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PART 2 - Bacteria in our Well Water - new AquaSure UV Filter

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
So I've been working on the water softener, iron filter, RO filtration, etc. Basically put in all new stuff (softener and iron filtration system), and all new guts for RO system, including changing out some of the hoses and faucet.

Just for the heck of it had the well sanitized. Then had the water tested 7 days later.

We are under a BOIL ORDER because we have coliform bacteria in our well.

So this afternoon we "shocked the hell" out of the well, as opposed to just shocking it. There are ways to measure the amount of chlorine concentration in your well when you shock it, and formulas for how much bleach to put down your well based on the diameter, depth, etc. I don't really know any of those, but there are lots of videos on YouTube from universities and health departments about how to do it. A lot of people just pour a gallon of clorox in the well and cycle it through the pipes. That is not bad, but might not be enough for many common wells and it could just be that people who do that got lucky.

So today the guy comes out, pours in some (about a 'cup') granulated bleach. Then about 2.5 gallons of bleach, not sure what concentration that was. Then cycles a bunch of water through the well by running a hose into it, then puts in more granulated bleach, about a 1/4 cup. Then tests some hose water and the chlorine level was 'off the chart' to the high side, which is what he wanted.

Going to be tested again on Friday morning for bacteria. But the lab won't have results for several more business days.

If there is bacteria we can do another system shock or add in a UV light sterilizer unit.
 
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Pool shock is more potent than household leach it's calcium hydrochloride is what we use about 6-8 oz per foot of water in a 6" well (note not the well depth)
 
So I just ordered a whole house UV water purifier with 1" connections that will work for 3-4 bathrooms.

Will arrive on Thursday. Should have it installed on Thursday. I'm tired of messing with all this. I hate plumbing.

Buying an iSpring 55watt UV 12gpm UV whole house filtration system. Looks like it is more than we need with only 2 adults full time and a part time 6 year old living here. Highly reviewed on multiple sites.

Seem to be available from dozens of sources, and all at the same basic price. Both Amazon and Home Depot had the same price, same delivery day. But many other sellers had the same or higher price and would take a day or more longer to get to me. Ordered from Home Depot simply because that is the easiest store for me to buy and to return products to.

Bear in mind that this whole mess started when my water softener failed and I decided to go beyond a basic water softener. I think today ignorance is bliss and I no longer care. But I also don't want Kobe or the lovely Mrs_Bob to get sick.


This is what I ordered. There are cheaper units, there are more expensive units. This one seems to be sized properly for us and well reviewed by thousands of buyers:


Screenshot 2026-04-06 at 9.24.15 PM.png
 
UV bulbs have a life span. We had very large UV sterilized and needed to change the bulbs every 6 months per QA.
Manufacturer said 12 months. But QA is always conservative.
You might want to buy a couple to have.
 
Yup & Yup . . .

I have the UV light on "subscribe & save" with a frequency for delivery at 9 months. The manufacturer says replace every 12 months.

I also have the replacement 'quartz sleeve' on the same "subscribe & save" order with Home Depot.

FWIW, I did change my order after posting this, the model I am buying is an Aquasure model, made by the same company that made my water softener. Just because I can get it Wednesday instead of Thursday.

If I did it the way I wanted I think I have it set up, I'll get the complete unit delivered on Wednesday. I'll also get an extra UV light and an extra 'quartz sleeve' that the light slips into, and that apparently has to be changed at a lower frequency, but would be good to have.
​
In 9 months I'll get another light & UV sleeve. It will trigger my memory to figure out where I hid the spare light + quartz tube, I will hunt for those for no less than 72 hours; I will be stumped; I will open the brand new ones, install them, and after the water is turned back on I will find the previously hidden parts and think to myself I'll have to remember those.​
 
Guessing this means you had bacteria in your well before all this, but you had no ill effects. Correct?
 
Doc said:
Guessing this means you had bacteria in your well before all this, but you had no ill effects. Correct?
Click to expand...
Yeah, people tend to be a lot tougher that we usually give credit for. Back in the day, if you survived your 5th birthday, you were probably stout enough to make it to at least 90 barring some catastrophe or dumb mistake. :)

Most of the kids in my school grew up in rural Indiana and many of the farms still used an old dug well (like you often see in western movies) that was about 6 feet in diameter and laid up with brick and having a windmill water pump perched on top. I remember one time when my friend, Monte, and his grandparents who raised him all got sick and it was discovered that a raccoon had fallen into their well and drowned and rotted in there.

