Water Softener Problem?

I am a plumbing contractor in tampa. fl. I finished a house 6 months ago. The homeowner had culligan install a water softener when she moved in. This is a large house and I have installed a hot water recirculation system. I have been out 5 times to rebuild the pump which keeps the hot water recirculating. Each time there is green sludge in the pump. I have installed a basic filter inline before the pump and in a month's time it fills with this sludge and still gets through and damgages the pump. Now I have done 25 or more houses in this area with recirc systems in them and have never had a problem. The culligan rep told me this is caused by the polyphosphates in the water?? A couple of other people have mentioned a possible algae bloom in the water system of this house?? I believe this is a water softener problem only because of the track record of all the houses I have done with no problem. Last year I was called out to a house with a similar problem. The homeowner had a Kinetico system installed 1 1/2 years after they moved in and within 2 months they had this green slime. I rebuilt the pump twice for them over the period of 4 months and installed a filter and never heard another word from them. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated. Wayne

"wmh3" wrote

system. I

Do a water test for copper. New copper tubing takes some time to corrode enough to protect itself from aggressive water; if it ever does which is unlikely. I don't think the softener has anything to do with the problem, I've sold them for 15 years without this complaint. It's probably more likely low pH (acidic water) or the velocity of the water in the recirc loop (could it be no reaming of the tubing or flux corrosion?) and erosion if you see elevated levels of copper. Once you have the copper test result, both before and after the softener, come back here or e-mail me and we'll discuss other potential causes. If you don't find elevated copper, I don't have any idea other than bacteria that would cause a slime, regardless of the color but green goes along with copper. Polyphosphates aren't normally added to 'city' water around here, so I'm not sure they would be there in FL but something else could be.

Gary Quality Water Associates