2 months ago we bought a new place and it has a well. A couple of weeks in and the water started to get nasty. It was blackish and stunk bad. I poured a couple gallons of bleach in the water, let it sit and then ran it out. All was good for a while, then the salt pickup on my water softner plugged up and it took me a while to figure it, so we had pretty hard water for a while. Got that fixed and now it seems to be going back to black and smelly. Should I just bleach it again and see what happens or is this a sympton of a bigger problem. Thanks for any help.
Well water question
- Thread starter shutupandride
- Start date
When I was a kid we had to do the bleach thing once a month. We used bottled water to drink.
It could be a number of things. I suggest getting it tested. If it is Iron/Manganese then it is a naturally occuring mineral that you will never be able to get rid of, however, you can treat it to remove these minerals. See the following to see if that seems to be your problem:
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g1714/build/g1714.pdf
http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/safedrink/iron.htm
If it bacteriological, then you can treat it with a chlorination system.
Again, the first step in treating it would be to find out what you are up against. Also, knowing how deep the well is, how close you are to neighbors are, and what is the adjacent land being used for will help.
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g1714/build/g1714.pdf
http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/safedrink/iron.htm
If it bacteriological, then you can treat it with a chlorination system.
Again, the first step in treating it would be to find out what you are up against. Also, knowing how deep the well is, how close you are to neighbors are, and what is the adjacent land being used for will help.
you just have bad water. manganese in your water. there are ways to treat it but a good softner is the best bet. it can be costly to treat it too. when you chlorinate your well don't use bleach. it's 0nly 5% chlorine. use pool shock which is 65% and use a pound of it. it granular and dissolve it in a bucket and dump down the well.
another way to treat manganese (rotten egg smell) is to have a well driller change your pressure tank to an old style galvanized tank with an air bleeder system and use an air injection system. when the water mixes with air in the tank it will lose the smell and you wont smell it at the tap. you only smell it when it first makes contact with air
The problem with that is that the Iron and Manganese will stay dissolved until the water picks up oxygen. Once you expose it to air, these minerals will start to oxidize and precipitate out of the water. Make sure you have a way to get rid of these precipitates that will fall to the bottom of the tank, or you could plug things up. You may also want to consider installing a filter that will catch these solids and remove them from the water before they get to the various fixtures in the house.
If it was oil I wouldn't complain
Don't think I'm that luckyIt sat for 2 weeks at most, probably less
S
snowhawkaddict
Banned
Stop with the Bleach allready!
That's what caused the blackish water, you killed off all the Bact. living on the walls doing it's part.
Water the grass for a while, might go blonde, but prob. has dissappated by now. Get a large I mean l,500gal storage tank or so, put a roof over it to slow down the sun from cracking it, have drawdown pipe go from bottom to top leaving from the bottom drill holes all the way up, fill and let it settle.
Take some samples with bottles provided from a certified lab they will help you with the problem by determining what it is.
Bleaching/clorination is only needed if there is a constant bad
bact. issue, don't ruin your waters natural taste because it's got some licorice in it.
Tony Sexton
Water works certification No. 007431 valid 2009 certified CCS, WDMIII, WDS issued from Washington State Department of Health.
Snow Hawk's have been way cooler but much more expensive to deal with than being there at 8AM Mon-Fri.
May have to get back in if you Repubs. don't start spending all that moola you printed!
That's what caused the blackish water, you killed off all the Bact. living on the walls doing it's part.
Water the grass for a while, might go blonde, but prob. has dissappated by now. Get a large I mean l,500gal storage tank or so, put a roof over it to slow down the sun from cracking it, have drawdown pipe go from bottom to top leaving from the bottom drill holes all the way up, fill and let it settle.
Take some samples with bottles provided from a certified lab they will help you with the problem by determining what it is.
Bleaching/clorination is only needed if there is a constant bad
bact. issue, don't ruin your waters natural taste because it's got some licorice in it.Tony Sexton
Water works certification No. 007431 valid 2009 certified CCS, WDMIII, WDS issued from Washington State Department of Health.
Snow Hawk's have been way cooler but much more expensive to deal with than being there at 8AM Mon-Fri.
May have to get back in if you Repubs. don't start spending all that moola you printed!
B
bullfrog123
ACCOUNT CLOSED
Mine did same thing about 7 yrs ago. Blackish color, but not much odor. Ended up being a bearing on the pump went to chit and leaked oil into the water. Had to replace the pump and all was well again.
Take a sample to your local county extention office, or similar dept, and see what they say.
Take a sample to your local county extention office, or similar dept, and see what they say.
The posts about the smell is correct, it could also be amounts of sulfur but that is more unlikely, the black color comes from a bacteria that feeds on naturally occuring iron in the water (iron bacteria) however bleaching the bacteria is not the way to go
