removal of sediment through chemical injection

**lprice14** · 03-06-2012, 02:30 PM

Due to very fine sediment in my well water that was too fine to be captured in my backwash filter or whole house filter, I had a chemical (alum) injection system installed. Water comes into the house into a newly installed 80 lb. water tank that gets injected with the chemical that is stored in a 15 gallon tank; it injects into the water as it enters the 80 gal tank, where it then is stored as it reacts with the chemical before moving on to the pressure tank, the backwash filter, the whole house filter, and then into the pipes.
The initial amount of chemical/gallons of water is probably too much and we are working with trying to find the happy medium between the lowest amount of chemical we can use that will still remove the sediment. Chemicals in the water concern me but we could not live with the sediment either. The amount we are now using is 20 cups to 10 gallon/water and we are trying to reduce this by 50% to 10 cups (5 lbs) to 10 gallon/water. In addition, the chemical pump has been reduced to 50% power. Does anyone have any experience with this? As we live in a state that does not regulate water wells, does anyone know how much chemical is considered safe? Thanks!

**Tom Sawyer** · 03-06-2012, 04:31 PM

Been at this a long time and have never heard of using alum injection on a drinking water well. It has been tried with mixed results on storm drainage systems and holding ponds. I don't think you should be drinking that without running it through an RO filter first.

**lprice14** · 03-06-2012, 05:08 PM

What's an RO filter?

**lprice14** · 03-06-2012, 05:30 PM

Is there another chemical that is safer? It's been installed for a week and we have not been drinking or brushing our teeth with it until I figured out what levels would be safe. . . .