Chlorine Injection Problems

[HDN]

Hi all, long time lurker and first time poster. I have a well water system that has chlorine injection before a contact tank using a Stenner peristaltic pump. I replaced the pump tube earlier this week after it sprung a leak, and evidently I didn't expand the rollers all the way out after installing the tube. This seemed to have caused the pump to draw well water from the check valve and fill the 15-gallon chlorine storage tank with well water.

Before the tank filled with well water, it already had about 5 gallons of chlorine solution in it (1 quart bleach to 1 gallon of water). When I went down a couple days later after noticing that the water started smelling funny and began drying out my skin, the tank was full of well water. Upon this discovery, I drained off 5 gallons and put 10 quarts of bleach in the thing, hoping that would bring my chlorine storage tank back to normal and get treatment right throughout the week.

This morning I checked on things. The pump seems to be working correctly and the chlorine storage tank didn't fill with well water. However, there's about 5 gallons of white fluid at the bottom of the tank now. Is this some kind of chlorine precipitate?

Where should I go from here? I want to get my system back to "normal" (which is a whole other thread in itself). Do I need to completely drain the chlorine storage tank, refill and mix new chlorine solution? Or can I temporarily raise the pump suction line to draw chlorine solution from the part of the tank that doesn't have the white stuff in it, then drain the precipitation out? I'd like to save the bleach I put in it, and it would mean moving 50 lbs of solution vs. 80 lbs of solution.

Also, what's the best way to quickly get my contact tank working correctly? Today is laundry day and I don't want to have to worry about overchlorinating my clothes!

EDIT: My wife's complaining that she took a shower in swimming pool water, but I can't smell the chlorine. Then again I'm lousy at smelling things. Perhaps I need to drain both the contact tank and hot water heater to get levels back to normal?

 

[Reach4]

Can you pull the dip tube and use a bleach bottle as a temporary solution tank?

I could not do what with mine, I don't think. I also use a solution tank, but no pump. I was accumulating white sediment over time.

So what I did is to install a soft water faucet near the solution tank, and now I add my bleach to the tank, and top up with soft water. I am not sure what that white precipitate is, but I know the bleach triggered that. I was thinking that precipitate would be fine enough to get sucked up.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[HDN]

I spent an hour and flushed both the contact tank and the hot water tank. More orange and brown water came out of the bottom of the contact tank than the hot water tank, probably meaning my 5-micron filter is working well I ran some of the fixtures in the house and waiting for my resident water tester (wife) to determine whether I've basically reset the system.

 

[Reach4]

Well done. The blow off drain for the contact tank would be for stuff at the bottom, and I expect the output of the contact tank draws from the top. So that is an important part of the filtering.

Did you just continue to draw from the bottom of the solution tank?

I presume you have a flow sensor controlling a variable rate Stenner pump, and your chlorine injector is downstream from the pressure tank.

 

[HDN]

Well done. The blow off drain for the contact tank would be for stuff at the bottom, and I expect the output of the contact tank draws from the top. So that is an important part of the filtering.

Did you just continue to draw from the bottom of the solution tank?

I presume you have a flow sensor controlling a variable rate Stenner pump, and your chlorine injector is downstream from the pressure tank.

Indeed the house water draws from the top of the contact tank with all the orange junk settling to the bottom. It took me about 10 minutes to flush the 82-gallon tank to the point it wasn't consistently coming out orange.

The pump is drawing from the upper 2/3rds of the tank that has the chlorine solution in it. Once that gets drawn down a bit I'm going to dump the tank and refill it.

The chlorine pump runs on the well pump's pressure switch. I understand that's not ideal, but it's what I have for now. The Stenner pump is also adjustable. I have it tuned to 8.5 GPD, which was the point at which we couldn't smell chlorine in the water.

 

[Bannerman]

there's about 5 gallons of white fluid at the bottom of the tank now. Is this some kind of chlorine precipitate?

Since it seems you are injecting chlorine as an oxidizer to treat ferrous (dissolved) iron and maybe other contaminant issues, then the raw well water that entered the solution tank will also contain some measure of ferrous iron and other contaminants that will have been oxidized to a ferric state and will precipitate out to form a sludge at the bottom of the solution tank.

 

[HDN]

Since it seems you are injecting chlorine as an oxidizer to treat ferrous (dissolved) iron and maybe other contaminant issues, then the raw well water that entered the solution tank will also contain some measure of ferrous iron and other contaminants that will have been oxidized to a ferric state and will precipitate out to form a sludge at the bottom of the solution tank.

That's what I was thinking. I'm not sure what formed at the bottom of the tank since it seems that iron chloride is supposed to be either orange or green. This stuff is white. It kinda looks like silver chloride, but I doubt I have silver in my well!

 

[Reach4]

I am thinking maybe calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, but it would not be a really simple equation-- because I don't suspect chlorine/chloride for the sediment.

 

[HDN]

I am thinking maybe calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, but it would not be a really simple equation-- because I don't suspect chlorine/chloride for the sediment.

When I dump the chlorine tank I'll take a sample of the water to a lab. I should take a well water sample anyway to see if there's any better way for me to treat the water. Calcium carbonate is definitely more realistic than silver chloride

I ran three loads of laundry last night and my wife tells me it all smells like chlorine. I can't smell it, but she probably can because she's growing child #3, so all those senses are, well, pretty sensitive right now I'll give it about a week's use of house water before figuring out something to do. It's possible that I threw the chlorine concentration off too by possibly adding 0.5-1 quart more per gallon when trying to balance the tank out. I might just dial back the pump in that case until I can finally normalize everything.