Reef Tank on Well Water

[John]

Is anyone running their reef on their well water?  If so, can you share any of your experiences/knowledge/tips to make my transition from city water to well water a successful one?  Obviously, the RODI unit will make the move, but not sure if there are things I am not prepared for.  Thanks in advance!

[Muddy357]

Depending on the water pressure you might need a booster pump.

[epleeds]

I'm on a well. I also have a water softener due to the hardness of the water. I had to get a booster pump and its running at 85psi. Never have had an issue with the well water. Just make sure u have a good rodi and filters.

[John]

Do you run the waste line to a drain to complete the water cycle for the drain field?  Or do you do something else with the waste line? 

[six-line]

I'm on a well where I live and I have had my reef for six years without issues from the well water anyways. Things I would whatch out for:

1 A booster pump will be a must most well pressure tanks are only set to about 40 psi and to get the best efficiency out of your membrane you will want to run it at 80 psi.

2 if your well has a softener on it, most do the salt that you use for it is extremely high in phosphates. So never use the the tap water to top off or make a fresh batch of change water. Algae will invade!

3 Your well may be high in CO2 which will eat through you DI resin like mad. You find this out quickly if you have color change resin. To get around this have your RO water drain into a holding tank/barrel and aerate with a pump and air stone then have another pump pump it through the DI resin.

All and all its not that bad with a RO/DI system. I do collect the waste water in a large barrel outside my house which I use to water my garden with.

Edited June 19, 2013 by six-line

[epleeds]

I run a waste line to my house sump pump and pump it out to my back field. I do the same with my old saltwater. I have a valve off the tank sump which sends the old saltwater to my house sump pump which in turn pumps the old saltwater out to the back field too.

[John]

This is all very reassuring, keep 'em coming.  Thanks! 

[Jason Rhoads]

I run a waste line to my house sump pump and pump it out to my back field. I do the same with my old saltwater. I have a valve off the tank sump which sends the old saltwater to my house sump pump which in turn pumps the old saltwater out to the back field too.

 

There may be something I am overlooking, but doesn’t pumping salt water onto the field damage whatever you are growing there?

[Origami]

I'm on a well where I live and I have had my reef for six years without issues from the well water anyways. Things I would whatch out for:

1 A booster pump will be a must most well pressure tanks are only set to about 40 psi and to get the best efficiency out of your membrane you will want to run it at 80 psi.

2 if your well has a softener on it, most do the salt that you use for it is extremely high in phosphates. So never use the the tap water to top off or make a fresh batch of change water. Algae will invade!

3 Your well may be high in CO2 which will eat through you DI resin like mad. You find this out quickly if you have color change resin. To get around this have your RO water drain into a holding tank/barrel and aerate with a pump and air stone then have another pump pump it through the DI resin.

All and all its not that bad with a RO/DI system. I do collect the waste water in a large barrel outside my house which I use to water my garden with.

Great advice, six-line. I'm on a well and have #1; am considering #2; definitely have #3 happening and am contemplating either an aeration reservoir or putting a calcium carbonate stage in front of the first filter stage (to bring up pH).

[six-line]

Great advice, six-line. I'm on a well and have #1; am considering #2; definitely have #3 happening and am contemplating either an aeration reservoir or putting a calcium carbonate stage in front of the first filter stage (to bring up pH).

Origami

One problem with #3 is if you use a Ca+ filter of some kind you will just be stripping it back out and loading your DI resin with Ca+ instead of CO2.

[Origami]

Origami

One problem with #3 is if you use a Ca+ filter of some kind you will just be stripping it back out and loading your DI resin with Ca+ instead of CO2.

Remember, this is pre-membrane treatment. Much of the resulting calcium will be rejected by the RO membrane (upwards of 95-99%). Some will get through, though, depleting anion resin vice cation resin sites. pH adjustment in this fashion is a common way of dealing with acidic water from wells. It basically just hardens it further. CO2 in well water is poorly rejected at low pH by our RO membranes.

[six-line]

Ok I get what your saying now I was thinking it would be place after the membrane. I'm going to have to try that I have an extra filter canister at home. Also another good thing to do is put a 5 micron filter before your booster pump to make sure nothing gets in and damages the pump.

[Origami]

Also another good thing to do is put a 5 micron filter before your booster pump to make sure nothing gets in and damages the pump.

Another good suggestion. (My booster pump comes with a pre-filter.)

 

BTW, one thing that I learned recently. Some of these booster pumps have a preferred mounting direction (which, coincidentally does NOT correspond to the writing on the pump's label). If you mount it the wrong way, it can and will substantially lessen it's lifespan. I had to replace a pump recently because I had it mounted the wrong direction. (I bought it used and didn't bother looking up the directions on the pump.) Expensive lesson.

[epleeds]

There may be something I am overlooking, but doesn’t pumping salt water onto the field damage whatever you are growing there?

 

Yes, it would not be good if was in the middle of my yard, but its all the way in the back field.  no issues there.

[Matt LeBaron]

Been on well water for about a year now. No issues with the water and that has not been covered above fairly well.

