Why the Well
A slimy toilet tank is often iron or sulfur bacteria in the well, not a cartridge you forgot to change.
Gelatinous gunk. Strings in the tank. A rainbow sheen that is not oil. Filters clog fast. Shock the well before you buy a bigger filter.
Iron bacteria and sulfur bacteria are not the same as “there is iron in the water,” though they love that iron. They make slime. They smell. They clog.
Do this first
- Take the toilet tank lid off. Orange scale is mineral. Soft slime, strings, or cottage-cheese gunk is biological.
- Look in the well cap area and pressure tank if you can do it safely. Slimy rings are a clue.
- Does the water also smell like rotten eggs or oily swamp? Note hot vs cold. Then read the smell page too.
What it probably is
Iron bacteria, sulfur bacteria, or both, living in the well or the plumbing. They are common in private wells. They are a nuisance more often than an acute poison, but they ruin water and equipment. A cartridge filter will cake over and do nothing to the well.
The first real move is often shock chlorination of the well, done to a proper procedure (extension offices publish these). Heavy slime sometimes needs a licensed well contractor to scrub and treat. After the well is cleaned, then you talk about a filter if iron or sulfur is still in the chemistry.
What not to buy
- Another fridge filter. Wrong layer of the house.
- A whole-house carbon or sediment filter as the only fix. You will replace it angry.
- Anything before a coliform / bacteria conversation if the well was flooded, the cap was broken, or people got sick. That is health department territory, not a shopping cart.
Pink slime on a showerhead can just be airborne bacteria in a bathroom. It is not automatically the well. The toilet tank is the better well clue.
If you actually need a box
Shock the well first. A kit does not replace that. After the well is clean, the Watersafe well water test kit can show whether iron or hardness is still in the water. Do not buy a cartridge because the tank is slimy.