We just got our well dug and want to keep the water pure and not have to worry as much about a bacterial or microbial issue. We would have a pre-filter system, then the UV or ozone, the booster to the house, then a post filter. I know we will still have to monitor the storage tanks themselves as well as treat occasionally, but really want to know we are pumping clean water into the home.

TIA

I have been looking at some homes in NY state. All of them have a system of sediment & carbon filters + UV + softener. In CT I have seen Radon bubblers being added ... which I had never heard of before.

Growing up in Central IL, we had no stinkin' filters. Actually I don't think they existed until 10 or 15 years ago. Water was a little hard so there was a softener. At least then you didn't smell like a bag of new nails after a shower.

Maybe test your water. The water table probably isn't as it was decades ago. But, why pay for stuff that you don't need or know if it is doing anything???

In general:

- UV is good for killing what goes through the UV lamp assembly, but has no residual effect downstream - slime and bacteria in a storage tank will not be killed.
- Ozone is good and will have some residual effect down stream and is very effective at killing bacteria, providing you feed the right amount
- Carbon filters take out taste and organics, but do nothing for heavy metals
- Sediment filters only take out suspended solid particles - sand, insoluble metals, nothing dissolved like minerals, salts, etc.

With a well, most of the bad bacteria aren't typically a problem.  It's tough to dose chlorine/ozone effectively, so I think I'd go the UV route if I were you.  Chlorinate the well at the beginning, let it sit 24 hours, then flush it well.

Well company is doing that as part of the deal, a completed, sanitized well. Our water is outstanding water, but until we get the house completed, we will still be using the "community well", which is in the same aquifer. We just got an email from the HOA saying that the community well was tested and showed signs of total coliform bacteria. This is in the tank, and not the aquifer, so my concern is it developing in our storage tanks.

I've read that as long as you use a pre-filter system to ensure the water is clear as it passes through the UV filter, the UV filters will kill 99.9% of the nasty stuff. We don't have an issue with hard water, so that's a good thing. The other stuff can be filtered out.

Thanks for the input.

My sister had a UV one.

Didn't work worth a shit on her well. But she has iron and sediment issues.

Local labs and your local state lab will probably test the Coliforms inexpensively - like $25 or less.  You might want to do that periodically as it's cheap insurance!  Just make sure to get the sample bottles from the lab, as they are special for bacteria.  We run those tests all the time and I've never had one show up positive after we've chlorinated a system.  24 hour turn around on the results, too.

We have a liqua-gen UV system downstream of three big blue filters.  We first used this for an open-cased 15 ft well.  I had that water tested and it was fine, but it was hard.  Once I finished my 20,000 tank and got some rain we switched to rain water and I never got that tested.  Everyone loves the flavor of the water.  I'm thinking the tank my be developing algae because I am plugging 4.5x20" filters every 3-4 months.  Even the downstream ones are catching shit.  I'm not sure how it is getting through the sediment filter.  We don't notice it in quality, but we do notice reduced flow.

Having to change filters so often is making rain water less cost effective.  I need to research rain water tank treatment.  It's a grain bin with a bladder.  I don't think any sun is able to get in...

No water system is biologically inert, even a chlorinated town water will get HPC detects most of the time.  Unless your well has shoddy construction and is allowing surface water in or you have karst geology I wouldn't worry.  Coliform bacteria won't hurt you and in fact most strains of E.coli are nonpathenogenic too.  E. coli under optimimum conditions can only live for 7 days outside of a mammalian gut, so in a good well without cross connections, you are quite safe.  If you must treat, I'd do it after storage.  No treatment is always 100% if there were high residence time in storage then you can build up a bacti concentration, which post storage treatment would limit exposure.