Chlorine usage in water well

[John]

Does anyone know where to purchase chlorine / chlorine tablets for use in our water well?

More importantly, does anyone know the proper amount of chlorine to safely use for disinfecting our well? We do not drink this water, but it is used for cleaning and bathing.

I opened our well today and saw a floating chlorine container, a small version of ones I've seen in swimming pools. It was empty. I'd like to refill it and continue to use it, but I don't have a clue where to start.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[bufante]

You might need to call someone. You need to figure how much water and what is in your water before you add chlorine. Is there a high bacteria count, any floods lately, waste water in your water? There are some things to consider.

I would also suggest a chlorine water test kit...should be easy to find in Playa with all the pools around. The directions with the kit have suggested levels of content for different applications.

Good luck.

[jx2]

John do you stil need help with this??? Since the post is a few weeks old i figure maybe you got it done. I work in the industry so i could give you a little help and a few formulas for you to use.
Jeff

[John]

No, I haven't made any progress in finding a solution. Any help you can provide (formulas, websites, etc) would be quite helpful!


We have other water issues here that may involve us getting someone professional to take a look and assess the situation. But, I'd like to try chlorine as the first fix and go from there.

I know too much chlorine is bad, but I don't know how to know what is acceptable for the dishes, showering, etc. We definitely don't plan on drinking it, and we don't want it to smell like the city pool.

Thanks!

[jx2]

Originally Posted by John

No, I haven't made any progress in finding a solution. Any help you can provide (formulas, websites, etc) would be quite helpful!


We have other water issues here that may involve us getting someone professional to take a look and assess the situation. But, I'd like to try chlorine as the first fix and go from there.

I know too much chlorine is bad, but I don't know how to know what is acceptable for the dishes, showering, etc. We definitely don't plan on drinking it, and we don't want it to smell like the city pool.

Thanks!

For starters, like Adam said it would be very helpful if you had a test kit. The strips you use for swimming pools will wok just fine. If you know the volume of the tank you would like to disinfect the formulas will work. If not the test strips will be invaluable. For disinfection it can be done in several ways. High dosage for a short time or a lower dosage for a longer time. In the U.S. for reservoir disinfecting you will want a free chlorine residual (test strips tell you this) of at least 10 ppm (parts per million) for a contact time of 6 hours. If you really want to nuke it you can chlorinate to 50ppm for 1 hour. Flushing will be required after this procedure (unless Libby wants to bleach her hair) This is reccommended for for a shock treatment initially. Anything over 3-4 ppm of free chlorine will smell like a swimming pool, thats why the flushing afterwards is a must.
After the shock treatment a residual of .5ppm is a good starting point(anywhere from .2ppm to 1.0ppm free chlorine). I would most likely use less if you arent going to drink it anyway. This will keep any algea growth from starting in the future.

Calcium hypochlorite (tablets) are very hard to control the level because they dissolve at different rates under different circumstances.
Being in Mexico your water may require a little more chlorine depending on the level of demand(bacteria etc..) in the water.

Chlorine bleach bought in the store generally has 5 1/4% chlorine (unless you use the ultra 12 1/2%). Do not use any scented or perfumed bleach.
If you know the volume of the tank you would like to disinfect i will figure the volume of bleach for you. Or if you have some rough dimensions i can calculate the volume for you too!!!
I'll post more later gotta go to work now

[DavidB]

jx2, so are you saying that he should use liquid chlorine instead of the tablets like you would use in a swimming pool? I'm just curious because we have a large pool so I'm use to dealing with the whole trying to keep the chlorine levels correct. Could you hit it with shock then just add a smaller amount of liquid every once and a while. We use the 3" pucks with good results but I think John might have a problem with those since the water doesn't circulate like a pool does. We've never had good luck with the chlorine floaters.

[jx2]

Originally Posted by DavidB

jx2, so are you saying that he should use liquid chlorine instead of the tablets like you would use in a swimming pool? I'm just curious because we have a large pool so I'm use to dealing with the whole trying to keep the chlorine levels correct. Could you hit it with shock then just add a smaller amount of liquid every once and a while. We use the 3" pucks with good results but I think John might have a problem with those since the water doesn't circulate like a pool does. We've never had good luck with the chlorine floaters.

I'm not a swimming pool expert at all (municipal water supply). Liquid chlorine is instant in giving results where-as tablets are a constant dispersing of small amounts of chlorine. Mostly tablets are easier for the user than liquid. If you are having problems with chlorine residuals you may very well use liquid to make immediate adjustment as needed. Chlorine will dissipate pretty quickly with open water sources such as swimming pools, so keeping consistent levels can be very hard. I would recomend tablet floaters with the occassional liquid addition if needed. Tablets and liquid end up in the exact same chemical form once diluted into the water.
Will give formula soon

[jx2]

For chlorine levels of tanks pools etc.. use the following:

one gallon of 5-1/4% bleach from store= .43785lbs per gallon of chlorine.
If you want 1ppm of chlorine in a 20,000 gallon pool you would need .166 lbs of chlorine or approx 1/3 of a gallon. Or 20,000 gallon pool wanting 3ppm you will need 1 gallon of bleach.

For a 1000 gallon tank this would be .008 lbs or .019 gal. This is why the test strips are so important for proper amount in small tanks. This is measurable in ounces of bleach and a lot of the time it is best to get the amount needed initially by test strips and go from there. An eight of a cup of bleach goes along ways when disinfecting water.

Hope this helps and does not confuse too much.

[John]

Is it absolutely necessary for the shock treatment of the underground resevoir? I only ask because draining the resevoir here seems like it would be a very time consuming process. Does skipping this step defeat the purpose of the disinfection process?

The current process is from water supply to resevoir underground, then its pumped to a container on the roof, then through the house plumbing and eventually out through a drain. It would probably take a day to go this route. I'd have to find some way of syphoning that water out of the resevoir instead of the more time consuming route just described.

[jx2]

Originally Posted by John

Is it absolutely necessary for the shock treatment of the underground resevoir? I only ask because draining the resevoir here seems like it would be a very time consuming process. Does skipping this step defeat the purpose of the disinfection process?

The current process is from water supply to resevoir underground, then its pumped to a container on the roof, then through the house plumbing and eventually out through a drain. It would probably take a day to go this route. I'd have to find some way of syphoning that water out of the resevoir instead of the more time consuming route just described.

No it is not since you aren't going to be drinking it anyway. You must remember i work in drinking water and all theses scenarios i gave are handed down from the overkill agency of the EPA.
A good steady chlorine residual will suffice. If it was me i would put a cup of bleach into the main tank and a couple teaspoons in the roof tank and go from there. Use some test strips to see where your levels are at. It may be a tad much at first, but you will get the results you are looking for. This will kill any algea type of growth and you may see a little debris at first from your faucets.
One more point to consider is chlorine smells the most when it has a high level and also when it is at a very low level. Your nose may deceive you, so once again the test strips will be very handy. If you would like to know details of this lookup "breakpoint chlorination". I know this stuff but i am a terrible teacher and i even confuse myself when trying to explain stuff..