Well water treatment

[farmaholic]

Why do you consider that post a hijack hobby....it's interesting.

I also heard RO water needs to be rebalanced....what do they add? Caustic soda to de-acidify(????). Then the community has to chlorinate again anyway because its sold to the public.

I might be wrong about the caustic soda....can anyone verify?

When I'm thirsty seems I can't drink enough RO water to quench my thirst. Empty water.

[hobbyfrmr]

Why do you consider that post a hijack hobby....it's interesting.

I also heard RO water needs to be rebalanced....what do they add? Caustic soda to de-acidify(????). Then the community has to chlorinate again anyway because its sold to the public.

I might be wrong about the caustic soda....can anyone verify?

When I'm thirsty seems I can't drink enough RO water to quench my thirst. Empty water.

The subject was home water systems and I went on a tangent about a town system.
I didnt like the R/O presentation because its very wasteful and everyone else from 3 town councils seemed to be very agreeable to it all because it was the only option provided. Kind of like sheep.

Agreed on the empty water opinion. We are scaring ourselves out of natural water. Its a whole new subject to get anxious about....until your thirsty enough.

[farmaholic]

Resurrecting this for samhill. Last year when we had our dugout water tested for spraying suitability I picked up containers from the Sask Prov Lab to check my well water, General Chemistry/water panel raw and treated, and for E.Coli and coliform bacteria raw and treated. Also the metals Health and Toxicity panel raw.

The bacteria test showed undetectable for both raw and treated. The heavy metals are not a problem...all well below the Sask guideline values....even the arsenic or uranium that I thought was going to be high.

Our biggest problems are iron and manganese. Iron went from 4.6 to <0.1 that's from 15.3 times higher than the guideline(<0.3)to 3 times lower. Manganese went from 0.72 to <0.01 that's from 14.4 times higher than the guideline(<0.05) to 5 times lower. The treatment system is working well.

Hardness is a bit of an issue here as well. Raw water is 52 grains hard(892 mg/l CaCO2) and after the softener it is less than 1 grain hard(7 mg/l). The efficiency of the softener is helped alot by the pretreatment before it, the removal of iron and manganese. I've heard of alot harder water than we're dealing with.

The only other issue is the dissolved sulphate is a bit over the guidelines but would either need to be removed by reverse osmosis or an ion exchanger(like a softener but used to remove the sulphate). The ion exchanger would regenerate using both hydrochloric acid and caustic soda....the business I use for service and advice said no one uses them and opts for RO instead because the systems have dropped in price and have become more efficient and cost effective to operate and maintain over time. The level were dealing with isn't a problem for us....we will leave well enough alone.

As mentioned in an earlier post.....identify the problems in your water and choose a method to deal with them. Having the water tested by a non biased party would be a good place to start. Good luck with your decision. You can get some real satisfying results.

[checking]

Oh no, farmaholic!

I hope you discarded that pellet chlorinator, and did not installed it on your PVC well. Those pellets have 25% clay in them which does not dissolve in water. It builds up, pellet by pellet, on top of your pump, clay locking it from being pulled. It will do the same in your new well. They are the worse thing you can do for a well.

[farmaholic]

Oh no, farmaholic!

I hope you discarded that pellet chlorinator, and did not installed it on your PVC well. Those pellets have 25% clay in them which does not dissolve in water. It builds up, pellet by pellet, on top of your pump, clay locking it from being pulled. It will do the same in your new well. They are the worse thing you can do for a well.

Nope....threw that piece of shit away. I explained what our system is in an earlier post.

[checking]

Don't do that to a PVC cased well either! Like Trump, too old to read if you said that.

Actually a steel cased well would be safer to retrieve a pump. It's difficult to part one of them at a joint, or the screen.

Shock chlorinate your well every six months, if you wish. A way less grief.

[samhill]

Thanks for the info Farma, our water is very hard but no iron or manganese. We still haven't bought anything but looking at softeners with ceramic beads. Will make a decision in a week or two.