I would have told you to get the chlorine to work as it should have and saved you whatever you paid for the Filox filter plus, you still aren't getting all the iron out and are depending on the softener to get the last 1 ppm out.
I get all or almost all the iron out (I only have test strips which appear read 0 after filtering) and I DO NOT use a water softener. It seems the filox filter pulls out most of it and the centaur gets the remainder.
The chlorine should oxidize all of it and all odors unless chemical. You probably didn't have the feeder set up right, weakening solution or improper retention time.
Hmm, maybe. I airate my water before the chlorine feed. I rely on that to oxygenate the water to some degree so I can set the chlorine feed as low as possible. By the time the water gets to the centaur tank the residual chlorine is down to 1ppm (starts out at 4ppm). This seems ok to me. Weakening solution is no doubt a problem on some level. I did consider adding a tank mixer, but at the moment the water is okay and I don't want to complicate things more than I already have. I try not to mix more that 1 month of solution at a time.
I have been a full line full time water treatment dealer since 1987. I have anything any one could need up to large commercial on 3" water lines. So yes I could have helped you as I said above.
I don't see how. You can't get water where there isn't any. That is, short of a bigger pump, a storage tank, or redrilling the well I'm not going to get more water for backwashing my filters. Thats my problem in a nutshell. When the pump fails I'll most likely be in a better financial position and I'll redrill deeper in search of more water, but until then I'm stuck.
I suspect your measurement of the gpm is incorrect by using a 1/2" or 3/4" outside faucet.
Your correct it was a 1/2 inch outside faucet, but I allowed the pump reach a point where it stopped cycling before I took the measurement (9 gpm).
As to your pump only delivering 9 gpm, I'll bet you it can deliver more than 9 gpm.
Probably, but not much more and not for long. The well is 375 feet deep, recovers at +/- 2gpm and has a 5 gpm pump set 20 feet off the bottom. Static water level is 6 feet below the top of the well head. The lousy recovery rate coupled with the fact I run an irrigation system off this well in the summer doesn't make me feel too comfortable about upsizing the gmp of the pump.
The only way to do it right is to disconnect the incoming pipe from the pressure tank's tee, or out at the well by pulling the pump drop pipe some and running the pump to measure open discharge gpm. Ask any pump guy to check that out, although I've been one for a number of years.
I'm aware of this. However, the fact that my pump stops cycling not too long after opening the outside faucet leads me to believe the pump doesn't have much more to give.
Thanks for your input though, its been an interesting thread! When either the filox or the pump fails I'll go back and revisit the centaur not removing the iron problem.
-rick