We are purchasing a home with cistern water. We have never been off of city water before. The cistern and house are both 14 years old. The house has 4 full bathrooms. There will be 6 people living there. We had coliform counts done and there were 0 cfu/ 100ml of e coli and 33 total coliform colony units.
The water is clear and odorless. The current owners have a whole house filter (coarse I believe - just the woven cylinder within a clear cylinder style) and do not add chlorine to their tank. What sort of sterilization apparatus would you recommend. I have looked at your UV systems some. I used to work in a cell biology lab and am familiar with the UV from that perspective but not from a whole house water perspective. Thank you.
Thanks for writing to us,
An ultraviolet sterilizer works well with rainwater. UV works best if the water is clear and low in minerals and sediment. A ceramic 1 micron pre-filter ahead of the UV would remove any parasites (there is a small risk from bird droppings, squirrels perhaps). The 1 micron ceramic filter can be cleaned many times before needing to replace it, by a simple brushing of the ceramic cartridges.
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| Roof Washer Valve |
It is important to have a roof-washer valve set up so that the first rain washes the roof of any dust or debris. If your roof doesn’t have this already, they are inexpensive to set up. This device fills with water and after some gallons have been run to drain, it then diverts the water into the cistern .
Stage 1: Rusco Spin Down Stainless Steel 100 mesh flushable pre-filter (removes large sediment if any)
Stage 2: Doulton Rio Ceramic Filter $236 x 2 (two are required to be installed in parallel)
OR this single Big Blue 20" non-washable 25/1 micron prefilter $149
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| Cistern with rain washer |
