What’s the Middle Tank?

[Brickmanhouse]

Hi all, we have an inherited water treatment system. Water goes in from the right, through the three tanks, and out the left.

The tank on the left is the water softener. The tank on the right is an acid neutralizer. Any clue what the tank in the middle would be?

We have had our water, tested, and it is acid (6.3) and has a crazy high iron content (over 16 ppm). It seems as if both of those issues would be taken care of by the water softener, and the acid neutralizer.

If there is no way to hazard a guess just by a photo, can anyone tell me how to tell what it might be? There are no labels, except for the tank manufacturer’s itself, and we have no information or documentation on the installer or the system.

 

[Reach4]

Yes, the one on the right is a neutralizer (calcite and maybe more).

Middle tank is probably some kind of iron treatment medium. That one might be first in line.

I think you might want to backlight the two right tanks in turn. See how much bed expansion you get during backwash.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Brickmanhouse]

Yes, the one on the right is a neutralizer (calcite and maybe more).

Middle tank is probably some kind of iron treatment medium. That one might be first in line.

I think you might want to backlight the two right tanks in turn. See how much bed expansion you get during backwash.

I don’t know if this changes your answer, but we have traced the plumbing. They are plumbed in order— right one is first in line, middle is second in line, and left is third in line.

 

[Bannerman]

it is acid (6.3) and has a crazy high iron content (over 16 ppm). It seems as if both of those issues would be taken care of by the water softener, and the acid neutralizer.

When the quantity of iron is relatively minor (=/< 1 ppm), some do choose to forgo a dedicated iron removal system and instead utilize a softener but 16 ppm is far too excessive to remove efficiently with a softener. Each 1ppm iron will consume 85.5 ppm (5 grains per gallon) of a softener's hardness removal capacity. Your 16 ppm iron alone would consume 1,368 ppm (80 gpg) of capacity + whatever actual hardness is in your raw well water. Because iron will adhere to softener resin which will cause iron fouling, a softener removing that much iron would require frequent resin maintenance utilizing an acid iron cleaning solution.

Much more efficient to remove iron with a properly sized dedicated iron removal system.

Since iron reduction media will function best at pH >7.0, the center tank likely contains an iron removal media such as BIRM or Pyrolox or similar. Hard to judge the tank dimensions for each of your media tanks as the tank diameter may help to identify the media inside. Do you know the amount of GPM your well pump and well can deliver?

Best to remove the control valve and then scoop out some media from the top and post a pic as someone might be able to identify it from its appearance.

Are you able to post a comprehensive current lab report for your raw well water?