filtering Iron/metal out of water

[cowboycasey]

I am starting this thread so I did not hijack the CYA thread from here What and how much will adsorb onto activated carbon??

In researching the activated carbon thread this website came up. Water Filters | Water Purification | Deionized Water | Serv-A-Pure and they have everything under the sun dealing with water filtration.. I noticed filter media that can filter out iron among other metals out of water.. Could this be used/added to filter out metals? at 1ppm Iron in 20,000 gallons of water you would need 2 cubic feet of filter media at a cost of 200 dollars.. I know there are some people that have spent way more than that on "Jacks" and that does not remove it and you continually need to add "jacks"..

GreensandPlus Water Treatment Media, 0.52 Cubic Foot Bag

They state that 1 cubic foot of media can take out the following metals....

Capacity/Cu. Ft.:

- Iron Alone...............................550 gr. (10,000 gallons of water containing 1 ppm iron)

- Iron and Manganese................400 gr. (7,000 gallons of water containing 1/2 ppm iron and 1/2 ppm manganese/cu. ft.)

- Hydrogen Sulfide....................175 gr. (3,000 gallons of water containing 1 ppm hydrogen sulfide/cu. ft)

- Maximum Practical Limit of Iron (Fe++) or Manganese (Mn++) In Raw Water......15 ppm

- Maximum Practical Limit of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S).........5 ppm


I am in no way saying this will work but I am hoping someone has some knowledge on this Anyone want to do an experiment

 

[Patrick_B]

Green Sand will work for certain, but you need to be set up for it. Not a huge deal, but will take some doing. Green Sand can be rejuvenated kind of like a softener resin can regen with Salt. I believe it is done with Potassium Permangate, but whatever We used was a deep vastly purple color. Really messy stuff when spilled.

 

[cowboycasey]

do you think it would turn the water purple ? I do not have iron or any other metals but there are many people that do.... When you say messy would it be to much for the normal person to use in there filter to take metals out?

Thanks for the help

 

[Patrick_B]

On average, yes. This was something we did for large industrial systems in somewhat urgent situations.

Edit:

I answered my initial posts off the cuff, but it does look like they make some smaller commercial perhaps residential units,much like the larger industrial ones we used. However, there are associated costs other than the green sand. You've got to have a system, cylinders, Permangate tanks, and some other items to build the setup. Not an easy solution, but perhaps doable if you can justify the cost, and complexity of setting up a system.

 

[cowboycasey]

Well that would put this out of reach for most people if not everyone... I was thinking you could just add it to your filter like DE and after a couple of days backwash and your iron would be gone wouldn't that be nice...

Thanks for the info


hmmmm, so I had no idea what a Residential Potassium Permanganate Tank, so of course I started researching and found this Potassium Permanganate Tanks, pot perm tanks, replacement felt pad, replacement valve assembly

Looks like you would use this tank that holds 5 gallons and circulate your pool water through this and back to the pool to remove metals... it would be a long process, maybe 1 or 2 weeks but if 1 cubic foot of greensand and 2-4 ounces of Potassium Permanganate per cubic foot of Manganese Greensand could take 1 ppm of iron out of 10,000 gallons of water it may be worth the cost..

$79 Tank
$210 1 cubic foot of greensand
$110 for 12 pounds of Potassium Permanganate (used to release the iron so the sand works again)

This type of setup I think might work for someone on a well that continually added iron every time they topped off the pool or added water.. It would depend on how much "jacks" would cost over a given amount of time.. If the above setup would work for 5 years it would be worth every penny...

I just find stuff like this interesting, I do think it would be a take some major work to get going and not many people would need this type of setup.. but it is possible

 

[Patrick_B]

Indeed, no matter how you slice it, metals in your pool water are a considerable headache, and unwelcome expense.

 

[MaxTheCharger]

$500 bucks really isn't bad considering the headache of dealing with metals in the water. This may be worth the consideration for well users.

 

[Patrick_B]

It really might be for some. I would only suggest that potential users check it out in detail so that they are fully aware of what's needed, up to and including all the handling and potential disposal issues. The reason no one's gotten rich on a metal eliminator device, is that it's just not a simple thing to do with all things considered. Certainly not Mt. Everest, but no simple chore.

 

[Swampwoman]

I think ChemGeek and I once had a similar conversation about greensand and the concern was whether the trace levels of maganese would build up and then stain the pool Maganese is a problem in some pools, causing purple and black staining.