 

Depending on how paranoid you are you may not want to put water change water from your tank into your septic system though. I do not because there is a chance that the salt water can kill off all of the fresh water bacteria that your septic system relies on. I've never seen any 100% yes/no on this issue but it can turn out to be an expensive mistake. The waste water from your RO unit is fine for the septic system, you'll be putting far nastier things into it.

[Origami]

Been on well water for about a year now. No issues with the water and that has not been covered above fairly well.

 

Depending on how paranoid you are you may not want to put water change water from your tank into your septic system though. I do not because there is a chance that the salt water can kill off all of the fresh water bacteria that your septic system relies on. I've never seen any 100% yes/no on this issue but it can turn out to be an expensive mistake. The waste water from your RO unit is fine for the septic system, you'll be putting far nastier things into it.

It really depends on how large your septic tank is and how much saltwater that you're dumping in. For example, a 30 gallon water change once a week is nothing in comparison to a 1000 gallon capacity septic tank (which is small) and when you compare it to an average of 50-100 gallons of fresh water used per day per person.

[DaveS]

I'm on a well where I live and I have had my reef for six years without issues from the well water anyways. Things I would whatch out for:

1 A booster pump will be a must most well pressure tanks are only set to about 40 psi and to get the best efficiency out of your membrane you will want to run it at 80 psi.

2 if your well has a softener on it, most do the salt that you use for it is extremely high in phosphates. So never use the the tap water to top off or make a fresh batch of change water. Algae will invade!

3 Your well may be high in CO2 which will eat through you DI resin like mad. You find this out quickly if you have color change resin. To get around this have your RO water drain into a holding tank/barrel and aerate with a pump and air stone then have another pump pump it through the DI resin.

All and all its not that bad with a RO/DI system. I do collect the waste water in a large barrel outside my house which I use to water my garden with.

 

I'm on well and like Tom, I have #1, #2 and I also have a Ca pre-filter.  I believe it definitely makes a difference in final water pH as I had chronically low tank pH when the Ca media was exhausted but after I figured out how to get it working again, my pH stopped going low and is much higher.

 

That having been said, I also see that my DI resin doesn't seem to last very long.  I have 2-3 TDS going into the DI and 0 TDS coming.  But after about 50G of water, the TDS out starts to go up to 1-2.  From what I've read, I should be able to make a few hundred gallons of water before that happens.  So...

 

-maybe I'm wrong in how long the DI should last

-maybe the CO2 in my well water is killing the DI fast

-maybe the Ca filter doesn't help address this (this is the first time I've heard the Ca helps reduce the CO2)

-maybe something else is wrong...

Edited June 19, 2013 by DaveS

[Origami]

Dave, it comes down to contact time and surface area with the calcium pre-filter. If it's too short or the SA is small, then there's not enough time/area for dissolution of calcium. Some CO2 is actually in the form of carbonic acid which dissociates and creates an ion that depletes the DI resin more quickly. That's what the calcium carbonate pre-filter is supposed to address (supposedly). It works the same way as the same structure on the back end of a calcium reactor is used to push the effluent pH back up. Of course, the effluent flows much more slowly than the water in from your RO/DI (drops per minute versus 15-25 gallons per hour). This may be the reason behind what you're seeing.

 

Tell me, are you using aragonite sand or chunky media in your calcium pre-filter? Sand will have more surface area for neutralizing reactions. I've not implemented this but have been, like you, dealing with short DI resin lifespan. I'm currently looking at and experimenting with recharging resin to deal with it. No conclusions on that just yet, though.

[DaveS]

For my water neutralizer, I'm using a Calcite-Corosex blend.  Since my pH is lower than most, adding some Corosex (Magnesium Oxide) helps to boost pH more than just Calcite alone.  I've found that it also helps the water softener work better.  The drawback is that getting this media is expensive.  It's only like $30 for a 50lbs bag online but then you pay $60 for shipping :(

 

 

 

For the tank, if you're interested in experimenting, you may want to try using this:

http://www.edenfilters.com/caca2.html

 

It would be a cheap way to test before hooking up the whole house.  Heck I probably even have some media that I can give you if you want to give it a try.

[Origami]

I may take you up on that, Dave (for a little media). I've yet to hook up that pre-filter stage, though. So much going on.

[DaveS]

No problem just LMK when you want to meet up.  

 

I should clarify that I'm using the Calcium-Corsex in a pre-filter/neutralizer for my entire house.  Well water goes through the neutralizer which brings pH up before it hits the water softener for the entire house.  This is why I go through 50 lbs every few months...

 

I haven't tried using the little pre-filter in front of my tank RO/DI system.  But I definitely it's a good thing to try.  By putting just in front of the RO/DI it will eliminate a lot of variable in the house and give a better indicator of the direct benefits.

Edited June 19, 2013 by DaveS

[zygote2k]

I used well water in Great Falls and found that it had high levels of copper. The tank now uses bottled water.

[epleeds]

mine isn't going into my septic system.  It just goes into the crawl space sump pump and then out to the rear field..

[John]

Looks like a tank upgrade is a green light then...Outstanding information everyone, Thanks!

[Origami]

mine isn't going into my septic system.  It just goes into the crawl space sump pump and then out to the rear field..

Mine goes into my septic system, but my septic tanks hold over 2,000 gallons before the effluent is pumped several hundred yards to the leech field. So the effect on salinity in the tank is minimal.