HELP! Iron & Manganese Problem with Lots of Supposed Solutions

[Punch1715]

Lots of great info.First time poster here.

I've got 7.5ppm iron in the water at my cottage. It's been this way for 20 years and we never dealt with it and instead opted for bottled drinking water and weekly cleaning of rusty stains on our fixtures.

After a recent remodel I'm finally ready to address the issue and have talked to 6 different companies, all claiming to have the sure-fire fix for anywhere between $2100 and $6,000! They're all convincing and believable so I'm at a loss as to who's right.

I'll begin with that a $6000 system is not financially viable at this point. Perhaps down the road. My primary goal with any system is to have water that wont permanently stain all the new fixtures. I'm okay with having to do an occasional cleaning. Our second goal is to have acceptable drinking water, but not at $6,000 as if needed, I can continue to tote 5 gallon jugs of awesome well water from our home which is 30 minutes away.

My lab tested numbers are:

Iron- 7.5ppm
Manganese - .604 (not sure of units)
Hardness - 3.5
PH - 7.0
Alkalinity - 88.4
TDS - 64.8
Tannin - 1.1

I have 5-6 gpm at an outside spigot.

I understand the tannins are kind of a seperate issue and I'm prepared to deal with that and address thst down the road if possible.

Two national companies claim that their tradtional water softeners will fix the iron problem. I really can't believe that but am prepared to hear differing opinions.

Aside from those 2 water softeners and a $4000 and $6,000 system, the one system I'm leaning towards at this point is the $1200 DIY SoftPro Iron Master (1.0 cubic foot) with AIO via online through Quality Water Treatment.com. It reportedly can handle my iron and manganese issues using Katalox Light media.

I am an absolute novice in this area and am definitely open to and certainly appreciative of anyone's input, thoughts, questions and suggestions!

 

[Punch1715]

I should've summized my long winded question, but essentially, all I'm asking is if the AIO system with Katalox Light would work for my water with the given lab numbers? Thanks!

 

[RS]

We had similar water at our cabin after we had the well drilled, but I don't remember the iron content, but it stained the fixtures pretty badly. We installed a softener, and I know, softeners are primarily for removing calcium, but it also took care of the iron! I always install a sediment filter ahead of a softener, it improves water quality and reliability. A filter and a softener can both be bought for <$500.

 

[wpns]

Water softeners apparently get rid of iron, but then you have all that used brine to get rid of. I used a self installed system from https://www.cleanwaterstore.com/iron-and-manganese-filters-for-well-water.html for many years and was pretty happy with it. Either system is going to need regular maintenance, just figure out what it is and don’t skip it.

 

[Punch1715]

Water softeners apparently get rid of iron, but then you have all that used brine to get rid of. I used a self installed system from https://www.cleanwaterstore.com/iron-and-manganese-filters-for-well-water.html for many years and was pretty happy with it. Either system is going to need regular maintenance, just figure out what it is and don’t skip it.

Thanks. I'll look into the Pro-Ox system. Do you recall how many PPM of iron you had? Did you use the optional air, ozone or chemical injectors?? Thanks!

 

[Punch1715]

We had similar water at our cabin after we had the well drilled, but I don't remember the iron content, but it stained the fixtures pretty badly. We installed a softener, and I know, softeners are primarily for removing calcium, but it also took care of the iron! I always install a sediment filter ahead of a softener, it improves water quality and reliability. A filter and a softener can both be bought for <$500.

Thanks for the reply. From what I researched, a water softener wouldn't be very efficient with the amount of iron I jave.

 

[wpns]

Thanks. I'll look into the Pro-Ox system. Do you recall how many PPM of iron you had? Did you use the optional air, ozone or chemical injectors?? Thanks!

Initially
Iron 1.300 mg/L 0.3 EPA
Manganese 0.177 mg/L 0.05 EPA

Afterwards Iron was 0.077 and Manganese was 0.097

It ingests air automatically, but no other optional treatment (other than sediment filters and later spindown filters.)

 

[Punch1715]

Initially
Iron 1.300 mg/L 0.3 EPA
Manganese 0.177 mg/L 0.05 EPA

Afterwards Iron was 0.077 and Manganese was 0.097

It ingests air automatically, but no other optional treatment (other than sediment filters and later spindown filters.)

Thanks for the numbers. If my calculations are correct (Google), I've got nearly 6 times the amount of Iron that you had and almost 4x the Manganese. I'll have to some additional research but appreciate the input.