Getting my well shocked
 

Any one in the Calgary and surrounding areas know of a company that does this service. I am noticing a smell from my hot water, and I was told it is due to a bacteria in the well water. I do not know what companies do this service and feel it needs to get done ASAP. I also don't know if I should wait until after the spring thaw, since there will be a whole bunch of water going into all the water tables in the next month or two.

I do not have much knowledge about all this and any help would be greatly appreciated. I am a newbie living out in the sticks and did not get a guide for things of this matter. I just know to get the septic tank pumped out one or two times a year...

I have never had a well, so cannot comment. But I had a septic tank for 30 years. During that time, I only had it pumped out 3 times. Two that I remember, but that seemed low, so 3 it is.
If the septic tank is not overworked, ie proper size tank for the occupants, and you do not overload it, it should run fine. To me even once a year seems very high.

Hahhaaa the company that cleans septic tanks said once a year... there are only two of us living in the house as well. When we bought the house part of the inspection was to have the septic system looked at by a professional. You do what they they tell you to do... I knew someone that had their septic tank back up into the basement. It was really nasty. When I do water changes I do let about 50-90g of water go into the septic tank... I make sure nobody is showering or I am doing laundry that particular day.

What did you do to ensure you had enough bacteria and such for the septic tank. I am blown away you only did three cleanings for 30 years WOW!!! Maybe you had a really big field or something. I better do some more reading on septic tanks... what a crappy to have to read about... literally.

Diana i had the same problem before when I lived in the country down east. Its the water tables letting thespring run off in ande flooding too. trust me i know the smell. what i did was run a water softner for the whole house only during the spring. it went away.

I already have a water softener, and it is not helping. The smell is not too bad, but I honestly thought I must have some really bad BO when I hit the shower:lol: I am just concerned it might effect the water that goes into the tank. I am getting a new RO/DI system just to make sure. The smell is only in the hot water, not the cold water.

All shocking a well is, is chlorinating it. You can do this very easily yourself with a 5 gallon bucket and the chlorine you get for swimming pools. Mix a strong concentration in the bucket and pour it down the well. Let the well sit for a day or two without using any water, obviously this works best if leaving for a weekend. What I do as well is run some water through the house until I can smell a little chlorine in each tap to disinfect the pipes.

Once a day or two has passed, use a garden hose to drain the chlorinated water onto the lawn as you don't want it ending up in the septic tank. Not the end of the world if it ends up in there though, I've actually dumped "Prime" into the sink to de-chlorinate the water ending up in the septic system. Don't know if it did anything but I felt better about it.

Excellent info... I guess I should wait until the snow melts and to get my new RO/DI unit. How long will the chlorine stay in the system for? It seems like an easy fix but I better start researching a little bit about it...

The smell might only be in the hot water because heat causes separation of molecules/expansion of gasses and makes it more noticeable?

How deep is your well?

+ Do not pour saltwater into septic tanks.

Uh oh, why can't I put the tank water into the septic system? I guess I had better find a way to plumb it out into the woods from the sump for water changes. I had thought of this but we did the build during the winter, and had no other option due to ice and snow.

What is causing the smell in the water and is it bad for consumption?

I have no idea of how deep the well is, we bought the house like this... we had the water within the well checked for home inspection but the report does not mention the depth of the well. Is there any way to find out on my own, aside of falling down into it?

Diana we shocked our wells (my Moms and ours) back in Virden, MB as we both lived on acreages. All we did was take a 5 gallon pail and fill it half or three quarters full of water. (do this after supper when you are done using the water in the house)
Then add 1 cup of "chlorine product" and toss it down the well. It takes very little bleach to kill bacteria. Let the well sit overnight and then do some laundry or something to use up some water the next day. Or run the hose outside, whatever you like. We never had any problems with it going to the septic field. The idea is not to kill the bacteria in the septic field (as bugs are our friends out there!! LOL).....but we never noticed a difference.....we always ran it to the field with no ill effects.

We had a few years were we would do this now and again after the run off.

Brad :biggrin:

So as in choline product, just bleach? Did the smell go away? That sounds really easy and our neighbors paid someone $300 to do it last year for them... I need to do this for a living... there is good money to be had!!!

Thats all we used Diana. There are probably other products out there. Bleach is cheap and kill bacteria really well. Depending on the depth of the well and depth of the water column you will be able to tell if you start with a cup first. If you have a larger water column you may need to hit it harder next time. That usually kills the smell. The taste of the water usually changes for most wells about this time of year......into run off season.

smell
 

We have a well also. We get a sulfer smell when we've used lots and lots of water. Before you pour bleach down the well, try this, If the smell is stronger out of the hot tap, this works for us. Turn off the main water supply. Pour a bottle of peroxide in a container you can siffen back into the water heater. Siffon an equal amount of fresh water back into the heater. makes sure peroxide makes it into the heater. Let stand for 1 hour min. The plumbing store told us about this, works great gets rid of smell. Smell is mostly heater core rod reating with water.

Water wells need to have regular maintenance. I work for Alberta Environment, and if you want to send me your mailing address in a PM, I'll send you a Waterwells for Life book.

Take a look in the back of the tank on one of your toilets. It should be clean. If there is a black slime, you have a bacteria problem.

