people new to well water life don't know they can't use much chlorine or it will kill the septic system.

I dont use any harsh chemicals and only use mild detergents into the septic field. I use laundry soup and dawn dish soap. Thats about the extent of it besides toliet bowl cleaners, etc. The tank was last flushed November 2014 and only two people living here. The tank is 1250 gallons and was just installed in 2011. Its time for a pumping which I have scheduled for Friday this week, but dont think it could be backing up already? I cant be certain I dont know much about the septic field besides to be careful what you put into it. Also I am past due on the filter cleaning, no one every told me. Its been a few years since it was cleaned! This will also be cleaned Friday and I will begin doing on an annual basis as advised. Why would the septic cause an odorless sediment to come about?

 

[Jason Walker]

The reason I suggested the bleach test was that if the black was a mold, I would have expected a big change in the black.

Maybe try applying a drop or two of undiluted bleach. Inorganic sediment would not be affected I think.

What is in the tank? Maybe there is a supply of sediment from before you put in your filters.

In the pressure tank there was only sand and I installed all the filters a few weeks ago. No issues until just the last few days with crystal clear water until then. Thinking maybe the septic field needs pumped and maybe backing up? I am not sure , but as much filteration as I have it would surprise me that much sediment is getting past. I am getting septic field pumped this Friday. What do you think about it being the field causing the gray sediment in the toliet bowls?

 

[Nakopf]

Manganese is my first impression. What do your toilet tanks look like inside?

 

[Jason Walker]

No discoloration in the toliet bowl. The first picture shows is water I pulled directly out of the toliet bowl and into a glass. The second is a picture of the water which appears cloudy in toliet. This was directly after a flush and cleared up a touch after picture.

Manganese is my first impression. What do your toilet tanks look like inside?

 

[LLigetfa]

How old is the well? I'm thinking it is fine clay. How far down does the casing go? Maybe frost is grabbing the casing and jacking it a little disturbing the bentonite seal.

 

[Jason Walker]

How old is the well? I'm thinking it is fine clay. How far down does the casing go? Maybe frost is grabbing the casing and jacking it a little disturbing the bentonite seal.

The casing goes 160FT and consists of the following..

Pump is 80FT down, how is this getting through the two 5 micron filters? Why is this the first year I am seeing this? Thanks for the help!

 

[LLigetfa]

Are you sure the well is cased the full depth? It's not uncommon to only take the casing a few feet into the rock bore.

 

[Jason Walker]

How old is the well? I'm thinking it is fine clay. How far down does the casing go? Maybe frost is grabbing the casing and jacking it a little disturbing the bentonite seal.

The well was dug in late 2007 so about about 10 years old.

 

[Jason Walker]

Are you sure the well is cased the full depth? It's not uncommon to only take the casing a few feet into the rock bore.

Here is the specs of the well. I dont know much about it just know the filters should stop most passing through and not sure what the sediment is. Thanks again for the help! Greatly appreciated

 

[LLigetfa]

OK, so the well has a 5 inch casing that goes down through 40 feet of sand and clay and 20 feet of shale into an 8.75 inch bore hole for a total length of 62 feet. The rest is an open bore hole.

 

[Jason Walker]

OK, so the well has a 5 inch casing that goes down through 40 feet of sand and clay and 20 feet of shale into an 8.75 inch bore hole for a total length of 62 feet. The rest is an open bore hole.

Do you still believe frost and clay is to blame? What about my filters? Thanks for the details on well!

 

[Reach4]

What does your Mason jar look like an hour or two later?

 

[Jason Walker]

What does your Mason jar look like an hour or two later?

Dumped after 15 minutes, didnt know to keep it in longer sorry about that. After 15 minutes it had no change in apperance. I will redo test tommorow when more sediment builds up on toliet bowl as I wiped most sediment away to do testing.

 

[LLigetfa]

What about my filters?

The following wiki article mentions ISO 14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay