Greensand and sediment filter and I still have manganese in drinking water

[toomanyfilters]

Forgive me if I don't use all the right terms, I'm a female and trying my hardest not to be clueless.

Located in NH. Well is less than 3 years old. We have a greensand filter and a sediment filter (sediment filter is after greensand) and we are still getting manganese in our water.

After 1.5 years we started getting orange tinted water again. Filter company came out and replaced the filler within the greensand filter and also added a sediment filter.

I waited over a month for the orange water to go away, and it did, in the cold water but we were still seeing it in the hot water only. So, we drained the hot water heater 4 times. It didn't clear up the water.

We got a new coffee maker that required us to run just water through it before using to brew and we noticed that we would put in cold, clear water and out would come orange tinted water. So, we put some cold water into a bowl and microwaved it. It came out orange tinted!

Called the filter company again and they came out and took samples. Here are the results after being filtered:
Iron .26
Manganese .209
Total Harness 25
PH 6.39
Tannic Acid <.2

Do any of you fine people have any ideas what we can do to remedy this issue? I have cockatiels and I'm worried about the Manganese with them drinking the water.

 

[Geofd]

Did they give you any recommendations?????
Have the water tested by your town if the do that or a pool Co see what they recommend

 

[toomanyfilters]

Did they give you any recommendations?????
Have the water tested by your town if the do that or a pool Co see what they recommend

Yes, sorry I should have put that in the post. This is what they said:
"In an ideal situation, based on this water test, I would add an acid neutralizer before the existing filters. However, we can try adding some calcite media to the existing filter and have it backwash every other day for two weeks. See if this helps."

 

[Geofd]

Did you try the calcite/backwash, or a second opinion????

 

[toomanyfilters]

Did you try the calcite/backwash, or a second opinion????

We haven't tried the recommendations yet.

I found a forum on the internet that I hoped to get some second opinions on. We've spent $5000 on filters and $1400 on two years maintenance for said filters. Now the same company that has installed said filters, is suggesting spending even more money on something else. At this point we aren't sure if we are with a reputable company or not...thus the reason for reaching out to this forum for some suggestions.

 

[Geofd]

I think there's a good well co in plastow nh I think on rt 125 there are some knowledgeable well people on here hopefully they will see the post

Yes, sorry I should have put that in the post. This is what they said:
"In an ideal situation, based on this water test, I would add an acid neutralizer before the existing filters. However, we can try adding some calcite media to the existing filter and have it backwash every other day for two weeks. See if this helps."

 

[Ludington]

I dont trust anything that comes from the city or my well, we distill all of our drinking water. We do have a gac/kdf filter also though.

 

[Bird Doo Head]

Plumbing wholesalers are very good sources for water treatment referrals. Ask at the contractors' counter instead of the showroom for a more honest opinion.
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Maybe...
A relative uses iSpring for very high iron and manganese content. They have Model WGB32BM and are quite pleased with the monthly test results (water and blood manganese levels). They report that customer service has been excellent.
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Some Other Options That May Work:
Even though it means one more continuing expense, maybe a birm filter would remove the mineral. They're said to work well. We've had them in laboratories where I worked.
Ion exchange beds (water softeners) can be helpful in removing manganese by oxidizing it.
Air injection oxidation and potassium permanganate media filters are both reputed to be effective, with the latter also removing iron.
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This Will Work:
Perhaps, remove all the existing filters and use a central Reverse Osmosis with a Post Filter.
You can connect the R/O water to only where you want manganese-free water such as drinking/cooking water and maybe laundry. R/O will also get rid toxic chemicals, many pathogens and the other minerals.

The downside is that Reverse Osmosis can, depending on the unit's efficiency, use up to 2 gallons of water to supply one gallon to you. (And you have to replace the Post Filter once in a while or the water becomes flat. Flat isn't healthy. We need the minerals.)

Paul

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Some thoughts…All kinds of filtration systems for domestic potable home water use have some limitations; these include how much water you’re treating per day (or other time period) and what you’re trying to remove, and how much of it. Generally you want a comprehensive and complete test of unfiltered water by a recognized testing laboratory that doesn’t sell solutions.

Armed with that testing data you can then research solutions either by yourself or with the assistance of a consultant or local contractors. An inexpensive solution with costly ongoing maintenance may be considerably less desirable than a more expensive solution that is relatively easy to maintain. Depending on how “bad” the raw well water is, not everything can be filtered out. I think your forum handle “too many filters” says a lot!

In my own situation one home I owned had terrible well water full of iron, and very hard. We didn’t want a water softener because of our lakeside location and the salt. We used a chemical free iron filter that helped tremendously but still left enough iron in the water to make the water unpleasant to drink, but it was ok for other uses. We installed an RO system (about $250) under the kitchen sink but even that provided “flat” water. Good for the icemaker. Mostly we bought spring water in large jugs for drinking.

They do make some industrial strength RO systems…about $3k gets you a 600 GPD unit which could be called “whole house”. They get larger and costlier; $7k gets you 4400 GPD which is probably more than one needs.

I’m a bit aghast at the cost of “remineralization”. It’s almost as if there’s widespread collusion to price the ways to do it! The little filters to do it that may fit under sink for example, start at about $50 and only last for 2,000 gallons. Trace Mineral drops start at about $25 and treats 200 gallons. Himalayan or pink salt is another solution but then you have to start blending small amounts of this into the water you drink. Your kitchen will begin to look like a chemistry lab. My guess is if you are like most people you just want water that doesn’t taste bad, maybe tastes good, isn’t bad for you, and just comes out of your faucet!

Hopefully you can find a laboratory to do a thorough test of your water before any filtration and get a consultant who doesn’t sell solutions to design a system to remove everything you need from that water.

 

[Doug Mildram]

5k on filtration? Must be you already have more than plain filtration... sounds like you have a treatment/softener? I had a well in my former house in MA, manganese was high, minor green stains in toilets,etc. Fixed with a pain in the butt system: all of....

Large plastic tank holding 3-4? 40lb? bags of salt for softener systems. When that dissolves down to half full or less, have to dump another couple bags in and buy more bags at Lowe's/HomeDepot. Kinda heavy to haul downstairs.

2 tanks resembling oxygen tanks, near 5 ft tall, piped together with a small elec pump and control box, needing AC power outlet.
One tank needs a chemical refill every year or so by your system provider, so, maybe $300 if the little pump valves don't need rebuilding.

Details on how all this works escape me.
Since then, I moved to Maine where my well water results are better. So my only filtration is a 12-14? inch canister I can replace myself for 10 bucks. BUT.....

The new "rage" in water worries is radon in the water. My newer/2006 Maine home came with a radon "bubble up" system. I hate it, thankfully I can unplug its power outlets and flip 2... (iIN and OUT on/off) ....water valves to bypass it completely. Unlike the above softener system, this one stores 30gal of incoming water, and with a big electric pump (noisy, maybe 500w, runs every time the 30gal tank needs refilling...
This system has to REPRESSURE the water so everything fed by it (entire house) gets the same roughly 30psi it had to begin with from the large normal house expansion tank. And if you try to water your lawn, you better bypass this bubble up system, it cannot keep up with constant usage.

My radon in water levels are not so bad. It's not dangerous to DRINK radon heavy water! It's only danger is when the water in your bathrooms and sink(s) and showers and tubs allows radon to escape into your breathable air. So the system does this in advance and bubbles the water up through something (sm rocks?) then vents/pumps the internally escaped air, pumped out of house in a PVC tube much like an old fashioned and still popular regular radon-in-your-foundation mitigation system.


All this takes space in your basement you may not have! No wonder town water is so desirable until it goes bad.