Also, if only your hot water is smelling, you may have to clean your hot water tank. Bacteria can grow in them as well.

You may also receive information on shocking your well from your local Health authority.

If you don't want to use bleach pop into a hot tub store and get some Lithium shock for hot tubs, this will work and is not to costly and its easy to store leftovers for the next time. good luck

I will look into this when my hubby is not glued to the television, watching the play offs... by the looks of the amount of snow that is falling down, we will be having a massive melt some day this year I am hoping. The smell is not too bad yet, but I do smell it in the shower since it an enclosed space. It is not BO, I promise:wink:

Bleach is good, Like I mentioned we just use pool chlorine. I don't sweat too much about it getting into the septic as it's probably no worse then a lot of household stuff (toilet cleaner, etc.) that goes in there.

Wow and the girls next door paid almost $300 for someone to come and do theirs... they wanted to know if we wanted ours done at the same time, and I said not this year... since I had no clue as to what the heck she was talking about. Man would I have been super POd if I paid that kind of money for something that will cost me a few cents... unless I seriously screw something up.:lol:

Thanks for saving me so much money you guys...

Last thing... since there is a smell and such is there anything in the water I should be worried about drinking and fish tank wise?

I just realized I won't be doing anything with the well for awhile. We have a fibre glass rock covering it, and with all the snow I have no idea where it is. In the summer months it looks like stone henge, but right now I have no clue where it is. The snow is so deep that you would have no idea we have anything under there...

Septic tank wastes are broken down by bacteria. Water going to the tank decreases the parts per million, bacteria to water. The more bacteria you have the faster the wastes are assimilated. For every gallon you send down the pipe to the tank, one gallon has to leave the tank for the field. The length of field you need is determined by the type of soil you have and your local regulations.
So
Do not send water to the septic tank from your aquariums.
Do not use a garburater, as this is just more work for the bacteria.
Once or twice a year, flush down a dead mouse.
Find some packets of bacteria and flush these down once a year, just before going on vacation. I bought mine at the local co-op.
Use only liquid soap.
If you can stand to do this, there was a motto "If its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown flush it down" lol
I only had a septic tank. When I bought that place, I had to find out all I could about it and asked around and gleaned this bit of info from an old guy, now deceased RIP
Everyone had two tanks. One for the sinks, showers/bath and laundry called a soap box, the second for the toilets, called a septic tank. See the analogy? Less water to the septic. You only had to clean out the soap box more often, because the soap comes out of solution when it gets cold.
These days, to "save" money, only one tank is needed, just clean it out more often!!!
Done by others, as you certainly do not want that job! When I moved out of there, I had to get the tank cleaned as well, for the new owners. 200$
Remember, less water means less cleaning out. Sorry for being so long winded

I appreciate the info... my next door neighbor has been here 20 plus years and uses a garburator. I was asking her about it... We do have a huge septic field and with the way the landscape is, it drains very easily. We were told adding water to the system will never be an issue. Our septic system was designed for a family of six and there are only two of us. I have the LG Tromme washer/dryer which really saves on water, and am frugal with water consumption. I put Super septic bacteria into the toilet once a month, and try to never use antibacterial soaps or cleaners either. I also changed the toilet to the new low volume units.

I don't think flushing a dead mouse is really doable... why the dead mouse?

Well the mouse is small, is easy to catch, will flush, and adds extra bacteria. Worked for me. Like I said, an old guy told me, I am telling you, just passing it on.
So your neighbor has a garburater, for 20 yrs, how long between his tank being sucked out.
You of course, could do what your neighbor does. All I am saying, we had a family of 6, growing up, washable diapers etc. But excess water, we did not do that. I had to contend with 3 teenagers and a wife having showers once a day. Still, after 10 yrs, I still had room in that tank, mostly a lot of soap in the beginning. but at the end, everything looked good. So three pumpings in 30 yrs.
Think of this: If you throw all your vegetables into a compost bin, at the end of the year, how much black humus do you have? Well, all of that is at the bottom of your septic tank, which has to be pumped out!
"We were told adding water to the system will never be an issue" The water itself will never be an issue because you have good drainage. But remember, water in= water out. Flushing bacteria out with it. You want as mutch bacteria in the tank as you can keep

Part of the reason for not adding tank water to the septic tanks, especially saltwater, is because the salt can damage the bacteria living in the tanks (those that are not used to salty conditions), and at the field/open discharge, you can harm any plant life that sucks up the nutrients! Salt = bad on grass+trees. My dad asked the well and septic system guys about this, and both said no salt, I figure the reasons I just explained are why. We will be digging a 4-6ft deep hole just into the woods away from the house, filling it with gravel, and I will be draining SW through a hose into that pit.

Diana,

These are the guidelines I use for shocking our well:

http://www.water-research.net/shockwelldisinfection.htm

Plus we use a carbon cartridge in our whole house filter.

Also, follow up with Seashell (above) on getting that Waterwells for Life book.


Mitch

Hmm be very careful with peroxide. If you do this I would ensure that the system is not sealed, it must be vented. As peroxide decomposes it releases oxygen and depending on the strength of the peroxide ALOT of oxygen and if cannot vent it will explode with tremendous force.