Summary for iron filter causing water to become aggressive Discussion
iron filter causing water to become aggressive is the central concern in this thread, as Joel Klinck reports that a new iron filter on well water appears to have led to dangerous copper levels that are killing fish in a flow-through system. He asks whether the copper problem can be fixed while keeping the Fe filter, and wonders about sacrificial metals or coating copper pipes. James Watts says the first step is to identify what kind of iron filter is being used, noting that a resin type may release nasty materials when overloaded and that aeration could be changing copper chemistry; he recommends comparing water analyses and replacing metal piping with well-leached plastic where possible. Trevor Crichton adds that the filter may be making the water aggressive enough to dissolve copper or may be creating a galvanic couple that makes copper anodic, and asks for more system details. Damian Dinu suggests removing iron and copper with ECP and replacing copper pipes with PVC.
Q. Hello,
We put in an iron filter on our well water a few months ago. We now have a major problem with copper in the water which is killing our fish we keep in a flow through system. We think that the water is becoming aggressive because of the Fe filter and the addition of air to the system, causing Cu to be “pulled” into the water. Is there any way we can fix the Cu problem and keep the Fe filter? Can we put in a sacrificial metal into the water, or coat the inside of our copper pipes, or something else? Any advise would be appreciated.
Joel Klinck, Biology Dept.
University – Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
2005
A. Ok, what is an iron filter? If this is a “resin” type filter, it can give off some nasty materials after it is fully loaded and still left in the line.
Another possibility is that after you took some of the iron out of the water, your air agitation
⇦ huh?
might be changing the valence state of the copper to the more toxic form.
Have you done any analyses of the water to compare prior levels to current levels?
You might consider switching to well leached plastic pipe to replace as much of the iron or copper pipe as you can.
James Watts
– Navarre, Florida
2005
A. Two thoughts; firstly, the iron filter system could be changing the chemical composition of the water to make it so aggressive it dissolves copper. Secondly, the iron filter is somehow creating a galvanic couple with the copper pipe and making the copper anodic. Please give details of the iron filter system (type, materials used, chemicals added to the water etc etc).
Trevor Crichton
– UK
2005
2005
A. If the Fe loading of your water is high, you can separate it from the water by ECP(Electro-Catalitic Precipitation), using only media filters to remove oxides of iron and also copper and other metals in water.
You don’t need enymore iron filter.
I do not understand whatfor you use copper pipes.
Why don’t you change copper pipes to PVC pipes.
If you must use it , you must put the ECP unit after the main net of pipes before using it the water.
For more details, contact me.
Regards
Damian Dinu
SC INGO PROD SRL – Constanta, Romania