Why the Well
Yellow, tea-colored, or brown well water that will not settle is often tannins, not iron.
Tannins stay dissolved and look like weak tea. Iron often settles or rusts. An anion tannin resin is a different machine than a softener or an iron filter.
Water the color of tea. Stains like tea on the porcelain. A little foam in the glass. Waiting does not clear it.
Do this first
- Fill a clear glass from a cold tap. Yellow or brown right now?
- Let it sit an hour. Did it stay tea-colored, with nothing on the bottom? That leans tannins.
- Did rust settle, or did the glass go orange? That is iron. Grit you can feel is sediment. Different pages.
What it probably is
Organic tannins — decayed vegetation in the aquifer, common in shallow wells near swampy or wooded ground. They dissolve. They do not settle. They can foam. They stain like tea. Iron starts clear and rusts, or shows rust particles. Tannins look like weak tea from the tap.
Anion-exchange tannin resin (organics treatment) is the usual machine when a lab says tannins. It is not a water softener. It is not an iron filter. A softener can be fouled by tannins and still leave the color. An iron filter can stain and do nothing to dissolved organics. Test before anyone sells you either.
What not to buy
- A softener as a tea-color fix.
- An iron filter because the water is brown.
- A pitcher for the whole house. The sinks still stain.
Orange that starts clear, or rust in the glass, is the iron page. Grit you can feel is sediment. Color that will not settle is this page.
If you actually need a box
Rule iron out before you shop a tannin tank. The Watersafe well water test kit screens iron, pH, and hardness. Tannins themselves are often a lab (color / organics). The kit will not size an anion resin. It will stop you from buying an iron filter for tea.