Filter Systems?

Re: Filter Systems?

The easiest was to purify it and kill the bacteria is with Ultra Violet Light. i would think that you water used in the house would be all you would need to treat. A unit with 6 gpm or so would do that. Here is a link to a low end priced one I use. About all you have to do is clean them once a year and put in a new bulb. If you have funky water you have to clean them more often, not hard to do. The light has to penetrate the water. The size bulb and the linger time is important to have the right size unit.

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/c-448-sterilight-silver-series-uv-systems.aspx

The price can go up depending on what you want to spend and the features you want.

Re: Filter Systems?

Pablo, be aware that shocking is good for a year max! After that or in less time it needs to be done again.
The 'goodies' are still coming into your well, it is just the amount of exposure you get that changes over time.

If the UV is good for what ails you , it will be permanent vs shocking at more frequent time periods.
A friend tried it on Ferro-bacter but it didn't work.
YMMV.
hth

Re: Filter Systems?

pabloesguapo wrote: »

I'm mostly worried about E Coli. The water tested positive for it, but I'm hoping a healthy chlorine shock will do the trick. If it doesn't, I really want to do something more about it.

The E coli that show up in a water test rarely cause disease. They are an indicator of surface contamination. You should do the chlorine shock, wait a few weeks, and test again. If E coli show up it means that your water system is not sealed from sources of feces. The E coli are the least of your problems, but if they can enter your water it means that other pathogens can also enter. That means, for one example, hepatitis virus.

I'm not saying that E coli in your water can never cause disease, but as a practical matter they are an indicator of surface contamination. Much easier to test for than viruses.

--vtMaps

Re: Filter Systems?

vtmaps wrote: »

The E coli that show up in a water test rarely cause disease. They are an indicator of surface contamination. You should do the chlorine shock, wait a few weeks, and test again. If E coli show up it means that your water system is not sealed from sources of feces. The E coli are the least of your problems, but if they can enter your water it means that other pathogens can also enter. That means, for one example, hepatitis virus.

I'm not saying that E coli in your water can never cause disease, but as a practical matter they are an indicator of surface contamination. Much easier to test for than viruses.

--vtMaps

Totally agree. Shock it - - wait - - then recheck. If there is surface leakage, try to fix it. One way is to build up soil around the well, compacting it as you go, until finally the land is sloped away from the well in all directions. Then seed it with grass to hold everything in place, give it a chance to settle and mature, (until that time, you may get a bit of muddy water in the well during heavy rain storms, but that will end as the repair matures) then you may need one final shock and recheck after a wait. A properly constructed well is far better than having to have filters etc. Also keep in mind that possibly without exception, all lakes are "polluted" with E-Coli, and unless they are polluted to the extreme, people do swim in them every day in warm weather when such contamination is at it's worst. The swimmers do regularly ingest that lake water in the process, yet, again except for very heavy contamination, none get sick. There tends to be so much hype over the death of anyone if they ever happen to get sick from drinking water, like a death in air travel, that it's got a lot of people turning to bottled water, much to the delight of big business. Around these parts, in my younger years, it was common for folk to place a trout or two in their well (not drilled wells of course) to "keep the well clean". Well guess what comes out of the rear end of fish! Those fish often lived for years in the wells, and all who drank the water lived to a ripe old age. I wouldn't drink the fish-water now, as just the thoughts of it would turn me off, but as a child, that was just the way it was done and no one ever questioned it. It was "normal".

Re: Filter Systems?

Another option is Ozonisation. Excellent for killing most pathogens in drinking water. The ozone is bubbled through the water and is not as affected by turbidity in the water as UV disinfection.
A better choice than chlorine.

Re: Filter Systems?

I'm going to build a filter system that wont need to be replaced for some time, and can be back flushed.

4inch pipe stuffed with layers of charcoal, limestone gravel, and cotton. I figure about 5 foot of pipe should do it. charcoal is used in a lot of decontamination units, it will filter out any bacteria, limestone purifies and the cotton is just a particle filter.

for the back flush, 2 valve can be used on the same end , 1 to close off the source water and the other to open the waste opening.

should last 5- 10 years before it needs replaced

Re: Filter Systems?

Blackcherry04 wrote: »

Before trying a home made filtering system most would well served to study the process. You can end up with your life in the balance and the rest of your family along with you. We have lost our immunity to lots of the stuff that was in our water sources growing up as most of us have had treated water and there are many more pollutants than there once was.
.

So true! And the thoughts on us loosing immunity to what once was in our water - - reminds me of something that stunned me as a child. There were a couple of old ladies living on their farm not far from where I lived. They grew up there and they died there. Their water source? A small well about 100 feet down hill from the manure pile by their cattle barn! Why was the well there? Very likely because that's where a "Water Witcher" told them to put it. In those days no one in their right mind would consider digging a well without first consulting a Witcher. And still today I'm shocked at the large percentage of folks who still believe in such superstitions.
You can imagine what took place with their well every time a heavy rainstorm washed manure down the hill, yet they both lived into their mid to late 90's!
In more modern humans, one drink from that well would likely land us in hospital - - or worse.

Re: Filter Systems?

Wayne. I didn,t know where my septic tank was. A person witched it for me and I found it with the first shovel of dirt, right on the lid.
:Dsolarvic:D