Drinking Cape Cod Tap Water Makes for a Wonky Gut

The blue tank on the left is the well pump pressure tank. The blue tank on the right is a backwashed acid neutralizer (AN) filter. The disposable cartridge filter is a sediment filter and is plumbed wrong; after the AN filter. It can be removed because there will be no sediment getting through the AN filter. The AN filter uses sacrificial mineral that needs to be replenished periodically. I do not agree with replacing it annually or otherwise. I have sold installed and serviced many AN filters over 21 years. The AN filter should be backwashed every 3 to 4 days as long as the raw water to it is always clear.

IIRC the AN filter is an Ametek/Cuno. Usually sold by plumbing supply houses to plumbers.

Dad should keep what is there and change it but not replace it.

The disposable cartridge filter is not needed before or after the AN filter but... if no bacteria is found in the water test, change the cartridge(s) to two 2.5" x 10" or a 2.5" x 20" GAC. That will remove odor.

IMO the Sentry 1 open air is overkill and very pricey. If there is bacteria, a UV light after the disposable filter would be a good choice and much less expensive ($. The maintenance will be higher if there is more than 5 gpg of hardness in the water after the AN filter but all that is needed is cleaning of the quartz sleeve like every 3 months rather than once per year. They would change the lamp and sanitize the plumbing past the light once a year.

Then an RO under the kitchen sink or there in the basement with a 3/8" line upstairs to the RO faucet on the kitchen sink counter.

Should the sediment filter be first in line (before the pressure tank)?

It seem to me that should be the case otherwise pressure tank ends up with sand and rust paticulates in it.

Certainly it should be before the acid neutralising tank. It just seems pretty basic to me to have the primary sediment filter prior to any other treatment but I'm just a handyman not a filter pro.

Perhaps its actually intended to be a secondary filter.

An Acid Neutralizer is also a self cleaning filter. Set it up to backwash daily and you don't need a pre or post sediment filter.

You don't want to install filters ahead of the pressure tank, it does act as a sediment filter and needs to be flushed periodically.

Why not?

Im learning about house systems here Gary and H@) MAN. So , what youre recommending is to
1 PARTICLE FILTER

2 GAC and a UV

3 RAISE THE PH

4 TREAMENT CELLS AND AN RO UNIT




Is that the sequence youve reccomended?
Most house wells (unless you have a farm) are run with 3/4 HP sub pumps that produce about 9-10 gpm of water froma max of about 200 feet. I believe that your dads well is not 200 feet deep. Ive got a water record list for the CApe and most wells are under 150 ft, and are SCREENED to a shallow aquifer that is from 75 to 120 ft. Its opossible to produce a lot of water but youre limited by your pump so 10 gpm may be more than you need.I believe its easiier to throttle back the well pump than to use up more tretment capacity.(I have no idea how much difference were talking about for a 5 v a 10 gpm uni)

If test results indicate you require an Acid Neutralizer it is your #1 filter. Backwash daily and eliminate the particle filter.
All additional equipment (GAC, UV, softener, treatment cells and RO etc.) are installed after the Acid Neutralizer filter.
The selection of any additional equipment depends on what is in your water and just how good you want/need your water to be.

HTH ~

I have 18 years experience as a well pump and pressure tank dealer. I've serviced and replaced many shallow and deep well jet pumps and 2 and 3 wire submersible pumps and pressure tanks.

You never want anything that can block up, like a sediment cartridge filter, between a submersible pump and its controlling pressure switch. Many bad things can happen to the pump and drop pipe; that's the plumbing down the well to the pump or a jet pump's foot valve. The same applies to a jet pump with the pressure switch not installed on the pump. Especially a two line deep well jet pump.

A pressure tank does not need sediment free water. Very dirty water will not harm them or void any warranties. There is absolutely no reason for a filter ahead of a pressure tank. Submersible pumps can build very high pressures and blow themselves off the drop pipe or damage the drop pipe etc..

You do not want any sediment filter ahead of a down flow/backwashed AN filter. They filter down to at least 20 micron. We can not see particles below 50-45 microns. So why filter clear water? A backwashed AN filter is an excellent sediment filter and your water will stop flowing through one before you can ever get sediment through it. The mineral in an AN filter is at least 30" deep, any sediment is trapped on and in the first few inches of the bed depth. The water flow down through the mineral.

Upflow AN filters do not backwash and require a sediment prefilter.

You don't need a sediment filter after an AN filter either.

I have sold, installed and serviced hundreds of UV lights; many under Federal FHA/VA and PA DEP State government regulations. Many of those UV lights were installed in commercial locations that had to have bacteria tests done quarterly (every 3 months). I sold and installed my first UV light under State regs in 1990.

All UV lights need to be installed last in line when other water treatment equipment is in place. You can check that out with any UV light manufacturer. All UV lights require very 'clean' water running through them or the glass like quartz sleeve will get a film on it that reduces the invisible UV light from going through the quartz into the water, so no disinfection is done, or it's not sufficient.

Bacteria breed exceedingly well in carbon because carbon collects organic matter that bacteria feed on and carbon has a very large surface area to do that with.

Order is : pressure tank, AN filter backwashed every 3-4 days, sediment filter with a clear sump so you can see the cartridge and that enables you to sanitize the light and plumbing, the UV light and then the carbon filter for odor. If a softener, it goes in ahead of the clear sump filter before the UV light; IOWs after the AN filter.