Most of the wells just had a platform of wooden boards across the top and you could drop pebbles between the cracks in the boards to hear them splash when they hit the water. My uncle got his finger severed on one of the wells. He couldn't find the bolt that they used to secure the water pickup mechanism to the windmill shaft as it oscillated up and down. So he stuck his finger through the holes in the shaft when they lined up and came together. (an example of a dumb mistake - but he lived through it.)

Like they say, making GOOD decisions comes from making BAD ones.
 
Doc said:
Guessing this means you had bacteria in your well before all this, but you had no ill effects. Correct?
Click to expand...

One of the symptoms is fatigue, which I suffer from, but I also suffer from insomnia so I have no clue if the water had any influence on my fatigue. I tend to drink sparkling water, so not much tap water. I also drink coffee, which is Reverse Osmosis water, and that is very pure.

The lovely Mrs_Bob actually had multiple symptoms and she really did get sick with all the symptoms of a stomach bug, but recovered after visiting the doctor, so I sort of dismissed the water as the issue. I didn't realize it but she cut out drinking the tap water.

The water probably did have the bacteria for the last 3 months.

ALL of this got exposed because our water softener failed. The failure of the water softener is unrelated to the bacteria. We figured we'd do a well sanitation and a water test as we were "starting over" with the water system. So we found the bacteria by accident when it was tested.

I decided to add the iron filter as a bonus, largely to fix the residual nagging iron problem for good. So I added that a few days after the water test was taken but several days before the results came in from the water test.

Now that we got the bacterial test results yesterday, we are in the process of chlorination of the well AGAIN. Testing will happen again on Friday. But when I was talking to the well guy, he said it is rare, but it does happen that they have had to chlorinate a well 3 times. He also said that the "next" step would be UV treatment, that is frequently the solution used by real estate agents who want a quick, but certain solution.

UV kills the bacteria. But doesn't clean the well. I'd kind of like both the well to be clear and the UV for the just in case . . . belt & suspenders sort of solution. . . I want both a clean well and UV, even if the UV is only for peace of mind.

One would expect that if I get the UV installed on Wednesday then the water at the tap should test 'clean' on Friday because the inside of the house will be treated with UV. If we do a test at the outside spigots those may, or may not, test positive for bacteria.
 
Just tossing this out there (not related to you Bob).
If you ever go to sell your house that's on a well, a bacteria test will be performed. In most States, if it fails, you have 2 more chances to have it pass. If not corrected and fails on 3rd test, you failed. Not sure if you can sell the house. Check your State's policy for remediation.
 
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bczoom said:
...If you ever go to sell your house that's on a well, a bacteria test will be performed. In most States, if it fails, you have 2 more chances to have it pass. If not corrected and fails on 3rd test, you failed. Not sure if you can sell the house. Check your State's policy for remediation.
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I asked about the "next step" if the well were to fail after this current chlorination and test.

The well company tech who showed up looked at a "house sale" scenario and said "IF" you were going to sell the house and you failed a test, basically the agent would tell you to install a UV filter. Apparently the UV filter gets your well a "passing grade" to make the house sale.

The lady who did the prior test called today. I told her I am installing the UV system. But I wanted to test for other stuff, I just don't know what to test for. She said it's possible to go test crazy, spend $$$ on tests that make no sense on my property. She we 'down selling' instead of 'up selling' the service. She listed off several things to look for, but said because I'm on top of a clay hilltop, with literally 30 feet of clay beneath the surface before the drill hit sand, that it is virtually impossible for there to be common ground contamination that leech down to my water. Also the nearest farm field is 500' away from the well, and down 40' to 50' in vertical drop that slopes away, the possibility of fertilizer contaminations are pretty much ZERO too.

She tests again Friday; iron and arsenic are commonly found together so testing for arsenic makes sense. Basically the list is fairly short that she recommends, and much of that is based on surrounding properties that she has tested within a mile or two of where I live. Some stuff literally never shows up in my area so why pay to test for it?
 
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FWIW, I put a 5 micron whole house water filter in last evening before I flushed all the water lines. At bedtime I regenerated both the Iron Filter and the Water Softener. I wanted to catch as much crap from the well before it hit the Iron Filter & Softener.

