How to build a water filter system??

[FarmFamily]

At our new/old place our well water is horrible. There is a lot of sulfur so it smells horrible and is actually yellow. Buying drinking water is for the birds! Or the fish. Ha! Has anyone with a similar situation successfully built a water filter system themselves? I'd like to avoid purchasing an expensive commercial system if possible. If so... Can you explain how you did it? Post pics also if possible. Thanks.

[kasilofhome]

Two five gallon buckets and good ceramic filters.

[Harry Chickpea]

That won't work in this instance. The hydrogen sulfide needs to be removed and the carbon in the ceramic filter will be overwhelmed quickly.
The color of the water indicates a simple bleaching of the well may not be sufficient.

I haven't got that problem, but one way of dealing with it would be a batch system using 275 gal totes, chlorine bleach, a household pump, and a small aerator pump setup.

Roughly:
Pump smelly water from the well into the first tote to fill it.
Add bleach to that tote (bleach binds with sulfur to remove it)
mix and aerate with aquarium pumps or a fountain (the aeration will remove both sulfur smells and chlorine)
When the water tests clean or low level for the chlorine (standard pool chemical test) drain that tote into a sedimentation tote where it sits for a while to let most compounds settle out for later removal.
After sedimentation, the water in that tote runs through a charcoal filter to remove any lingering smells and into another tote which is hooked to household plumbing.

For small amounts of water, distilling and reverse osmosis can be effective. Reverse osmosis filters are delicate and expensive and destroyed by chlorine and some chemicals, thus requiring prefilters which add to the expense.

Usage of water varies.
A good dishwasher uses about 7 gallons per load
A high efficiency clothes washer uses about 25 gallons per load
Toilets use a couple gallons per flush - the excess use comes from flushing after every urination
Showers vary from a couple gallons to a LOT of water. Baths generally use more.

Greensand and other techniques are available. Cabin Fever may have some other thoughts.

[FarmFamily]

Is there are way to do it without bleach?? We are a no-bleach household. :/

[kasilofhome]

I was going to mention Harry and cabin... they really have educated themselves. Those two are not blowing hot air... just valuable infor.

[Harry Chickpea]

You just THINK you are a no bleach household. If you use salt, there may be microscopic bits of bleach ions around. Salt and water are electrolyzed to make bleach. There are electrochemical reactions that constantly happen in the body and in nature.

You can use greensand (contains some form of manganese, IIRC), you may be able to aerate the raw well water enough to tolerate it, but no way would I do either.

Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is unstable. It loses chlorine to the air just standing. When sodium hypochlorite comes in contact with acids, sunlight, certain metals and poisonous and corrosive gasses it degrades. Aeration will remove any excess through contact with the CO2 in the air.

One of the reasons I use chlorine in our water supply is that it tears apart pesticides and herbicides, converting them to stable inert compounds. Peroxide would do something similar with that, but I don't think it would be as effective against sulfur.

<edit to add: I have a WORKING knowledge. Cabin Fever has a PROFESSIONAL knowledge. While he and I might differ a little, trust his absolute knowledge above mine. If I don't agree, I'll grump at him and try to see where he is coming from.>

[Old Vet]

A good sand filter will do the trick but it is not cheap. I had water that would eat up metal pipes with a lot of sulfur in it. After running water through it it was good.

[Bearfootfarm]

Originally Posted by FarmFamily

Is there are way to do it without bleach?? We are a no-bleach household. :/

You should change that if you want your well water to be potable
Shocking the well is the best first solution

[texican]

Bleach (chlorine) will dissipate within two days... unless bound with other ingredients. The local public water supply use to use only chlorine, and if you let it set overnight, you'd see millions of microscopic bubbles... the chlorine was dissipating out.... now, they bind chlorine with other chemicals, that never leave the water....

[watcher]

If the problem is just the H2S its a simple fix. All you have to do is aerate it. You can buy systems to do this for the entire house or you can make your own. Or you can just make a small system to give you stink free drinking water.

For the house the simplest system is a holding tank you spray the water into with what are basically sprinkler heads. Between the spraying and the holding time the H2S is removed. The problem this system requires two pumps, one to pump the water from the well and into the tank plus a second one to pump the water from the tank to the house.

You can buy these tanks already to be plumbed in or you can make one yourself. I was going to make one but I found a damaged one I could repair so I didn't.

There are pressurized systems which remove the need for the second pump but they are more complicated and expensive.

[FarmFamily]

Thanks.

[blanket]

our well guy makes what looks like a bent spoon that the water from the pump sprays on in the tank to aerate, works well