Cool, thanks. In community well systems we always just pump the water into a large AST and all treatmemnt comes later. We use "Soft start" pumping systems so that , if we throttle em back we can. Usually the larger systems(>1000 gpm) will have a bank of pumps that sequentially kick in and run in series depending on demand.



Thanks for the info. Do people still use jet pumps?? I thought that ever since Grunfos and Gould made those cute little 2" OD units that the jet pump wouldve been displaced.

I think that , if LittleK's dad does have a asulfate problem, a UV filter for bacteria may not be the best thing because sulfate salts, when they reach equilibrium and plate out, they will precipitate this white crud that will fog up the glass tube on the unit. Doesnt the UV need ultra-clear water to work properly

I still see plenty of jet pumps on bored wells here...

You are correct about the UV needing ultra clear H2O to perform as advertised.

The only 2" submersibles pumps I know of are for sampling, not production. The smallest submersible used in wells is 3" and they are quite expensive. They are a good choice to replace packer jet pumps, or 4" subs in 4" wells that are very common in some areas that also use well point type wells; the upper midwest States and south eastern US but especially FL.

A CSV, www.Cycle Stop Valve.com, and a small pressure tank is a great option for residential and commercial wells and municipal water systems. It provides constant pressure with a regular well submersible pump. It prevents the need for water towers and extra pumps.

Sulfates won't film over the quartz sleeve to any negative degree. No UV light manufacturer or the EPA calls for any pretreatment for sulfates. Iron, manganese, H2S and 'higher' than 5-7 gpg hardness cause problems. Hardness can be worked around if the quartz sleeve is cleaned every 3-4 months.

I sold many UV lights with true 254 NM wave length light monitor systems. They alarm (visual and audio) when the dose/intensity falls below a manufacturer set set point. I never had problems with lights not working as long as the maintenance was done on a timely basis; at least annually. And many of them where in commercial locations with quarterly testing being done by State certified labs that collected the samples themselves.

Many of those lights have been in operation for 15+ years. And when an alarm condition happened, which was also for lamp failure, I was sure to hear about it. The last was three weeks ago.

K.I.S.S.
littlek, IMHO your situation would best be resolved if you added the
Open air system I suggested earlier and a single backwashing GAC filter.

Dump the cartridge filter and forget about the UV and RO.

I think it's time fo my dad to read this thread.

Great stuff, thanks all.

Ah! Reverse osmosis!

Thanks for the quick link!

Littlek, this water has no need for open air aeration treatment such as the Sentry 1 Open Air system. In your case it is being misapplied. To check that out, you can call Lenny at BWI and ask him.

You could use the Sentry 1 pellet dropper that installs on the well casing, they work well but, they can also cause serious and expensive problems for a submersible pump, drop pipe and power cable. I've sold them since the mid '90s. They require a backwashed turbidity filter after the pressure tank. I use Centaur carbon.

Chlorine, hydrogen peroxide and ozone are oxidizers and disinfectants. Oxidizers are used to treat iron, manganese, H2S (sulfur rotten egg odor) and to kill all types of bacteria. Air/aeration is an oxidizer but it is not a disinfectant. All open air aeration systems (atmospheric storage) are used to strip dissolved gases from water such as Radon, methane, high DO and CO2 along with VOCs etc..

I suggest this system is a better choice. It is much less expensive, takes up less space while weighing hundreds of pounds less.

Both the inline erosion pellet chlorinator I suggest and the Sentry 1 Open Air require a backwashed Centaur carbon filter to remove any 'dirt' from the water that chlorination causes and the taste and smell of the chlorine. I suggest

Filters must be correctly sized for the SFR (service flow rate) required by the building's peak demand flow rate gpm. The same for a softener. Otherwise the filter/softener can not remove all of whatever it is supposed to remove from the water.

The Sentry 1 Open Air system is a much better system than the pellet dropper ever was and it is superior to the inline pellet chlorinator that others sell.

Also, Centaur GAC is not needed after the Open Air chlorination system, regular coconut shell GAC in a 10" x 54" tank with a hi-flow control valve is all you need. Centaur is excellent for hydrogen sulphide reduction when chlorination is not used. Centaur is more than double the price of coconut shell GAC and totally wasted on a chlorination system.

You say a lot of things but you don't say anything to support what you suggest...

Why do they need the aeration part of the Sentry 1 Open Air system?

Doesn't the Sentry 1 Open Air system include the Sentry 1 pellet dropper?

Again, why do they need aeration when the water is going to be chlorinated with the Sentry 1 pellet dropper in the Open Air system?

A 10" x 54" tank is used for a 1.5 cuft filter. The flow rate of the control valve has little if anything to do with the flow rate of the filter. The flow rate of the control dictates what size tank it can service.

No problem

I'm here to help.

The Sentry 1 pellet dropper is part of the Sentry 1 Open Air, it's also part of the NAME of the equipment you are suggesting! It's the black thing that sticks out the top of the SENTRY 1 Open Air tank. I believe it may say Sentry 1 on its black cover...

It appears that you do not know what you're talking about. You might want to call BWI/Lenny and learn more about his products. Or simply read the description at the link you put up.

Again, why does Littlek's Dad need aeration with the use of chlorine; they both oxidize but only chlorine disinfects.

The Sentry 1 Open Air will cost 3 times the price of the inline pellet chlorinator and special mixing tank. Centaur carbon lasts years longer than coconut or other carbons.