Is this media or is this from my well?

[Charlie Bosco]

Hey all. Is this media or sand from my well? I have my water treatment backwash into the pvc pipe in the photo that takes it about 12 feet to the back of my pump house. I have an AIO Katalox tank, a Catalytic Carbon tank and a kinetico softener. None of the media in those tanks looks like this. It very very light and very uniform in size. Apparently this stuff clogged the drain and it started shooting out the top of the drain and building up. It's been about 2 weeks since I remember being back there. So it's recent.
Anyway. I cleared the drain and set the Katalox to backwash and the carbon tank immediately after. Nothing came out.
I have a 50micron spin down filter that I had removed the screen since my Katalox is supposed to filter to like 3microns. I decided to put the screen back in last night. I checked it this morning after the nightly bw and it was still clear.
Sooo. What could this be? I remember adding a base in my tanks when I added media but cannot remember what it looked like. Also. It was on the bottom so how would that escape and leave the other media?

 

[Valveman]

It doesn't look like any sand I have seen come from wells or used to gravel pack wells. If it went through the pump, I doubt the pump would still be working.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[bingow]

Reminds me of fresh cuttings from our well's drilling. Maybe not quite as fine as in your photo, but close. Long gone after 20+ years or I would send a photo.

 

[Charlie Bosco]

It doesn't look like any sand I have seen come from wells or used to gravel pack wells. If it went through the pump, I doubt the pump would still be working.

So we did have an interesting phenomenon during the time this happened. We had a small tornado touch down on our property. Destroyed a couple of 30 foot trees and a greenhouse. Could that negative pressure affect a well? The stuff is very clean and uniform. And quite a bit.

 

[Charlie Bosco]

It doesn't look like any sand I have seen come from wells or used to gravel pack wells. If it went through the pump, I doubt the pump would still be working.

Could this have been in my Katalox or carbon tank? I seem to remember some tiny gravel base in my carbon tank when I emptied it to rebed it. Nothing this fine.

 

[Chucky_ott]

I hesitated before even suggesting this but when you mentioned tornado, I figured I'd bring it up. Are you sure those granules are coming from your water system's piping? Or is it just because of where you found them. I ask because to me, those look like the granules from a shingle roof.

 

[Charlie Bosco]

I hesitated before even suggesting this but when you mentioned tornado, I figured I'd bring it up. Are you sure those granules are coming from your water system's piping? Or is it just because of where you found them. I ask because to me, those look like the granules from a shingle roof.

Since the drain pipe was totally filled with it and the rest around the pipe. My system is still eliminating sulfur. I have not noticed any other issues. Just that it was so much of it.

 

[Chucky_ott]

Is that frog ornament connected to a downspout?

 

[Charlie Bosco]

Is that frog ornament connected to a downspout?

Haha. It's just laying against it for camo.

 

[Chucky_ott]

Do these granules match the colour of your roof? High winds and rain from the tornado may have dislodged the granules from your roof and whatever you had in the gutters (could be years worth of accumulation in there. And then everything flowed down the downspout at that location.

I know that when I clear out my gutters every year or so, it is filled with the brown granules from my roof.

 

[Reach4]

Apparently this stuff clogged the drain and it started shooting out the top of the drain and building up. It's been about 2 weeks since I remember being back there. So it's recent.

The drain? Is that an outdoor grate, or are you referring to something else, such as a drain line that carries backwash water outdoors.

Somebody may have decided that was a good place to dump kitty litter.

 

[Charlie Bosco]

The drain? Is that an outdoor grate, or are you referring to something else, such as a drain line that carries backwash water outdoors.

Somebody may have decided that was a good place to dump kitty litter.

Its just a length of pipe to run the backwash through to route it to the rear of the pump house and into the grass. I am so confused by this.. What other media is used as a base for either Katalox or Carbon? FYI, The katalox tank is a Vortech tank.

 

[Reach4]

With a Vortech tank, I would not expect any base.

Your picture might look similar to

REFUSED

Filter-Ag® Filter Media 28.3L

-Ag is a filter media based on non-aqueous silica dioxide. It is designed to reduce contents of suspended particles in water. low pressure loss at the Filter-Ag bed compared to other filter media lightweight reduces water consumption during backwash high efficiency results in lower expenses...

briowt.com

 

[Charlie Bosco]

With a Vortech tank, I would not expect any base.

Your picture might look similar to

REFUSED

Filter-Ag® Filter Media 28.3L

-Ag is a filter media based on non-aqueous silica dioxide. It is designed to reduce contents of suspended particles in water. low pressure loss at the Filter-Ag bed compared to other filter media lightweight reduces water consumption during backwash high efficiency results in lower expenses...

briowt.com

Just reading this.. Looks similar but thats very uniform. Mine clearly looks like sand from the well point. This really has me stumped. Not unless its from my Kinetico Water Softener. But I'd think it would shoot the Resin out as well.

Could it be possible if there was some big shift underground and the it all got sucked in? The first place it would end up is my Katalox tank. And that gets Backwashed every evening. Once the sand around the well point cleared after a few days it all stopped. I have been monitoring my spin down and there is still nothing in it.

Again, wild shot in the dark. The tornado that passed just before I saw all this could have created such a negative pressure that it caused my well base to shift? I know crazy but its the only connection I can make. for the heck of it I asked ChatGPT. Check this out. I locked in on Groundwater Movement

 

[Bannerman]

Gravel utilized in a regular media tank, is normally heavier than the media and so will not become lifted during the backwash cycle unless the drain flow rate is extreme. If the drain flow rate is excessive enough to eliminate the gravel through the control valve drain line at the top of the tank, then there will likely be very little media remaining in the tank as it most likely will have been backwashed out before the gravel.

If your tank is equipped with a Vortech platform tank, then no gravel should be utilized.

If the basket screen at the bottom of the tank is compromised, that could allow media and gravel to escape into the home's plumbing system, not out through the drain line.

A K brand water softener, is not normally equipped with bedding gravel since the tank size is usually too small to include gravel and provide much softening capacity.

 

[Charlie Bosco]

Gravel utilized in a regular media tank, is normally heavier than the media and so will not become lifted during the backwash cycle unless the drain flow rate is extreme. If the drain flow rate is excessive enough to eliminate the gravel through the control valve drain line at the top of the tank, then there will likely be very little media remaining in the tank as it most likely will have been backwashed out before the gravel.

If your tank is equipped with a Vortech platform tank, then no gravel should be utilized.

If the basket screen at the bottom of the tank is compromised, that could allow media and gravel to escape into the home's plumbing system, not out through the drain line.

A K brand water softener, is not normally equipped with bedding gravel since the tank size is usually too small to include gravel and provide much softening capacity.

Thanks! Again this confirms it had to have been ingested by my well and caught in my Katalox filter. It's like a wall collapsed deep in the well. It's clear now for weeks. So hoping it stays an anomaly.