acid water vs iron


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Old 04-06-11, 07:52 AM
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acid water vs iron

I've been working with some of this Rust Out powder to clean the iron out of my softner. The Rust Out looks a lot like the stuff that I used to add to the pool to add acid and the labeling lists stuff that is mostly acid. Would HCl do the same thing?

My question is. If one had a well that was more acid it would seem to imply that the water would not have iron in it since the acid would dissolve it. Is that a correct conclusion?

In my case my well water is not acid and has iron in it. That's why the softner is loaded with this reddish brown gunk. I haven't treated it for iron in 10+ years. Its a miracle it works at all.

Don
 
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Old 04-06-11, 01:31 PM
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No, acidic water can still contain hugh levels of iron.

You may have a bacterial iron (slimy gunk). It might be a good idea tosanitize the tanks and rebed with new resins. The valve may be affected by iton build up, too.

What does the bottom of the brine tank look like? Dirty?
 
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Old 04-06-11, 01:42 PM
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Iron&acid

I have iron and acid, I nuturalize the acid with a chemical [soda ash] feeder, I have a water softner that besides softening the water, it also removes the iron. In my case I have to run about a cup of iron out through the softener every 8 cycles and that takes care of the iron. Someday I will get city water, as it's coming toward my neighborhood.
Sid
 
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Old 04-07-11, 05:52 AM
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I had not heard of bacterial iron. You may be right. I do collect a lot of red slimey gunk in the particulate filters ahead of the softner itself. However, there was no gunk in the bottom of the tank. I have used HCl or rust out to clean out the filter holders before the softner. It foams it right out. I didn't realize that the resin was accumulating it as well. Most of neighbors (we are all on deep wells) observe this in their filters as well. I should mention that there is H2S too. Most of it leaves when the well water is spewed into a storage/aereation tank although sometimes I smell it from the hot water.

I had another similar softner that was used in more acidic water and there was practically no red in it. So I used the resin tank from it. That's what prompted the acid/iron question. It was also much newer. However, since it was used in a more acidic environmnet there was some deterioration of the polystyrene foam float so I didn't use that portion of it.

For drinking, I run this thru a UV and RO system which works very well.

All of this was uncovered when the rotor valve got stuck on the softner. As I took it all appart one discovery led to another. I learned a lot in the past week. :thinking:

From now on I'll put some of the rust out into the brine well periodically as well as chlorox to decontaminate.



I am in process of adding a rain collection system. When that happens the chemistry will change yet again. Softning will become less of a requirement although I will have water from both. With rain water I'll probably be adding soda ash too.

Wow, this was a long reply.

Don
 
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Old 04-07-11, 10:59 AM
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Originally Posted by wa5ngp
From now on I'll put some of the rust out into the brine well periodically as well as chlorox to decontaminate.

Don
Chlorine will gradually destroy your softener resin so, at a minimum, use as little as possible.

A longer run solution may be to chlorinate your water before it goes into the storage/aereation tank and then dechlorinate it using a backwashing carbon filter before it goes into the softener. Chlorination will deal with any bacteria problem, the h2s problem, and the iron. It would allow you to remove the UV system and the mechanical filters you are currently using--most crud would precipitate out in the storage tank and any remaining would be filtered by the backwashing carbon filter.
 
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Old 04-07-11, 06:49 PM
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Iron

If your water is passing through an air-ation system for H2S the iron is being oxidized during that process. That is why there is the heavy build up in pre-filter. DO NOT mix Iron Out and Bleach!!! Iron out alone is fine. Since the iron is being oxidized a Multi-Media or Depth filter may be the better solution to remove this iron and do away with the pre-filter. Flush the pressure tank also for oxidized iron. This iron can plug the lines from point of oxidation to filtering point.
RJ
 
 

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