water chlorination system

[aggiehortguy91]

Good advice Iplayfarmer. We have a metering pump on a 30 gal drum (no it's not as redneck as it sounds!). I mix 1 gal of 10% chlorine to the 30 gal of water for our use. There is a flow switch that turns the pump on when someone starts using water in the house and a regulator on the pump to change the amount of chlorine injected. The pump injects chlorine just up stream of a "mixing tank", a fiberglass tank where the chlorine and water can mix together and do their thing. The water then flows through a large carbon filter (the size of a 35000 grain water softener). There is a softener before the chlorine system. Generally, this takes care of everything for us. BTW, we have some sulfur, a little iron, and a lot of tannins! Overall, the system is fairly easy to operate.

If it is just sulfur, an aeration tank works well. That is what most people I know have. It may be a false sense of security, but I like knowing that the chlorine can kill things if they end up in our water.

 

[tlbuser]

Wondering if anyone is using a chlorination system for their well water. I would like to install a system to help disenfect bad water and help with iron. I am trying to think of a way to homebrew a system using a venturi injector to inject a chlorine solution into the water line, then into a holding tank. I have a 3/4" Mazzei venturi I can use, but my main water line is 1". If you have any experience or opinions, please share them.

To answer the original question, yes, just add a tee inline with a metering pump using one leg off of the pressure switch for pump on/off power. Bad water, what a nightmare that can be. Crap load of snake oil type sales people out there. State lab testing (most of the time) only certifies drinkability of well water, not quality. They look for things like fecal matter, nitrates, arsenic. lead, etc. Things like iron in the water, may or may not be just that. IRB's also give similar visual/test effects, orangy discoloration on fixtures, but the treatment of what is what is different. SRB's can produce a rotten egg smell. UV kills bacteria, but IRB is resistant to UV. Chlorine is the most recognized, effective treatment for IRB's. Chlorine bleach can be diluted ~one gallon of chlorox per 5 gallons of water per 100 ft. and just dumped into the well head periodically. Chlorine tablets, depending on well depth, may end up laying on top of the vibration mounts and never get to the water. Chlorine can be followed up by a charcoal system to remove the taste and odor. Water softeners can treat some iron issues. Reverse osmosis is a really bad thing for whole house copper piping.
After alot of trial and error, I would highly suggest anyone on a well get a microbiology lab to test their water before deciding on any treatment method. It's not the cheapest method ~100-200 , but it'll undoubtedly save money, headache and frustration in the long run.

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[wv1720]

To answer an earlier question, we have traces of coliform bacteria in our well. Along with iron and manganese.
May just end up buying a injector pump system.
Thanks for all the inpus.

 

[alltoys]

[QUOTE=tlbuser; Reverse osmosis is a really bad thing for whole house copper piping.

Why does the reverse osmosis damage copper piping? If gets rid of Iron isnt' that a good thing?

I have very high Iron content in my water I thought that Reverse Osmosis would be the best thing for my water condition but I have mostly copper piping.

 

[BrentD]

Why does the reverse osmosis damage copper piping? If gets rid of Iron isnt' that a good thing?

Reverse osmosis pulls ALL minerals out of the water leaving you with a product equal to if not higher purity than distilled water. Pure water is very corrosive to copper because of the complete lack of minerals in the water. Think of what happens when you spend too much time in the pool or the bathtub... Wrinkly skin. That happens because the mineral content inside your body is higher than the water outside. Water wants to be where the minerals are so it soaks into the cells. Copper pipes are sort of the reverse... The water can't soak into them so it pulls the minerals out.

 

[tlbuser]

BrentD nailed part of it. The other issue is R.O. systems are real water hogs. They only process 5 to 15% of the input. Treatment Systems for Household Water Supplies - Reverse Osmosis R.O.'s are good for point of use, not whole house and they don't treat any type of bacteria issues.

You may want to look at a green sand filter then. The one's i'm familiar with use Potassium Permanganate for regeneration and that stuff will stain almost anything it comes into contact with, but they do work. You may also need to add a chlorine injector to help oxidize the iron before the sand filter. There used to be a guy, Charlie (I think), at Ohiopurewater that was really good with the what does what and helping save a buck or two in the process. Careful selection is key because quite a few places sell the same stuff with a slightly different name and widely varying price tags.