Will a Chlorine Injection System Remove Iron Bacteria?

Find Out if a Chlorine Injection System is the Solution You Need

If the water in your home comes from a well, you might notice certain unappetizing things about it. Swampy, musty, oily tastes and smells, yellowish or reddish brown discoloration, and rust-colored slime deposits in standing water are all indications that you have iron bacteria in your water. One potential solution that’s offered to treat this problem is a chlorine injection system.

However, does a chlorine injection system actually do the trick? What are iron bacteria anyway, and how does a chlorine injection system work? Here’s a breakdown of the basics of chlorine injection and iron bacteria.

What Are Iron Bacteria?

First of all, the problem we’re discussing is more accurately referred to not as iron bacteria, but iron biofouling. This is because that slimy rust-colored buildup you see isn’t just the bacteria itself. It’s made up of living and dead bacteria, as well as the secretions, sheathes, stalks, and other material they’ve left behind.

This issue typically occurs when there’s an overabundance of iron in the well water. While iron bacteria don’t pose any serious health risks, they do make your water unpleasant and your water system less efficient.

These undesirable qualities are how you can identify whether you might have iron bacteria in your water:

• Odors and Tastes- The bad tastes and smells that iron bacteria produce are often described as musty, swampy, and oily. They’re often compared to sewage or rotten vegetation, though in more mild cases or earlier stages the water can smell similar to cucumber. Also, while iron bacteria itself do not produce a rotten egg smell, they can foster conditions where sulfur bacteria can grow and produce hydrogen sulfide, which does cause that smell.
• Discoloration- Iron bacteria can also discolor your water, producing yellow, red, orange, or brown colors. These colors can appear both in the water itself, and in stains left in sinks and on clothes. In some cases, you may also see the water have an oily rainbow-colored sheen.
• Slime Deposits- One of the biggest indicators of iron bacteria is the slime deposits that they create. These can be grey, yellow, or brown, but are most often a reddish rust-like color. They can also take the form of feathery-looking growths, especially in standing water like the inside of a toilet tank.

There are other, less visible consequences to iron bacteria as well. They can corrode your plumbing equipment, and the slime deposits can clog screens and pipes, reducing your well yields. They also increase the likelihood of sulfur bacteria infestation, as noted above.

To know whether you do have iron bacteria, you should get your water tested at a laboratory. Angel Water provides water testing, and we’ll help you find out for sure whether this nuisance is infesting your well water.

What Does a Chlorine Injection System Do?

Once you know for sure that you have iron bacteria, you’ll want to start considering ways to get rid of them. One of the most frequently recommended solutions is a chlorine injection system. What is a chlorine injection system though, and how does it work?

A chlorine injection system functions in much the same way as a municipal water treatment plant. When you get your drinking water from a city water supply, it goes through treatment at a plant before getting pumped to your home. Part of that process includes using chlorine to disinfect the water. However, when you draw your water from a well, you don’t get the benefit of chlorination.