Water well advice / help please

[DaveB]

Turning to the S&M gang again as I am sure someone has experience in this area....

Just moved into the new shack on the acreage 10 days ago.

The well is 200' deep with perfs between 60-80 and 160-180' I am not sure where they left the pump. Well was drilled by Alken Basin in the summer. The well only flows 4.5 gal/min so a cistern was recommended. We have a 220 gal cistern. Before we moved in, I had the water analyzed and put in a treatment system. Apparently the water is soft, but has slight iron. We were recommended (and went with) a 1 1/2" Rusco spin down filter with a 250 mesh screen (63 micron)...this is between the well and the cistern. The water is treated with chlorine in the cistern (a metering pump adds it when the cistern fills). The house gets water from the cistern through a Grundfos pump that pushes the water first through a Petwa self flushing media filter. The water in the house is great....the problem is that we are having issues with lots of fine sand/silt clogging the Rusco filter from the well to the cistern. It is bad enough to stall out the pump in the well, which apparently is a bad thing. Soooo....I had the filtration expert come back. He installed a 2" Rusco spin down filter in front of the 1 1/2" one. In this one he put a 100 mesh screen. I get the theory....try to get some of the crud out prior to plugging the fine filter. The problem: no change. The bigger filter with the 100 mesh screen stays totally clean. The 250 mesh filter still plugs off. It is so bad that I leave the well shut off and manually turn it on when I can sit there and baby-sit the cistern filling process. So twice a day, I sit there and clean the filter over and over while the cistern fills.

Alken Basin (drillers) said that soft water wells take a long time to clean up. I have run a garden hose out the window and ran the well 3 different times....once for 2 hrs, and twice for 3 hrs. No change to the filter clogging issues. What can I do? Helllllp!

 

[maxwell]

When we drilled our well almost 500ft deep it ran for 3-4 days straight before it started to clean up


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[Trashy]

My well is 71' and my pump is 4' off of the bottom I would recommend as well, to turn on a hose or a tap and let the water trickle for a few days. I have high calcium, high pressure and on top of a aquaferr(sp*). But I still get silt in my filters

 

[mathrulz]

New wells can take a while to clean up, yes, but usually the drillers can do this with another pump when they finish drilling the well - otherwise you are risking damage to your pump from the sand. They should've been able to circulate water through the well for you to flush out all the sand and mud that was inside the liner before putting your pump in. I've also seen problems caused by drillers trying to cheap out and use home-made perforated pipe instead of a slotted liner downhole. If this is the case, the only fix is really to add a proper slotted liner downhole - same idea as sandy zones in oil/gas wells that can sand off from incorrect or damaged slotted liners. This can be really expensive though, and a PIA.

Hope it cleans up for you soon!

 

[Trashy]

New wells can take a while to clean up, yes, but usually the drillers can do this with another pump when they finish drilling the well - otherwise you are risking damage to your pump from the sand. They should've been able to circulate water through the well for you to flush out all the sand and mud that was inside the liner before putting your pump in. I've also seen problems caused by drillers trying to cheap out and use home-made perforated pipe instead of a slotted liner downhole. If this is the case, the only fix is really to add a proper slotted liner downhole - same idea as sandy zones in oil/gas wells that can sand off from incorrect or damaged slotted liners. This can be really expensive though, and a PIA.

Hope it cleans up for you soon!

I can't thank or like this post Other than "Hope it cleans up for you soon!"

 

[DaveB]

I asked Alken Basin about flowing it when they drill it. They said that standard procedure is to flow it off the back of the rig for about 3 hours, then set everything up. When the plumber brings the house on line (several months later) they are supposed to flow it 24+ hours prior to hooking it up to the house lines. I know for a fact this was not done. Sounds like I should flow the hell outta it for a day or so....see what happens.

 

[Trashy]

I asked Alken Basin about flowing it when they drill it. They said that standard procedure is to flow it off the back of the rig for about 3 hours, then set everything up. When the plumber brings the house on line (several months later) they are supposed to flow it 24+ hours prior to hooking it up to the house lines. I know for a fact this was not done. Sounds like I should flow the hell outta it for a day or so....see what happens.

I would turn on the tub tap about a 1/4 turn, and let er go for a couple of days

 

[Trashy]

What kind of septic system do you have???

 

[DaveB]

Not going to run the tub tap.....I would have to clean that filter 75 times.....plus it would just fill my septic system with water. If I need to flow it, I put the garden hose to the well line before the filters and cistern. The issue is that is was cold last week and I had to leave a window cracked. Tomorrow is supposed to be +2....might be OK for 8 to 12 hrs.....

 

[Trashy]

Not going to run the tub tap.....I would have to clean that filter 75 times.....plus it would just fill my septic system with water. If I need to flow it, I put the garden hose to the well line before the filters and cistern. The issue is that is was cold last week and I had to leave a window cracked. Tomorrow is supposed to be +2....might be OK for 8 to 12 hrs.....

That is why I asked...... I would do the same with my well, before the water got into the house. At a 1/2 turn, your hose won't freeze up

 

[Trashy]

I just looked at your pics again, I can bypass my filters sooner and let a garden hose run from an outside hose bib. I see why you have to crack a window.

 

[kakwa climber]

I would get a line and run it out a basement window after the pump before those 2 filters. I run mine for 3 days with a 1 1/2" hose

 

[DRD]

1) Got to Home Depot get a few rolls of poly
2) Sport Chek, get some skates for those size 13 monsters of yours.
3) Lay out poly
4) Fill with sandy water
5) Wait for it to freeze
6) Go skating

 

[imdoo'n]

shut it all down and just drink beer.

 

[Puba]

Let her buck for a day or two and she should clean up hopefully.

 

[arff]

When we lived on the farm. We had a well drilled. Driller said water was good and clean.
we had sand. Plugged the filter daily. Kind of your situation

After a lot of messing around it turned out that the back hoe hooking up the line to the house broke the casing. This was when the submersible pump was installed and connected.

Good luck. Water problems suck .

 

[rsaint]

Well I have seen this before and choke your deep well back to about 1-2 gal per min tops let it run and c if it clears up. Some wells will handle a high flow clean out and ones with that fine **** in it need a slow rate to clean up.You have a cistern which you do not need with 4-5 gal min just a 40 gal pressure tank. Average house only needs 2-3 gal per min to survive.

 

[Kibbels]

Well WTH ... I must have misunderstood you a few weeks back... So yes flow that SOB.. Out da window starting early am and flow well into the evening Dave.. I thought Alkan did do a 24 hr cleanup as that is typical standard... Did you ever find your Drill Report & Schematic .. If a did scan and email it bud... Also I'm a bit concerned of the upper aquifer being the culprit.. When I come out we will do a fluid shot... I could also run a GR log and and look at Sand|Shale Volume and correct that back to see sand porosity on that upper zone from 60 - 80'...

Cheers

 

[DaveB]

Hose is out the window flowing now...towels stuffed in the cracks. LOL. There is a flow restrictor in the line for 3 gal/min already. My cistern is 220 gal so and near full, we can run on that for over a day quite easily.

 

[senorjeem]

Most water wells are, or should have the pump suspended a few meters off the bottom to give you a sump for grit and fines to fall into. I wonder if you have this, and after your perfs are cleaned out, will you have to have that crap dump bailed or somehow pumped out of the well. You didnt mention if the well had liner all the way to the bottom, I thought it did based on perfs at 80 and again at the bottom. Worst case scenario would be sluffing in. Just looked at your pics again. There are 2 things that an RO system doesn't like.....iron and chlorine. Iron will foul the membrane and chlorine will eat it up. Careful not to over treat with CL2.