Serving the Texas Hill Country & San Antonio since 1989
Which media goes in which tank, and why. This is the hardware side of well treatment, the filtration stages that sit between your pump and everything else in the house.
Softening a well is the easy part. The difficult part is everything that has to happen before the softener, because iron, manganese, sulfur and sediment will each shorten the life of whatever sits behind them.
Well filtration means picking the right media for the specific contaminant, sizing the tank so the water spends long enough in contact with it, and setting the backwash frequency and flow rate so the bed cleans itself properly. Undersize the tank or under-backwash the bed and the media channels, packs down and stops working long before it should.
That is why we test first. Iron at 0.5 parts per million and iron at 5 parts per million are different problems needing different media, and no amount of brand loyalty changes that.
A well rarely needs all six. It very rarely needs only one.
Spin-down separators for sand and grit, then cartridge or backwashing filters for finer particulate. Always first, always the cheapest insurance in the system.
Catalytic and oxidising media that convert dissolved iron into particles the bed can trap, then backwash them away. Needs adequate pH and oxygen to work.
Air injection or oxidising media to deal with hydrogen sulfide. The smell is the giveaway, and carbon alone will not hold it for long.
Calcite or a blend, for acidic well water that would otherwise corrode copper pipe and leave blue-green staining. Also helps iron oxidise properly.
For taste, odor and organic compounds after the heavy lifting is done, and to protect any reverse osmosis membrane further downstream.
Inactivates bacteria without adding chemicals. Goes last, because the lamp needs clear water to reach the organisms it is treating.
Design, installation, tuning and media replacement, for our systems and for whatever was there before us.
Tank size, media volume, contact time and backwash settings calculated from your test results and your well output rather than estimated.
Fitted by a licensed technician with proper bypasses and drain provision, so servicing later does not mean cutting pipe.
Backwash frequency and flow set wrong is the most common fault we find. Often a system that seems to have failed simply needs its settings corrected.
Every media has a working life. We track yours against your usage and replace it before performance falls away rather than after you notice.
When we are called to a well system that is not performing, the fault is usually not the equipment. It is a tank too small for the contaminant load, a backwash rate that cannot lift and clean the bed, or media chosen for iron when the actual problem was manganese.
All of those are design faults rather than product faults, and all of them are fixable. Sometimes that means new media in the existing tank. Sometimes it means a bigger tank. It very rarely means throwing the whole system away, whatever the last company told you.
Nobody should buy a water system from a brochure. Here is what actually happens.
We test what is coming out of your tap or your well, hardness in grains per gallon, iron, pH, odor, sediment, and look at your plumbing. About twenty minutes, no charge.
A written recommendation and a firm price based on your numbers and your household use. If a smaller unit does the job, we say so.
Installation by a licensed technician, then filters, settings checks and 24/7 repair for as long as you own the system.
We are not a franchise and we are not a call centre. The person who tests your water works for the company that installs and services it.
Deep roots in San Antonio and the Hill Country, and customers who have been with us for decades.
Class 3 certified by the Texas Water Commission and licensed by the Water Quality Association.
We install and service all major brands, even if the system was not purchased from us.
A leaking or failed system does not wait for business hours. Neither do we.
From single-family homes to restaurants, salons and industrial facilities, sized to the load.
On-site testing and a written estimate cost nothing, with no obligation attached.
Filtration is one part. These cover testing, hardness and ongoing service.
Annual testing, bacteria panels and the checks worth running after a flood.
Why softening a well is different, and what has to happen before the softener.
Annual service, media replacement, UV lamps and emergency repair for well systems.
From the test. Iron, manganese, sulfur and pH each point at different media, and the concentration decides the tank size. Choosing media without a test result is guessing with somebody else’s money.
It varies by type and by how much it is asked to do. Catalytic iron media often runs five to eight years, calcite is consumed and needs topping up, carbon runs three to five, and UV lamps need replacing annually regardless of how they look.
Usually pH, tank size or backwash. Iron will not oxidise properly in acidic water, an undersized tank does not give it enough contact time, and a backwash that is too weak leaves the bed fouled. All three are correctable.
Yes, in front of it. Sediment is what scores valve seats and packs down media beds. A cheap pre-filter protects several thousand dollars of equipment behind it.
Filtration reduces the particulate that shelters bacteria, but it does not disinfect. That is what ultraviolet is for, and UV has to sit after the filtration so the lamp can actually reach the water.
No. Filtration removes particulate, metals and odor compounds. Hardness is dissolved calcium and magnesium, and only ion exchange takes those out.
Well water filtration starts with a test, not a catalogue. Two wells a mile apart in Kendall County can need completely different equipment, so we measure first and specify second.
The commonest reason Hill Country homes need well water filtration is iron. It stains basins and laundry a rusty orange, and it will foul softener resin if it is not taken out upstream.
Hydrogen sulfide is the second reason. It is the rotten egg smell, and no amount of softening removes it. Well water filtration for sulfur uses aeration or catalytic carbon depending on how much gas is present.
Sediment is the third. After heavy rain many Hill Country wells pull fine grit and clay, which is why sediment stages sit at the very front of a well water filtration train and are sized to the pump rather than the pipe.
Order is everything. Sediment first, then iron and manganese, then hardness, then disinfection. Well water filtration installed out of order tends to fail early and expensively.
Flow rate decides the hardware. A filter that treats perfectly but drops household pressure will be resented within a week, so we size well water filtration to the pump curve and the number of bathrooms.
Bacteria are handled separately. A positive coliform result means we inspect the cap, casing and surface drainage before recommending UV, because the well itself is usually the problem rather than the aquifer.
Upkeep is real but modest. Backwashing media beds, annual UV lamps and scheduled cartridge changes keep well water filtration working; neglected systems are the ones that give filtration a bad name.
| Stage | What it removes | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|
| Sediment pre-filter | Grit, sand, clay | Protects every later stage from abrasion |
| Iron and manganese filter | Orange and black staining | Iron destroys softener resin if it gets through |
| Sulfur treatment | Rotten egg odor | Gas passes straight through a softener |
| Ion-exchange softener | Calcium and magnesium | Scale control once the water is clean |
| UV disinfection | Bacteria | Last stage, needs clear water to work |
| Reverse osmosis at the tap | Dissolved solids | Final polish for drinking and cooking |
Cost follows complexity, not brand. A single sediment stage is inexpensive. Full well water filtration for iron, sulfur and bacteria is a larger job, and we would rather quote the right train than sell you a cheap one that disappoints.
If you are comparing quotes, ask each company which contaminant each stage of the well water filtration is actually rated for, and at what flow rate. Vague answers usually mean guesswork, and well water filtration built on guesswork is what we spend most of our repair time undoing.
Does every Hill Country well need well water filtration? No. Some wells test clean enough that softening alone is right. Well water filtration is specified only when the test shows iron, sulfur, sediment or bacteria.
Will well water filtration fix the rotten egg smell? Yes, when the right stage is used. Sulfur needs aeration or catalytic carbon; a softener alone will not touch it, which is the most common well water filtration mistake we are called to correct.
How long does well water filtration last? Media beds typically run eight to twelve years, UV lamps are annual, and sediment cartridges are scheduled to your water. Maintained well water filtration lasts; neglected systems fail early.
Can you service well water filtration you did not install? Yes. We repair and re-media well water filtration from every manufacturer, and we will say plainly when replacing beats repairing.
Check any of this against the primary sources:
Free on-site well testing, a stage-by-stage design, and a firm written price before anything is ordered.
