Hi there, first post on this forum and I'm a COMPLETE amateur so apologies if anything I say is stupid 
quite a long question here but I've been worrying about this a lot!
I live in rural Spain in the mountains. We moved into this house a few months ago. Our water comes from an ancient Moorish 'acequia' system which is basically a manmade stream from a spring that is located perhaps a mile or so up from my house, which is shared on a rota by the neighbourhood. As such each home is responsible for its own sterilization/purification. There is a portion of the acequia near the spring where it is open and exposed to air, then it is piped once it reaches the outskirts of 'civilization'.
The acequia flows through this very rudimentary and not particularly well-maintained system into a 40,000 liter concrete tank in our garden. The outlet for the water is set a bit above the floor to minimize sediment but it is generally not a very clean tank. The worst problem with the tank is that we need to fill it every few weeks and in doing so it kicks up all the sediment. The previous owners sterilized the water using a chlorine system but we decided to go UV on the advice of a plumber here. I want to stress at this point that almost nothing in this area is done properly, as far as construction/engineering/systems is concerned, so we have to always assume the worst.
So this is the system he implemented and sorry if I'm describing this poorly I have about 24 hours of experience in this domain.
Tank-->Tap-->Sediment Filter (5 Micron, 2.5x10") --> Pump --> UV light --> House
The UV system is a Viqua D4 and can comfortably handle the maximum flow rate exerted by the pump BUT has a lower maximum operating pressure (125 psi) than the pump's maximum pressure (150 psi).
So after a bit of googling I've identified a few things that I'd like you guys to verify/dismiss and add to if i've missed anything:
1) Is the pump in danger of breaking the uv bulb and poisoning us all with mercury if it tries to pull water through a clogged filter and ramps up the pressure to beyond the point that the UV system can handle?
2) Should I add another larger 4.5 * 10" 5 micron sediment filter before the existing 2.5x10 and convert the smaller filter into either a carbon or 1 micron filter? (There is no agriculture/industry anything up the hill around the open acequia that might create chemicals). Most of the time there's just two of us in the house, which is a 4 bedroom house.
3) Is the configuration of components all wrong? I think if there was no filter before the pump then there would be significant large sediment travelling through the pump.
4) Do I need a water softener before the system to stop the quartz sleeve murking up? (I'm reluctant to totally neutralize our spring water which people come from all over the country to collect)
5) Am I worrying too much about this when a good number of people around here drink the water straight from the acequia and get on with their lives?
6) If 'no' to question 5, then what else should I be worrying about?
Sorry for the length of the question!
quite a long question here but I've been worrying about this a lot!I live in rural Spain in the mountains. We moved into this house a few months ago. Our water comes from an ancient Moorish 'acequia' system which is basically a manmade stream from a spring that is located perhaps a mile or so up from my house, which is shared on a rota by the neighbourhood. As such each home is responsible for its own sterilization/purification. There is a portion of the acequia near the spring where it is open and exposed to air, then it is piped once it reaches the outskirts of 'civilization'.
The acequia flows through this very rudimentary and not particularly well-maintained system into a 40,000 liter concrete tank in our garden. The outlet for the water is set a bit above the floor to minimize sediment but it is generally not a very clean tank. The worst problem with the tank is that we need to fill it every few weeks and in doing so it kicks up all the sediment. The previous owners sterilized the water using a chlorine system but we decided to go UV on the advice of a plumber here. I want to stress at this point that almost nothing in this area is done properly, as far as construction/engineering/systems is concerned, so we have to always assume the worst.
So this is the system he implemented and sorry if I'm describing this poorly I have about 24 hours of experience in this domain.
Tank-->Tap-->Sediment Filter (5 Micron, 2.5x10") --> Pump --> UV light --> House
The UV system is a Viqua D4 and can comfortably handle the maximum flow rate exerted by the pump BUT has a lower maximum operating pressure (125 psi) than the pump's maximum pressure (150 psi).
So after a bit of googling I've identified a few things that I'd like you guys to verify/dismiss and add to if i've missed anything:
1) Is the pump in danger of breaking the uv bulb and poisoning us all with mercury if it tries to pull water through a clogged filter and ramps up the pressure to beyond the point that the UV system can handle?
2) Should I add another larger 4.5 * 10" 5 micron sediment filter before the existing 2.5x10 and convert the smaller filter into either a carbon or 1 micron filter? (There is no agriculture/industry anything up the hill around the open acequia that might create chemicals). Most of the time there's just two of us in the house, which is a 4 bedroom house.
3) Is the configuration of components all wrong? I think if there was no filter before the pump then there would be significant large sediment travelling through the pump.
4) Do I need a water softener before the system to stop the quartz sleeve murking up? (I'm reluctant to totally neutralize our spring water which people come from all over the country to collect)
5) Am I worrying too much about this when a good number of people around here drink the water straight from the acequia and get on with their lives?
6) If 'no' to question 5, then what else should I be worrying about?
Sorry for the length of the question!
