Well and drain field question..

thatguy · Jul 5, 2007

I got a couple questions about my well and drain fields..

1) A while back the well had this jelly looking substance that was coming up around the well casing. What was that stuff?

2) I changed my whole house water filter today for the first time since we moved into the house in October 2006. As of March or April (the last time I looked) the filter showed no dirt or anything on it.. Today when I changed it it has the goopy looking stuff around the bottom and black moldy looking stuff on the filter. The filter said good for 4 months - did i just go too long before changing it? I tested the water when we moved in and it was almost PH neutral and 'slightly hard' @ 3 grains FWIW

3) My drain field was sowed in grass but this summer you see grass/dirt/grass/dirt/grass.. Is the grass growing the the drain areas from the extra water? OR is the dirt over that area because there isnt enough dirt covering the gravel for the grass to grow?

thanks

Brian

schmism · Jul 5, 2007

They put my septic in this spring.

There is no gravel in my drain feild, they layed prefed pipe on precision dug trench and placed a plastic U shaped channel over it, then backfilled with dirt. thats it

i have stripes of grass that grow extra dark green and a bit faster that correspond to the area directly above the drain line/trench.

for the install pics
Septic Pics

Egon · Jul 5, 2007

Have you had your water analyzed lately?

The black goop could be bacterial iron????

riptides · Jul 6, 2007

thatguy said:
I got a couple questions about my well and drain fields..

1) A while back the well had this jelly looking substance that was coming up around the well casing. What was that stuff?

Are you sure it isn't a sealer for the casing itself?

thatguy said:
2) I changed my whole house water filter today for the first time since we moved into the house in October 2006. As of March or April (the last time I looked) the filter showed no dirt or anything on it.. Today when I changed it it has the goopy looking stuff around the bottom and black moldy looking stuff on the filter. The filter said good for 4 months - did i just go too long before changing it? I tested the water when we moved in and it was almost PH neutral and 'slightly hard' @ 3 grains FWIW

I'd be more on top of filter changes. Wells are a dynamic system, many factors come into play that are unknowns. I'd get my water tested anually.

thatguy said:
3) My drain field was sowed in grass but this summer you see grass/dirt/grass/dirt/grass.. Is the grass growing the the drain areas from the extra water? OR is the dirt over that area because there isnt enough dirt covering the gravel for the grass to grow?

thanks

Brian

The grass is always greener over the septic system. Could be mositure and nutrients escaping back into the air.

Standing, or pooling water, I'd be leary of...

-Mike Z.

Highbeam · Jul 6, 2007

The gooey stuff was probably grey and felt like a wet clay. That's bentonite and was pumped between the casing and the dirt for the top 18-20 feet of the well to seal the well from surface water running down. It is a good thing but messy. Bentonite swells up when it gets wet for a nice seal.

Why did you change the filter? Was it restricting flow too much. I would expect funk to build up on the filter since it is meant to grab that stuff. Partialy plugged filters filter better than clean ones. I wish I had a filter. I get lots of sediment plugging up screens in faucets. Your filter is doing its job.

So the stripes are caused by moisture excess or insufficient moisture above the laterals. My septic's drainfield has a good amount of fill over it. The warmth of effluent, it's high phosphurus and other nutrients that come from our soaps and sewage, along with significant moisture mean my grass grows like crazy over the drainfield laterals. In cases where the soil is very free draining and/or the dirt on top of the gravel is very thin, the grass's soil will be too dry to support grass and will burn out. Plenty of nutrients in either condition.

Usually on newer systems the striping is brown stripes over the laterals because the very large drainfields never get very wet. They don't let you use much dirt over the laterals and they don't let you use poorly percing soils at all anymore.

thatguy · Jul 12, 2007

Highbeam said:
The gooey stuff was probably grey and felt like a wet clay. That's bentonite <deleteted text>

OK.. You win the prize for naming the the stuff... Is it normal for it to look like it is being forced UP (blowed out??) around the well casing? I cant tell if some animal is digging a hole around the well OR if the bentonite is being forced up around the casing?

The other day I pushed some dirt/bentonite back around the casing and today it is out again.

From doing a little research, the filter the plumber used for our sediment filter (pleated filter not baterial resistant) was NOT suppose to be used for wells.. The mfg website said the filter was to be used for treated water systems only.. Between the filter being the wrong type and me going to long a time before a change is what caused the gook i bet..

Any thoughts on what whole house water filter is best? Micron size? Minimum flow rate? (i picked up two filters at walmart they are 10 micron, 5 gal/min flowrate and spun polypropylene). my other choices were 20 and 30 microns

thanks

Brian

Egon · Jul 12, 2007

The filter size would depend on what you wish to remove. A water analysis should tell you this.

wjmst · Jul 12, 2007

A water analysis will tell you what you need to filter out.

Also, the lower the micron rating, the more smaller sediment it will trap, thereby, restricting your water flow.

I use a carbon filter from walmart that I need to replace about once a month. The filter costs about $5. I think the max flow rate is 5 gal per minute. Right before it needs changed you cannot run two fixtures at the same time without loss of water pressure.

JRobyn · Jul 12, 2007

I installed a filter "bank" system at my house of three of the smallish cartridge filters in series, and use a rough (pleated paper) sediment filter, followed by a fine sediment (spun media), followed by a charcoal. It works great, and I get about 6 months out of a set of filters before pressure drop/low flow becomes noticeable. This is on city water. If I had it to do over, I'd use only two of the LARGER filter housings, and just use one sediment and one charcoal.

- Jay