Water Treatment Recommendations (Water Quality Report Included)

[mnhv]

Hello,

To give some background, I'm in the Northeast (Orange County, NY) and my house is currently plumbed with an iron filter and water softener at the moment. The set-up is as follows:

Well -> Pressure tank -> Iron filter -> Water softener -> Boiler/House

The filter and softener have been installed since 2006.

The iron filter is a green sand filter that gets regen'd w/ potassium permanganate but we've placed it on bypass for years now as the Fleck 5600 seems to have failed (according to a local guy we had come out) and the maintenance was messy when it came time to refill the pot perm tank. The softener is your standard media tank and brine tank which we fill with iron fighting salt crystals (moved away from pellets due to bridging).

In terms of maintenance, we've only been adding salt when the levels got low but when that no longer did the trick, I cleaned out the brine tank and replaced the media in the softener with some Purolite C100E. The water no longer smells and there's no more reddish staining but it looks like we still have some scaling in the toilet bowls. With that being said, I'd like to tackle the issue with the iron filter as it's been sitting there dormant and taking up space. If I don't need it, I'd like to cut it out and re-plumb. If I do end up needing it, I'm going to fix it up and do it right this time.

Given that I don't fully trust the intentions of the company that originally installed this system I decided to go out and get a water test myself. The results are based on water samples from the well.

I'm planning on introducing a sediment filter and a whole house filter but need to figure out if I need this iron filter or not so I'm hoping an expert can kindly review and let me know.

This is what I'm looking to do:

Well -> Pressure tank -> Sediment filter -> Whole house filter -> Iron filter?? -> Softener -> Boiler/House

If I do end up needing the iron filter I'm planning on switching the head out to a backwash only Fleck 5600 and replacing the resin with some Katalox Light.

Thank you for reading and hope to get some feedback!

 

[Reach4]

and there's no more reddish staining but it looks like we still have some scaling in the toilet bowls.

I would try soaking those with Iron Out, and might as well hit the toilet tanks while you are at it (tho few people look in toilet tanks). Smell not pleasant, but I think not harmful. Still, better to do on a day you can open windows. https://www.menards.com/main/housew...mover-9-5-lb/io10n/p-1444444183163-c-7097.htm is a big bottle of crystals.

Greensand has backwashing needs comparable to Katalox light. I wonder if you could swap out for that media, and use bleach solution instead of the potperm. It seems like a shame, Greensand is expected to last 4 to 8 years, so changing the media seems overdue. So new greensand might be the cure.

Maybe clean out the controller on the filter with Iron Out (IO). You can use IO to clean a softener, and some people layer it in with the salt. Citric acid smells better.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

Assuming you have soft water after treatment, the appearance of scale could be a result of silica. I would recommend getting a full well test completed. Check out these guys, so far they have been fairly good, reasonably priced and very thorough.
http://watercheck.myshopify.com?aff=5

Pot perm works great but you are correct, it is a mess. Changing to chlorine in the chemical tank may work, but be aware, too high of a chlorine level will tear up the brine valve and seals fairly quickly. Controlled injection is usually preferred.

 

[mnhv]

Thank you for the replies. If I'm going to put the iron filter back into commission, would it be reasonable to swap the resin out for some Katalox Light and slap a new backwashing-only Fleck 5600 on? I've read that KL does not need to be regenerated, is that something I can get away with or is controlled injection a more prudent method?

 

[ditttohead]

Will the 5600 backwash the KL properly is the first question. KL requires regular backwashing at minimum. Injecting an oxidant is also preferred and the unit will perform exceptionally well with an oxidant.

 

[mnhv]

Ok. I will look to install a new backwash head and replace the chemical tank with another one to be filled with chlorine. Do you have any suggestions for a head that will backwash KL properly?