Well water problem after disinfection

hogie89

Hi,

I recently purchased a house and I had the water tested. The results came back that the water has some bacteria in it, so were we told to disinfect the well which we did with by pouring a mixture if Milton and water down the well, waiting for 24 hours and then running the water until the smell of Milton was gone.

Since this was done, we have had a considerable amount of black dirt in the water but the water colour was still ok. I thought it was just the loose pieces from the side of the well casing that had dislodged when the Milton was poured down the well. In the meantime I went on a weeks holidays hoping that the dirt would settle as the water was not used for a week but when I came back it is still there.

Now what is starting to happen is every now and again the water out of the tap turns brown for 3-4 seconds and then returns to its normal colour.


Any ideas what cold be happening here or has this happened to anyone before.

Any help much appreciated.

foxy farmer

It could be a type of scale that builds up on the pipe. I have a similar problem here and gets very bad in freezing temperatures as a section of the pipe is very close to the surface. It can be specks or larger flakes but is very soft if rubbed between the fingers. I had to install a screen on the pipe coming to the house as it was clogging the dishwasher and washing machine. The surge in pressure when the pump starts and a tap is open flushes the flecks out.

sky6

It sounds more like an Iron and Manganese problem which is quite common in Ireland. It may disappear with usage of the Well. If not then it needs to be treated.

pm sent.

hogie89

sky6 wrote: »

It sounds more like an Iron and Manganese problem which is quite common in Ireland. It may disappear with usage of the Well. If not then it needs to be treated.

pm sent.

Pm sent?

Ye someone said that to me also but when the water test came back the maganese level was well below the acceptable drinking water values. However the iron level was 10 times the acceptable value.

What's troubleing me is why the water is turning brown every now and then, but before we disinfected the well this wasn't happening.

foxy farmer

hogie89 wrote: »

Pm sent?

Ye someone said that to me also but when the water test came back the maganese level was well below the acceptable drinking water values. However the iron level was 10 times the acceptable value.

What's troubleing me is why the water is turning brown every now and then, but before we disinfected the well this wasn't happening.

Is it an orange rust brown or dark brown?Could be an after effect of the milton. The milton could be after softening a rust build up in the system and its being flushed out when the pump starts.
I have a deep well here that i don't use unless other well goes low. It has a rust problem. When i put it going it takes nearly an hour for water to run clear. Stop it for a week and put it going again and its as bad as ever.
In the last fortnight i had to replace the pump. It was installed new back in 04 and is down 340ft. It was clogged solid with rust. I dismantled it and put the pieces in a bath of milking machine descaler. They came out spotless but it took a week of soaking to shift the rust scale. I'll be pulling this one up in 2020 and soaking it before it blocks up again.

jack o shea

Can anyone tell me can sulphuric acid still be purchased and is it the right stuff to use to clean pump when I pull it up out of well?

my3cents

jack o shea wrote: »

Can anyone tell me can sulphuric acid still be purchased and is it the right stuff to use to clean pump when I pull it up out of well?

No idea about it being the right stuff for the job but you can get it easily enough in the bigger hardware stores and builders merchants as drain cleaner.

my3cents

foxy farmer wrote: »

It could be a type of scale that builds up on the pipe. I have a similar problem here and gets very bad in freezing temperatures as a section of the pipe is very close to the surface. It can be specks or larger flakes but is very soft if rubbed between the fingers. I had to install a screen on the pipe coming to the house as it was clogging the dishwasher and washing machine. The surge in pressure when the pump starts and a tap is open flushes the flecks out.

The pump picture looks to me like an Iron Ochre problem, caused by dissolved iron in the water being "eaten" by a bacteria and turning the iron into insoluble iron oxide. When there is no oxygen in the deep layers of the soil the bacteria can't work but as soon as the iron is moved into a drain or well in contact with oxygen off the bacteria go. Not a problem you can fix after the fact, although I've read that you can kill off all the (harmless) bacteria if you put enough resources into it. Having had the problem I feel not putting a well where there is iron is a better solution and if the iron is comming from the higher levels of the well a waterproof liner from the top down below those layers can also help prevent it.

I used to have spring fed drinking troughs that over winter would go to an orange jelly that in the worst cases went hard and needed shoveling out.

Edit> Some useful info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_bacteria .