Up this morning and low water pressure indicated the filter was pretty clogged. Which I expected. Pulled the filter and it was "muddy" with rusty sediment.

Put in a 10 micron whole house filter. I normally run a 20 or 25 micron filter. So the 10 micro is still going to get a whole lot of crap out of my water as I continue to purge the well. I figure we are on the curve going back toward normalcy.

Today I want to drain the water that is in the house plumbing between the water softener and every faucet, spigot, toilet and appliance. Once I do that there is only running water that is needed (flushing toilets). We are still technically under a "boil order" until the results from NEXT water test.

FedEX says my UV Filter is "out for delivery. After installing the UV filter I'll run HOT water to fill the 80 gallon hot water tank with "sanitized" UV water and during the process I want to flush the cold water to the point that we have "UV" treated water coming out of all the faucets.

I'll use 10 micron filters for the near term, changing as frequently as needed. Guessing 1 per week. But at $2 each when bought in bulk I'm totally fine with that.

After we get confirmation of 'safe/drinkable' water I'll switch back to the standard 20-25 micron filters, they last us 1 to 3 months of normal use.
 
And we have more progress. While the hoses connecting everything looks like a bowl of spaghetti, I just finished the install of the UV filter.

The stainless housing is roughly 3+ feet long. There is a UV bulb inside there that is also 3' long. When you go to change the bulb you need another 3+ feet of clearance to the side (if mounted horizontally) or above the system (if mounted vertically). I could not mount vertically because of the location of various shelves, pipes and electrical boxes. The location was chosen largely because it was the spot that would work for me.

Honestly when I was looking at the instructions I said to myself, probably out loud, that 2 of the fittings on the ends of the AquaSure UV Filter housing would leak. Yup they did. I set in better quality (silicone) washers and reattached and they are now leak free.

But all is up and running and now flushing water through the house pipes in earnest. In theory this kills 99.9999% of the bacteria, that could be in the water.

IMG_8697.jpegIMG_8699.jpeg
 
AFTER installing the UV Filter yesterday I ran just about 360 gallons of water through the household pipes. Much of that volume was HOT water. Total water used to flush the pipes, including prior to getting the UV filter installed was 412 gallons.

The iron filter regenerated last night. The gallon countdown on the water softener should have the softener regenerate tonight if I run enough water through the system. My goal is to make sure I run enough water today to make that happen.
 
Melensdad said:
The iron filter regenerated last night. The gallon countdown on the water softener should have the softener regenerate tonight if I run enough water through the system.
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I'm guessing neither have a manual re-gen option (or something on a control panel that says "re-gen now")?
 
bczoom said:
I'm guessing neither have a manual re-gen option (or something on a control panel that says "re-gen now")?
Click to expand...
Both do.

I wanted Iron filter to regenerate.

The Softener regenerated day before, so I’ll have enough water thru it to regenerate tonight. Didn’t see the need to regenerate 3 days in a row.
 
The water well testing guy just left the house.

Testing for arsenic, nitrates, etc in addition to testing for coliform and ecoli. He looked at my system and said that basically I have done everything that is reasonable to do and the UV filter is the answer. I'll have lab test results by Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

In the mean time I have home EPA certified test kits arriving today from Spamazon. I'll have preliminary test results 6 hours after I do a test and full results within 24 hours. I'm hoping that the home test is 'clean' and it is confirmed by the lab test.

If the test come back with issues, the problem is somewhere INSIDE the waterlines in my home.
 
FWIW, I bought a self test on SpamAzon to test my water.
And, of course, we had a pro come in, as outlined in the prior post, to also take water samples.

Results: I have clean drinkable water again.

Here is a link to the self-test.


The professional water company said to take the strainer off your faucet, to wash your faucet with a mild bleach solution, to run water for 5 minutes plus wash your hands, try not to breath at the open collection tube/jar, do not set the lid for the tube or jar down on any surface, just hold it in your left hand while using your right hand to put the collection tube under slow running water, then put the lid back on securely. I've now watched 2 different guys take water samples. Both were very meticulous about how they did it.

So when took my sample I did the same. YMMV. But all 3 of the people I've been talking with at the well service company have said that coliform is literally everywhere in your home, on every surface, and the tests are very sensitive, so its best to be ultra-hygienic and meticulous when collecting a water sample.
 
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