Getting my well shocked

[my2rotties]

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!!!

Originally Posted by es355lucille

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

[es355lucille]

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.

Originally Posted by my2rotties

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!!!

[carnut]

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.

[SeaShell]

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.

[Ian]

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

[my2rotties]

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

[Slick Fork]

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.

[my2rotties]

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.

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?

[my2rotties]

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...

[hillegom]

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