Private Wells and Water Treatment

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bikerdude The tanks here are made of concrete so maybe that makes a difference.

Fiberglass or some type of plastic is an option. A few different things eat up concrete. I don't know if the salt from a softener is enough to affect it or not, but probably does not help.Our concrete tank is ~ 30 YO and no issues, even with the softener. OTOH, some of the concrete distribution boxes that divide the lines up after the tank crumbled away, they replaced them with some sort of plastic box.


-ERD50

[Purron]

Is this the coolest place or what? I appreciate all your comments and DH is quite impressed with all the good advice and hints. Please keep 'em coming if you think of anything else! In the meantime, we are going to focus on getting a water test, then having a couple of companies come out to the place to let us know what they recommend.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo . . . Not enough salt discharged into the system to do any harm to the tanks, which are made of fiberglass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Here in limestoneland our softener is set for 75 grains of hardness and even that doesn't remove all the calcium. To get really soft water we'd need to run a second softener in series - not worth it in my opinion.

REW,
I'm not sure what type of system you've got, but if your well water really has 75g/Gal of hardness, then the water coming out of a properly functioning water softener will have a sodium level of 590 ppm, plus whatever sodium was in the well water to begin with. That's over double the max level recommended for human consumption on a regular basis, so I'm hoping you're not drinking this water. I don't know if it would harm a septic tank. Of course, everything is different if you are using potassium chloride or if you're doing something else (e.g. taking your drinking water before the softener or using an RO or distillation unit to remove the sodium after softening but before drinking).

Also, your "even that doesn't remove all the calcium" comment left me wondering. With softeners I've used, the resin removes the calcium until it is "full", then the calcium is removed using the NaCl regeneration. When the softener goes back into operation it again removes almost all the calcium in the well water (and releases sodium) until the resin is "full" again If the salt dose is insufficient or the interval between regenerations is too long, then the resin will soon reach its capacity and the incoming water will (thereafter) pass right through with scarcely any softening. I'm wondering how your system isn't "removing all the calcium" during the time before the resin fills up, it seems like it should, regardless of the water hardness.