at my house we use a pump which draws water from a well. in the past couple of days we must have hit the bottom of the well, as the water coming out is brown, smelly, and filled with mosquito larvae and who knows what else. this is my only source of water so i need to use it for showers, laundry, dish washing etc. but it is really gross! any ideas on how i can purify the holding tank? i thought of dumping a bottle of bleach in it but am not sure that would do the trick.

Sorry to read about your water problems. If the water is not used for drinking, adding a small amount of bleach is one method used by the Army as a water purifying agent.

Other options include alkaline ionisation, charcoal filters and reverse osmosis.

A friend of mine suggested running the water through a 'sock' - some sort of fine cotton or wool mesh - even an old t-shirt to remove most of the small particles. That would be a temporary measure.

Can you get a delivery of water from a truck? Do you have a storage tank?

Hope the above helps.

Peter

at my house we use a pump which draws water from a well. in the past couple of days we must have hit the bottom of the well, as the water coming out is brown, smelly, and filled with mosquito larvae and who knows what else. this is my only source of water so i need to use it for showers, laundry, dish washing etc. but it is really gross! any ideas on how i can purify the holding tank? i thought of dumping a bottle of bleach in it but am not sure that would do the trick.

The first thing you need to do is the cover the tank opening so that mosquitoes can't get in. We use a fairly fine netting that rain water can pass through but debris and insects can't pass through. Sand filters are not too expensive and will remove most dirt. We don't use a filter but my small wife climbs in the tank every couple of months and cleans it out. I wanted to buy a sand filter but she thinks her way is better.

If you are worried about purifying the water, go to a swimming pool supplier and buy the same type of dry chlorine they put in swimming pools. You can also buy a cheap little test kit to measure the amount of chlorine in the water. If the chlorine smell is strong you are using too much. Household bleach will also work ok but will be much more expensive.

at my house we use a pump which draws water from a well. in the past couple of days we must have hit the bottom of the well, as the water coming out is brown, smelly, and filled with mosquito larvae and who knows what else. this is my only source of water so i need to use it for showers, laundry, dish washing etc. but it is really gross! any ideas on how i can purify the holding tank? i thought of dumping a bottle of bleach in it but am not sure that would do the trick.

You can take a look at these links or Google "chlorinate well".

http://www.cribley.com/crhowtochlor.htm

http://www.gnb.ca/0009/0371/0010/Environment-E.pdf

http://www.wellcarehotline.org/VAiWebDocs/...g_Your_Well.pdf

WHy are you not bringing this issue up with your landlord they should be fixing it as you are renting ?

Think you'll find it has more to do with a low water table due to a lack of rain during the rainy season

WHy are you not bringing this issue up with your landlord they should be fixing it as you are renting

the landlord uses the same water supply so i am sure if something could be done it would be.

thanks for the other tips!

WHy are you not bringing this issue up with your landlord they should be fixing it as you are renting

the landlord uses the same water supply so i am sure if something could be done it would be.

thanks for the other tips!

Well you have answered your own question with your reply which was as follows

the landlord uses the same water supply so i am sure if something could be done it would be.

But you did not answer my question which was have you mentioned this problem to your landlord as you are renting and they the owners should be correcting this situation not you.