Pressure tank placement

My well water is acidic (pH about 5.5) so I'm installing a neutralizer. I've also got quite a bit of sediment and rust in the water so I have a filter for that already. Currently, my water runs to the pressure tank before it goes through the sediment filter. My question is - Can I run the water through the neutralizer and the sediment filter before I send it to the pressure tank and then on to the house? I'm thinking that doing this will extend the life of the pressure tank because it won't be exposed to sediment-filled, corrosive water, but I don't want to cause problems with my well pump. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help.

DM

Operating Reasons

If you put the sediment filter between the pump and the pressure tank, then the pump will pump a little less flow as the filter plugs up but it won't affect the operating pressure in the house. Most submersibles have a lot of head available as the flow drops off. Just be sure to check the pressure gauges to determine when you must change the filter. There are pressure switches that you could install between the pump and the filter that will shut off and require manual reset if the overpressure setting is exceeded. That would certainly remind you to change the filter.

Now if you connect your outside water distribution between the pump and the filter you will get some backwash when you use outside water. Be sure your filter will tolerate the backwash.

If you put your neutralizer in the system after the outside water is drawn off, you won't be wasting neutralizer to raise the pH of the water you put on the lawn. You shouldn't need to backwash it with the filter ahead of it, so I would put it after the tank.

Neutralizers add calcium to the water to you will have a little more hardness to deal with.

Our company has been experimenting with a device called a sulfur burner. This uses pure sulfur, burns it, and creates sulfuric acid in the water. This acid is supposed to mellow the earth, improve water uptake, and improve nutrient use. I would be interested in how your low pH water works with lawns and gardens. Do you see better yields and greener grass with this water as compared to other water you have used?

Thanks.

rshackleford said:

Our company has been experimenting with a device called a sulfur burner. This uses pure sulfur, burns it, and creates sulfuric acid in the water. This acid is supposed to mellow the earth, improve water uptake, and improve nutrient use. I would be interested in how your low pH water works with lawns and gardens. Do you see better yields and greener grass with this water as compared to other water you have used?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I was under the impression lime did the same thing. why would you do all that when you can just lime? I under stand that lime is basic not acidic but I would think this would be better for water and less $$$$.

Off topic again!

We are doing this on hundreds of acres.

Lime is a base. This would raise the pH of the soil. Our water here is basic to start with. The pH is not the part of the water the ties up soil particles and doesn’t allow water to move through, but it is a good indicator of that chemistry. My understanding is that the hydrogen’s made available by an acid is what allows the soil profile to be opened up again. Adding lime would raise the pH further.

Again, we are just getting in to the technology. It has been used in Idaho for quite some time. I am no chemist and any information that I learn to pass onto my customers would be greatly appreciated.

As to whether to put anything between the pump and tank. I give a definite no!

If these filters plug up, and your not paying attention which none of us do. You can do damage to the pump, since the pressure switch which shuts it off is on the other side of the filters. I am hot real sure these backwash filters are going to like all the added pressure they get during backwash either.

You can actually blow the head off a filter with enough pressure when one becomes plugged up and all it takes is for the timer to quit working for a few weeks to get that way with bad water.

bob...

I agree with Bob, nothing between a pump and its pressure switch, plus your tank is not going to be harmed by some sediment or the acidity of your water anyway.

A backwashed AN filter is a very good sediment filter; like 20 micron. A 5.5 pH water requires a backwashed mixed bed mineral, or IMO, you will not be able to get the pH up to 7.0. Also, some of the dissolved iron (Ferrous) will be oxidized in the AN filter as the pH rises and it is filtered and then backwashed out of the tank. Upflow AN filters require the prefilter to keep the bottom basket from blocking up and shutting off your water. They are not back washable and the bed expands during 'filtering' which usually will allow improper time for the acidity to be buffered fully. And what's the sense in a filter that isn't going to do the whole job? They also will not usualy be capable of being large enough to provide for more than (roughly) a SFR (service flow rating) of more than 8-9 gpm. A 2.5 bath house will usually require a 12+ gpm SFR.

Although I'm not into gardening, it's my understanding that acidic water is not good for plants. Acidic rain is killing forests, lakes and streams all over the east coast, mid west, north west and everywhere else it occurs here in North America and around the world. That's like most of the US.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

Is the SFR an actual flow rate like a peak demand or is it more like a volume need per day. Does the system treat that much flow at a time or does it have storage. A for example:

The system treats 10 gpm. Period.

The system treats and stores enough water to provide 10 gpm for thirty minutes or 300 gallons total.

Thanks.

On the pH I have been told that the acid rain actually improved crop yields where it was experienced. They tell me the farmers were disappointed when the pollution problems were relieved.

Check out the sites. These systems let us use some pretty awful water to irrigate.

sweetwater

aqua SO2

We have settle on sweetwater.

Thanks all for the responses!

Bob NH - I am definitely going to draw outside water from before the neutralizer. After all, rainwater is usually around pH 5.7 (if there's no power plants upwind) and plants have done fine with that pH for a long time.

Gary and Speedbump - I won't be putting anything between the pump and the pressure tank. I can see that Bob NH's suggestion of putting in a pressure switch between the pump and the filter might work, but with my luck the well pump would burn out from the pressure buildup just as it blew the top off the clogged filter and filled my basement with gallons and gallons of rusty water. And, Gary, I just put in a down flow mixed media AN, and like magic (actually more like simple inorganic chemistry), my water's pH jumped from 5.5 to 8+.

Next weekend I'll install the water softener to deal with calcium I just added to my water.

Shack - Good short paper on soil pH, including some info on the use of sulfur burner treated water on crops at http://extension.usu.edu/files/agpubs/agso07.pdf

Thanks, for the paper. Any new info is good to have.