Looking for advice on acid neutralizer system

[CablingPro]

A household of three adults in SE PA. Well water with pH of 5.8 and hardness of 14.97 gpg, iron 0.05 mg/l.

We have a 62 gallon pressure tank, Whirlpool water softener and set of sediment filters: 50 and 20 micron.

The current problem is water acidity causing copper plumbing corrosion.

I’ve contacted several companies are I’m on the fence what type of system to get to increase the pH.

One company is adamant about getting a soda ash injection type of system over a Calcite Acid Neutralizer due to high hardness level.

Another one claims that I’d be perfectly OK with and wants to sell me Clack 2.5 upflow gravel bed with calcite, no electronic valve.

I’m leaning toward a calcite type of neutralizer but not sure what type to get.

One of the concerns is not to cause significant water pressure drops.

Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[heat seeker]

Our water is acidic, but not hard. We have a soda ash injection system, and it works well. I dump soda ash in a 35 gallon tank; enough to saturate it. The tankful lasts about 3 months. I can tell when it runs out, as the copper stains start showing up in the tub and toilet.

I have a 5 micron filter after the injector, no problems. This system came with the house 12 years ago, and only occasionally a check valve clogs up with soda ash. It's easily cleaned and back in service. I looked into upgrading the system, and choked on the prices. As long as this one keeps working, it will stay.

I'm curious as to what others do about acidic water.

 

[CablingPro]

Our water is acidic, but not hard. We have a soda ash injection system, and it works well. I dump soda ash in a 35 gallon tank; enough to saturate it. The tankful lasts about 3 months. I can tell when it runs out, as the copper stains start showing up in the tub and toilet.

I have a 5 micron filter after the injector, no problems. This system came with the house 12 years ago, and only occasionally a check valve clogs up with soda ash. It's easily cleaned and back in service. I looked into upgrading the system, and choked on the prices. As long as this one keeps working, it will stay.

I'm curious as to what others do about acidic water.

I'm inclined to go the calcite tank route because it doesn't require as much and frequent maintenance.
Does the tank size determine how long the media lasts? The bigger the tank the longer it takes for calcite load to resolve?
Any recommendations on electronic type of valve over non back-washing systems?

 

[Highbeam]

Seems that you deal with the ph and then remove the hardness (raw plus what you add for ph) and then remove the iron. They call it a treatment train. I don’t expect one device to do everything.

Flow rates are easy to maintain if you buy properly sized equipment.

 

[moey]

We have a 2.5 cu ft non backwashing system. Its raised the ph from about 5.8 to 7.5ish. We use pure calcite we dont mix the magnesium stuff anymore we did in the beginning but I just add calcite now. I would stay away from the backwashing style. They burn through a lot of water and dump the backwash in your septic. It does add hardness we went from 0 to 69 on the scale. We didnt add a softner thats still pretty low. We bought ours from https://www.midatlanticwater.net/ and installed ourselves.

I didnt notice a pressure drop from our pressure is only 30/50.

Bigger tank less refills. That is about the only difference. Ours has been installed about 3 years I added about 1 bag of calcite so far. Does not seem to go through much.

 

[moey]

We have a 2.5 cu ft non backwashing system. Its raised the ph from about 5.8 to 7.5ish. We use pure calcite we dont mix the magnesium stuff anymore we did in the beginning but I just add calcite now. I would stay away from the backwashing style. They burn through a lot of water and dump the backwash in your septic. It does add hardness we went from 0 to 69 on the scale. We didnt add a softner thats still pretty low. We bought ours from https://www.midatlanticwater.net/ and installed ourselves.

I didnt notice a pressure drop from our pressure is only 30/50.

Bigger tank less refills. That is about the only difference. Ours has been installed about 3 years I added about 1 bag of calcite so far. Does not seem to go through much.

The hardness I mentioned was 69 mg/l when converted to grains per gallon is 4.03 that gives you a idea of how much ours went up basically from 0 to those numbers. You have hard water already keep that in mind. I dont know what soda ash does to hardness.

 

[moey]

Your iron levels arent very high be weary from someone who tells you, you need treatment for that. I dont think you would need treatment for that.

 

[Highbeam]

It is a bad design/plumber that routes backwash water to the septic. Septic systems are not designed for that flow. Send the backwash water to the ground. It is always better if you can avoid the complexity and water waste by skipping a backwash style filter. The trouble is that it still has to work!

Iron is aesthetic only. If you can tolerate the staining, taste, and odor then save money by not removing it. A lot of times, a softener can remove a small amount of iron. High levels of iron can foul a softener. If your iron harbors iron bacteria then your whole treatment system just got more complicated!

 

[moey]

Some areas you are not allowed to dump it. I experienced that when I had someone come out and quote a system that backwashed. Of course their reply was it wasnt much water and people do it all the time.

Im glad I got one that doesnt backwash the company I bought it from even said they rarely if ever recommend the backwashing style.