Signs of acid water are corrosion of fixtures, pinhole leaks in plumbing, and blue staining (from copper pipes) or rust staining (from iron pipes). Often these waters are great for drinking or household use, but are low in buffering calcium minerals, and contain dissolved carbon-dioxide gas, which can cause a low pH and acid condition. Without treatment, these waters can be contaminated with copper, lead and other metals from piping, fixtures and appliances, turning good water into contaminated drinking water.
Treatment is accomplished by neutralizing the water with the use of an automatic neutralizer filter. These are water filter tanks filled with a media blend of calcium and magnesium carbonates made from naturally occurring minerals. This media, one brand of which is called Calcite, slowly dissolves into the water, raising the pH and making it less corrosive.
More mineral can quickly and easily be added as needed to the filter tank. This is typically done once per year for most residential applications. No special tools are required. This type of neutralizer also acts as a filter removing sediment and small amounts of iron.
Calcite Media
Calcite is a crushed and screened white marble media which can inexpensively be used to neutralize acidic or low pH waters to a neutral, less corrosive effluent.
Calcite is a naturally occurring calcium carbonate media. One of the advantages of Calcite is that it will only dissolve until the water reaches a neutral pH. It does not over-correct under normal conditions.
Upon contact with Calcite, acidic waters slowly dissolve the calcium carbonate to raise the pH which reduces the potential leaching of copper, lead and other metals found in typical plumbing systems. Periodic backwashing will prevent packing, reclassify the bed and maintain high service rates.
As the calcium carbonate media neutralizes the water, it will increase hardness and a softener in some rare cases becomes necessary after the neutralizing filter. However this is unusual and only occurs on water that is very low in hardness and alkalinity. Most homeowners rarely find they need a softener.
Calcite can be effectively combined with Clack Corosex to combine the high flow neutralization properties of Corosex, along with the slower reacting low flow properties of Calcite, increasing the ability to correct low pH.
How to Install Calcite Neutralizer Filters
Calcite neutralizer filters are easy to install. They need to be located in the piping after the pressure tank on a well water system, but before the copper household piping. If the pressure tank is piped with copper, it is best to remove any copper piping before the neutralizer and replace with PVC, PEX, or stainless steel piping, in order to avoid the corrosive effects of the acidic water.
Neutralizer filter tanks for home water systems typically measure 10 or 12 inches in diameter and 48 to 54 inches in height. The tanks have a center tube about 1 inch in diameter, called the distributor tube, which have a screen at the bottom of the tube. When the neutralizer tanks are assembled, the distributor tube is first placed in the tank and some tape or a cap put on the top of the tube to prevent media or gravel from entering the tube when the filter is built. Approximately 10 to 20 pounds of aquarium gravel 1/4 inch in diameter is first poured into the tank to cover the bottom distributor screen. The calcite media, which looks like white sand, is then poured in until the depth of the media reaches about two-thirds of the tank.
The top one third of the tank is left as free space. This free space allows the media to expand when the neutralizer is backwashed.
Neutralizer filters need to be connected to a drain to allow the filters to backwash. The backwashing is done automatically based on a simple timer typically once every one to two weeks. This flushes out any sediment or iron that the neutralizer filter has trapped and keeps the calcite clean and properly settled so it can filter and raise the pH in an optimum manner.
Up-Flow Neutralizers
An effective neutralizer filter uses an automatic backwash control valve, which allows the owner to have the neutralizer tank be automatically cleaned every one to two weeks.
In some cases, no backwash control valve is used and instead of the water first flowing down through the media and up the distributor tube, the piping is installed so the water flows down the distributor tube and up through the media. This is called an "up-flow neutralizer" and they are not backwashed.
There are some disadvantages to up-flow neutraliers despite the lower costs. In some cases calcite media can wash out of the neutralizer and enter the home water piping system causing damage. If the water flow is not sufficient the media can become solidified in places, causing the water to bypass the media.
With so many water treatment systems coming out these days, it can seem daunting to make the right choice as to which system to go for. Without doing a background search, arriving at an informed decision will be no doubt impossible. If you are thinking of using system to treat the water supply in your home, it is highly recommended that you compare water treatment systems before going out to purchase one. There are some tips you can use to help you find the best home water treatment systems, as well as water treatment products, that are being sold in the market these days, and this article gives you at least five of them.
The first tip on the list, and no doubt the most important one, is to research on all the home water treatment systems or water treatment products that are available. Of course, it would be impractical to employ all of them. After getting basic information and browsing through the profiles of some of the systems or products, you can narrow your research by selecting just one, two, or three of the seemingly effective ones and go from there. The Internet is the most powerful tool that can aid you in this task. However, you must exercise caution and discernment in identifying which are information-oriented articles and which are purely product advertisement campaigns.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth tips are all attached to the process of research. This means that you should follow the tips when you are doing the necessary research on the home water treatment systems and water treatment products you can find out there. So, what are these tips exactly? They all involve around factors that you should check out before settling for one water treatment system or product for your home. These factors include effectiveness, credibility, cost, and popularity.
The term "effectiveness" actually pertains to the overall performance of the system you are interested in. There are a number of home water treatment systems, including reverse osmosis, steam distillation, filtration, softening, and many more. The standard to follow is that the water treatment system should be able to successfully remove contaminants that can endanger your health and that of your family. But removing the contaminants, whether natural or man-made, is not the only consideration. The water treatment system should leave the water clean and perfectly safe for drinking purposes and other uses. Water treatment products or equipment can help with this.
The term "credibility" refers to the reputation of home water treatment systems, as vouched for by years of research, development, and all-around evolution. There are water treatment products out there which have not been tried and tested. This can lead to serious health hazards. The most credible water treatment systems are those designed and constantly modified by specialists who work in and out of their laboratories to ensure only the best results in the water treatment industry. The term "popularity" is sometimes confused with the term "credibility," but the two are different, though somewhat related. When a product is popular, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is credible. However, when many experts recommend a product, it shows the product's value.
Finally, the term "cost" simply pertains to the savings you can make from choosing one among the many home water treatment systems. The accompanying water treatment products or equipment should be that expensive to maintain and care for because this will only make you lose more money in the long run. The water treatment system you should go for is the one that can treat your water supply so you'll have water that is not only safe for drinking but for all other uses of water too, such as bathing or showering, washing clothes, washing dishes, cleaning the house, etc. All these factors can help you find the best systems for treating water in your home.
Both Gerry Bulfin & John Sern are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Gerry Bulfin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Improvement, Sell Home and Water Filters. Gerry Bulfin is a licensed water treatment contractor and WQA Certified Water Specialist IV specializing in