water odor filtration

danster44 · 02-13-2012, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plumber101

With the water table at 89' and pump at 210' sounds a little odd. But the aquafier may not feed as fast as some and you need the extra depth to keep from running dry. But your good water may be at 200'

Do you know what aquafier you are in?

Well was drilled by an oil company 35 years ago- I'm guessing it's an expensive well, even back then. My understanding is the water wells alongside oil wells need to produce 75-80 GPM, therefore the depth. Pump at that depth ensures lots of water, even during drought conditions (which we definitely had last year).

Looks like we are in the Carrizo-Wilcox (sub crop) aquifer.

danster44 · 02-13-2012, 11:36 PM

Anyone can verify water test kits?
We just tested with "purtest" and results appear to be very good (the water, that is).

Based on this kit,

Ph is a little low (5+) and water is hard (250+ ppm) but no lead, no pesticides, no nitrites, no nitrates, no chlorine -- iron is pretty high.
Final test is 48 hr bacteria test- 24 hrs left to go, and test is still negative.

Bob999 · 02-14-2012, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danster44

Anyone can verify water test kits?
We just tested with "purtest" and results appear to be very good (the water, that is).

Based on this kit,

Ph is a little low (5+) and water is hard (250+ ppm) but no lead, no pesticides, no nitrites, no nitrates, no chlorine -- iron is pretty high.
Final test is 48 hr bacteria test- 24 hrs left to go, and test is still negative.

If you have copper pipes you need to treat the pH or you will have pin hole leaks in a few years. BUT low pH and high hardness together are very uncommon so I would recommend testing by a lab prior to making any treatment decisions.

If the iron is high you will probably want to treat that--while not a health risk most people can't accept the aesthetics.

A very robust and reliable method of treatment for iron is chlorine injection followed by a 120 gallon retention tank to allow contact time and a place for most of the iron oxidized by the chlorine to precipitate and that followed by a backwashing carbon filter to remove the rest of the preciptate and excess chlorine. Chlorine injection also takes care of hydrogen sulfide.

danster44 · 02-14-2012, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob999

If you have copper pipes you need to treat the pH or you will have pin hole leaks in a few years. BUT low pH and high hardness together are very uncommon so I would recommend testing by a lab prior to making any treatment decisions.

If the iron is high you will probably want to treat that--while not a health risk most people can't accept the aesthetics.
...

Any concern for PEX and PVC with respect to pin holes? I've got PEX inside and PVC from the well to tank to house. Virtually no copper,
except some of the PEX fittings (elbows, tees, etc) are copper or brass.

The high IRON is so far not apparent as far as stains, etc.

Bob999 · 02-14-2012, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danster44

Any concern for PEX and PVC with respect to pin holes?

Not a problem. Fittings are generally quite thick and also not a leak problem. But with acidic water and a lot of fittings--particularly older ones before lead awareness was as high as today-- you might want to have a sample of your water from an end use faucet tested for lead levels--lead in older brass fittings will leach in acid water.

danster44 · 02-14-2012, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob999

Not a problem. Fittings are generally quite thick and also not a leak problem. But with acidic water and a lot of fittings--particularly older ones before lead awareness was as high as today-- you might want to have a sample of your water from an end use faucet tested for lead levels--lead in older brass fittings will leach in acid water.

Thanks -- all the fittings are new, so no chance of any lead.

Thanks for all the great input.

danster44 · 02-20-2012, 01:37 PM

update --
I rigged up a bypass connection to put hydrogen peroxide into the water tank this weekend -- WOW!!! -- absolutely does the trick!
Rotten egg odor was gone -- put a quart of peroxide in the tank / waited about 10-15 minutes -- turned on the hot water and the odor was gone!!

My wife marvelled at how inexpensive this solution was!!!

Just plain AWESOME!!!!! Peroxide is cheap - $1 a quart.