Silica: 15.9 mg/L
Hmmm... Post #2 on the thread mentions silica. I presume that was not tested for in the raw water, or could something be adding the silica?
Silica: 15.9 mg/L
Hmmm... Post #2 on the thread mentions silica. I presume that was not tested for in the raw water, or could something be adding the silica?
There is an old saying... "the solution to pollution is dilution". What you've done is the reverse. By evaporating off the water, it skews the numbers. The numbers are more meaningful in the context of the original volume of water.
No real change other than doing a thorough cleaning and coating everything with Rain-X every month, not a solution but it should help. Whole house RO to lessen the silica, costly but effective. Polyphosphate feeders usually reduce the problem they do not eliminate it. Silica is a tough problem to effectively deal with.
Soft water is soft water. No need to replace it. If the spots are easily removed with Lime Away, then it is hard water build up. Hardness scale is easily cleaned with an acid. Silica is not easily removed except through physical cleaning. Acids and bases don't seem to work. And... no water treatment guy will tell you that Silica is "definitely" the problem since there are many other factors in water that are beyond standard test methods. Reducing the problems is the best that can be done sometimes. Even RO and DI have difficulties with silica removal. We do some tricks to help, but it is always a problem.
A new well... you could try it if you have a ton of money burning a hole in your pocket. you could get worse water, not sure I would go that route.
Spend the time to thoroughly clean everything then coat it with Rain-X.
Have you checked with neighbors to see if their water is different? If they are close to you and their water is significantly different/better, you may have good results from a new well. Then again, there is always the chance it could be worse.
Hi Paul. I am also in the Portland area and am wondering if you have a contact at Pixis Labs? Or, did they give you any other reference points about silica (other than 57 is considered annoying)? We are building in Sherwood and have a well with water that is at 29.2 mg/L of silica. Trying to find out if this will cause a problem or not has been like trying to find a unicorn. The time for us to fix any issues is now before we run the water through our house and fixtures. Of course, the water treatment folks want you to buy whatever they are selling, so I don't feel like they are the most unbiased source of information. OSU Extension Service just copied and pasted some reference material to me that really wasn't helpful. Did Pixis happen to mention at what level silica starts to present a problem? I also can't seem to get a definitive answer on whether it etches only glass, or if it will also etch chrome and other fixtures. Do you know?I've been watching this thread for a while now as I try to figure out why the Grohe chrome shower fixtures I just installed in 2014 had a nasty white residue that I could not remove with vinegar or other suggested cleaners. I took a sample of my water to Pixis Labs here in Portland and found out that I have 57mg/L of Silica (and 224 mg/L of TDS). I looked into RO systems to remove the silica from my softened water but the cost was way too high. (One shop bid $15,000 and required a 400 gal holding tank.) Apparently 57 mg/L is considered "very annoying" when it comes to silica.
Anyway, I found this stuff online called A-Maze water stain cleaner so I tried it. It didn't work very well with just a rag, even after leaving it on for 15-20 minutes. But, when I used a 3M doodlebug pad that I had in my garage, it worked quite well. All the silica staining was removed and the chrome wasn't scratched. Now that the chrome is clean, I'm not sure if I should coat it with Rain-x or just plan on cleaning the silica off every month or so. At least the new trims and handles look almost new once again.