I have a spring that I dug out. Water tested very good so I went ahead and buried a 1000 gallon tank prepared the feeder area with 4”pipe and river gravel from a couple feed sources. I lose more water than I’m able to capture due to the depth of the springs. I would highly recommend putting in 2,000 or a 2,500 gallon tank for a family. I installed a submersible pump from inside the tank to the house and up to the barn with 1” poly pipe. In the house I Installed Two 1 micron large filters and a carbon filter ahead of the UV light filter. The spring water tested at 2 grains iron hardness. Installed a reverse osmosis filter system for showers and clothes that recycles every 28 days.
Lately we've had very dry summers. In late August, I’ve had to switch over to my well for a week or so until the spring begins to flow again. My iron hardness in the well is high a 50 grains of iron so I added an iron filter to pre-filter the water before it goes through the reverse osmosis system. We don’t notice muchh of a change for the couple weeks we need it during a period of drought. Some years we never have to switch over. I only have a 1 micron filter in the pole barn. We don’t drink the water in the barn, although we have in the past without issue.
I’m able to switch from the spring to the well in the basement with valves. Both pumps (well and spring) are the same voltage so I unplug one and plug in the other to switch over.
I’m able to monitor the depth of the spring water in the tank with level monitor that WIFI connects and lets me know if there are large or sudden drops in level. It’s going on 5 years old and works great. We love the spring water so much better than the old well water.
