Ooodles of Iron

**RobPaula** · 07-13-2010, 08:37 AM

My water test is as follows...

pH 8
Sodium 79.96 PPM
Potassium 4.23 PPM
Calcium 69.23 PPM
Magnesium ((Perhaps Manganese, don't remember.) 18.51 PPM
Total Harness 249.09 PPM
Iron 13.01 PPM
Total Alkalinity 382.8 PPM
Carbonate 0 PPM
BiCarbonate 467.1 PPM
Hydroxide 0 PPM
Chloride 14.7 PPM
Fluoride .2 PPM
Nitrite 0 PPM
Nitrate 0 PPM
Sulfate 26.7 PPM
Total Disolved Solids 443.29 PPM

13.01 PPM iron, that's not a mistype. Last week after a heavy shocking (We have to shock every 3-6 months) it was 3 PPM, 6 days later it's now 3.4 PPM. The 13.01 was bad, pre-shocked water. Shocking the well only lasts about 6 weeks before our filter can't handle the volume and we start getting staining again. Our local well guy wants to put in a greenbed system with potasium permanganate paired with a softener, but from everything I've read, I'm not entirely convinced this will be sufficient with iron and magnesium levels this high.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

**drick** · 07-13-2010, 07:17 PM

There are better ways to deal with iron such as air/chlorine injection followed by a backwashing filox or carbon filter, but you manganese is also very high. The high manganese most likely will have to be delt with along with the iron and may determine how you will filter out the iron.

Unfortunately I don't know how to deal with high manganese, but maybe someone else can hep?

-rick

**RobPaula** · 07-14-2010, 08:17 AM

I double checked last and it's magnesium, not manganese. I believe the chlorine injection model "should" take the magnesium out as well. Is that correct?

**Gary Slusser** · 07-14-2010, 11:46 PM

Magnesium and calcium make up hardness. Manganese is like iron, it must be oxidized and then filtered, the same as for iron.

**RobPaula** · 07-15-2010, 07:50 AM

Thanks for that Gary. OK. So would I correct in assuming a system employing a chlorine pre-treatment would be the most effective solution for high levels of iron and sulfates, but would still require a softener to deal with the hardness? I'm aiming for something that can remove 30ppm+ so that there is some room to move if my water takes a turn for the worse.

**royerm** · 07-16-2010, 05:21 AM

RobPaula.......I have a similar situation at 4.8 PPm of Iron but I'm interested on your "shocking" process...
What do you use????
and How Much?????

My challenge is that that my 150' deep well is constantly overflowing and wondering how efficient pouring something inside will be or will I be wasting it all????

Thx

**RobPaula** · 07-16-2010, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by royerm

RobPaula.......I have a similar situation at 4.8 PPm of Iron but I'm interested on your "shocking" process...
What do you use????
and How Much?????

My challenge is that that my 150' deep well is constantly overflowing and wondering how efficient pouring something inside will be or will I be wasting it all????

Thx

Hmmm, well, we have a huge well with a lot of water and very fast refresh rate. Our well is a 24" bored well and 90 feet deep with about 70 feet of water. From what I understand we're supposed to take water out of the well, shock it, and put it back in to the well to force the bleached water in to the aquifer. Well, what I would need to do it properly is about the equivelent of two water trucks of bleached water and that is not feasible.

This is the process I follow.

First bypass the whole-house filter if you have one.
What we do, because of the size of our well, is we use an entire 20 liter jug of 12% sodium hypochlorate. That is the equivelent of 50 liters of regular household bleach. Pour it in to the well. Generally, this can be purchased at farm supply stores and is much cheaper than household bleach.
We then cycle the waterout through the hose and back in to the well for a couple hours until the water and bleach are well mixed and we can smell the bleach in the hose water.
Once this is done, we then run the water in to the house, up to all the faucet, fixtures and appliances until the bleach smell is evident.
Then we run the hot water until it runs cold to ensure all the water in the hot water tank has been run out.
Then we go away and leave it sit for at least a couple days.
After that we come home and drain the well. Takes about 10 hours for me and never truely runs out. Wait for the water level to refresh, about 40 minutes for me.
Un-bypass the filter and drain the bleached water from the household lines.
Run the hot water until it runs cold.

Because of the size of our well, this is the process which was recommended to us by some local guys as a not ideal solution, but workable. The day after completing the most recent shocking, if I can believe the guy that tested out water and I don't consider him reliable, he says our iron was sitting at 3ppm. One week later, it was at 3.4ppm. That was after sitting with the bleach for 4 days. It's at a level our current filter can handle, but it only lasts about 6 weeks before the filter can't handle it and we start to get staining again.

**royerm** · 07-16-2010, 10:06 AM

RobPaula..... First I would like to Thank you for taking the time to answer with such details.
I'm definitely getting the heck of what and how to do it.
I do have a faucet that bypass everything...
Thx a million..

**Gary Slusser** · 07-16-2010, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by RobPaula

So would I correct in assuming a system employing a chlorine pre-treatment would be the most effective solution for high levels of iron and sulfates, but would still require a softener to deal with the hardness? I'm aiming for something that can remove 30ppm+ so that there is some room to move if my water takes a turn for the worse.

Sulfates must be ion exchanged with anion resin but, you don't have a problem with sulfates. Here you are allowed up to 250 ppm and they are not a health concern.

I have used a special resin (SST) in a softener with a special distributor tube (Turbulator, no gravel) )on up to 13 ppm of iron and having the person use Iron Out periodically to clean the resin.

Chlorine in an inline pellet chlorination system would do more than oxidize the iron, it kills all bacteria etc. also. Then a softener for the hardness sized for the house peak demand flow rate.

**RobPaula** · 07-16-2010, 12:41 PM

Thanks Gary. I was confusing sulfates with SRB. It's 250ppm here as well. Chlorine it is.

**emoque** · 07-31-2010, 06:39 PM

We have 1.57 mg/l in our water...is that high? I see that most here have been in ppm. Thanks.

**jimtum** · 08-29-2010, 08:14 PM

I would recommend air injection over chlorine since it is less problematic and not a harsh chemical but it does disinfect the lines. My thought would be an Iron breaker and then a water softener and you would have your problem solved. The iron breaker will bring down your iron to a point that your water softener would be able to pick up any left and soften your water also. for the iron filter I would use a 2 cu ft filter and a 1.5 cu ft softener.