This is the stuff they use in the iron curtain which runs about $2,000 - $2500 per residential unit installed, and would require more than one unit to work wholly with a pool...other units, like the fleck, run upwards of $5,000. One of the issues with the residential units is capacity...just like an average water softener, refil taps em out, then they regenerate, and while they regenerate, the raw water goes in the pool. With my softener, we now manage this on a dual tank system so that if one taps out the other picks up.

The "cheapest" greensand option for a pool is a filter called Metal Trap.

One TFPer reviewed it here: Metal Trap review

Basically, the 25,000 capacity one had to be shut down the quarter flow to drop 1.0-1.5 ppm iron to .4...which is still staining level. So, your getting maybe 5 gallons per minute, its disposable, and depending on the amount of iron in your well, the best it can do is reduce it, not remove it.

But compared to whole house filters like the iron curtain, the metal trap is cheap -- eg $150 for the hose the, or 250 for the autofill plumbed one. But if your iron level is high, you'll foul it twice as quickly.

They all work in proportion to the amount of metal/iron they have to treat, so the pool consumables didn't seem like a great value or a permanent solution.

I looked at this stuff and concluded that my softener did almost as well removing iron. My raw well water runs about 2 ppm iron. My output to the pool now plumbed to the softener is about .5 ppm and I get a much more reasonable gpm and capacity for refills.

Last week we talked to our plumber about adding the iron curtain to our set up, but decided for this year to finish up our drip irrigation system for the terrace, which requires a zpm and ergo a couple of thousand by the time we're done. The pool has been very manageable using soft water so far, and over time, the pool level has now dropped to .5 ppm as well, which has dialed down my Metal Magic habit considerably.

To protect my very-old-well that I don't want to re drill, I am going to have to truck in water at considerable expense when I change the liner and ergo have to do a full refill. When I get around to that, I am thinking I may want to rig up either an iron curtain or pool only iron treatment to keep the water iron free. That's about the only way I can totally kick the sequestrant habit

 

[cowboycasey]

I am glad you commented on this, I was thinking of you when I started looking at it I wish there were an easier way...

I think ChemGeek and I once had a similar conversation about greensand and the concern was whether the trace levels of maganese would build up and then stain the pool Maganese is a problem in some pools, causing purple and black staining.

This is the stuff they use in the iron curtain which runs about $2,000 - $2500 per residential unit installed, and would require more than one unit to work wholly with a pool...other units, like the fleck, run upwards of $5,000. One of the issues with the residential units is capacity...just like an average water softener, refil taps em out, then they regenerate, and while they regenerate, the raw water goes in the pool. With my softener, we now manage this on a dual tank system so that if one taps out the other picks up.

The "cheapest" greensand option for a pool is a filter called Metal Trap.

One TFPer reviewed it here: Metal Trap review

Basically, the 25,000 capacity one had to be shut down the quarter flow to drop 1.0-1.5 ppm iron to .4...which is still staining level. So, your getting maybe 5 gallons per minute, its disposable, and depending on the amount of iron in your well, the best it can do is reduce it, not remove it.

But compared to whole house filters like the iron curtain, the metal trap is cheap -- eg $150 for the hose the, or 250 for the autofill plumbed one. But if your iron level is high, you'll foul it twice as quickly.

They all work in proportion to the amount of metal/iron they have to treat, so the pool consumables didn't seem like a great value or a permanent solution.

I looked at this stuff and concluded that my softener did almost as well removing iron. My raw well water runs about 2 ppm iron. My output to the pool now plumbed to the softener is about .5 ppm and I get a much more reasonable gpm and capacity for refills.

Last week we talked to our plumber about adding the iron curtain to our set up, but decided for this year to finish up our drip irrigation system for the terrace, which requires a zpm and ergo a couple of thousand by the time we're done. The pool has been very manageable using soft water so far, and over time, the pool level has now dropped to .5 ppm as well, which has dialed down my Metal Magic habit considerably.

To protect my very-old-well that I don't want to re drill, I am going to have to truck in water at considerable expense when I change the liner and ergo have to do a full refill. When I get around to that, I am thinking I may want to rig up either an iron curtain or pool only iron treatment to keep the water iron free. That's about the only way I can totally kick the sequestrant habit