discoloration in toilet bowl

[spyshot]

some background...i live in the country with a private well. have a water softener and as far as i can tell it is functioning fine. have done a few hardness tests and hardness is down between 0-2. have also done iron tests and have been very low according to the test i used. here is my problem. i get a discoloration in the toilet bowl. it is seen only where the water stands when not in use. it is a medium brown color. it shows up after about a week. i have to clean it with something strong like works toilet bowl cleaner. that does a great job but it comes back quick. i used to live in town with city water and have never seen this before? how do i determine what it is and how to prevent it?

two part quesion...i also notice a rust smell in the water when i run hot water only. cold water has no odor, only hot. any ideas on what is going on? i thought it may be high iron but the test i ran dissagreed. doesn't a softener take iron out of water anyway?

thanks!
adam

 

[stevemachine]

A softner won't take out iron, you need an iron filter to do that. Also a possibility that if you have a hot water tank that it is starting to rust out, usually you would see an orangish color to the water as well. As for the rest, if you did testing I'm not sure what to say, how old is the softner? Sometimes after 5-6 yrs you need to re bed them. But I'll let the guys with a few more gray hairs Give you a better answer. Haha