Problem with water at new barn

[Dona]

I thought I'd have all my horses moved into the new barn by now.....but the electrician has been very slow.

I DID get my POA moved over this week, but he won't drink the water....and I don't blame him!

There was already an existing well at the property that hasn't been used for 6/7 years due to the house burning down.

We had a plumber, pipe water to the barn from that well. The water is very rusty & has a STRONG smell. To me it smells medicinal (metalic)? It reminds me of how mecurochrome smelled as a child. Do you think this has to do with the well not being used for so long? I tried letting it run for several minutes to see if that helped. I "think" it did improve some....so maybe I should just turn on a hose & let it run for a few hours. I don't know.....all I know is Cherokee won't touch it, and I don't want to move all the minis over until I know the water is acceptable. Hauling water over there to one horse is bad enough, don't want to have to do it to a barn full!

Is there something I should put in the water that would hide the smell/taste?

Thanks in advance, for your help! I appreciate any suggestions you may have.

 

[alphahorses]

Have you had the water tested?

 

[Dona]

Have you had the water tested?

No.....who would I get to do that?

I do know that water from that well was used for over a hundred years up until a few years ago when the house burned. It was always fine.

Oh....and John just told me that the last man who lived there DID test the water, simply because he worked in a water treatment plant, and was curious. The water tested fine. It just hasn't been used since the house burned & no one has lived there.

 

[Mona]

Dona, if that is a good well with good recovery, then you would really need to run it non-stop (wide open) for several hours, and actually, I would prefer to say for 24-72 hours to properly clean the well, lines, hoses etc. You want to try and get rid of everything that has been standing in there for all those years.

 

[targetsmom]

The water sounds like the water at a barn where we show. It would actually turn pintos orange when we washed them. Someone would bring a portable water filter - one of the cylindrical ones in a clear plastic holder - and hook it to a hose for all of us to use. It really helped, but I am not sure what type filter they used. I would suggest getting the water tested and then finding the right filter.

 

[SampleMM]

After the water has ran for several hours as Mona suggested, try it again. If it's still bad, I'd call Culligan and have them check the water. They can test it. You may have to put in a water filtration system which is what I had to do. The horses absolutely refused to drink the water until we did this.

 

[Genie]

In Ontario, Canada, we test our water thru the local hospital. They will proivde us with a container and then we collect and return for them to have tested.

It's called a "potable water" test and is a requirement for any building that requires financing and has water supplied from a well.

If on a well it's always advisable to have the water tested periodically to avoid tragedies such as the Walkerton water problem a number of years ago where animal waste washed down into the wells which provided water for the town of Walkerton.

If the well is "a dug" well it could well be contaminated by the ground water or animal waste being washed down it.

If the well is "drilled" thru bedrock it's possibly fine and the rusty material could be the iron and mineral content that may be still in the pipes and pump and will eventually be washed out with flushing (running the water) for a long period.

We are on a "deep well" and there is a lot of iron and mineral content in the water. It will turn the enamel bowls rusty coloured if there is not a treatment put in the tank that collects the water.

There is a metal rod in our tank that attracts the ore out of the water onto the rod.

I have also heard of a "blue light" of some sort that purifies the water.

 

[disneyhorse]

When we put new pipes in a barn, the water ran for a long while and the plumber tested the water until it tested safe for the animals to drink.

Not sure what they were testing for though, all the pipes did have red tags on them that said "Do Not Drink" so I assume it wasn't something good!

Andrea

 

[Connie Ballard]

You can get your water tested at most pubic works (city or county water departments) or check with your local farm extension (Farm Bureau) office. They can direct you to a testing facility. The cost is usually minimal through all of these. Even though they do not provide the water to you...they do have testing for the communities as a public service to assure safe drinking water.

Many of the farm extension offices provide testing through colleges too...depends on where they work from.

 

[Marty]

I had the same thing here too Dona and we also ran it for several hours to flush it and it took care of it pretty much. We have lots of iron that looks like rust up here in the well water to the point all my buckets got orange/brown residue on them impossible to get out; I tried for years. It would come out looking pretty clear, but after leaving it in a bucket all night, the rust would settle to the bottom of them. It didn't turn my horses brown during bathing though thank goodness and it was drinkable for years until I got my new barn up. We now have city water in the new barn and I bought all new buckets.

 

[Charlotte]

How frustrating!

Like someone said above, the first thing to do is get the water tested to make sure it's safe for drinking. an unused well can get 'things' in them....even a used one. Dead rats/mice, squirrel (believe it or not and in a well in use full time...a submerged pump). If you do find bacteria making the well unsafe they tell you how to chlorinate it to disinfect it.

so after the test comes back ok let the well run wide open for a minimum of 12 hours....that is what the well people do here after working on a well. One time I had to run it for 3 days to clear it!

Then if it just comes down to a matter of the water having a different taste than the horse's are used to I sprinkle a little alfalfa leaves over the top of the bucket and the horses start trying to get those out and eventually learn to drink the funny tasting water. This is what I do at shows when the horses don't like the strange taste.

Let us know how this all works out. I can't wait till you're moved into that beautiful barn!

Charlotte

 

[Reble]

How to solve your problem this might help.

Put in a bottle of bleach and run the water untill you smell it come through.

than let it sit over night ....

than in the morning flush the bleach out, run untill you do not smell the bleach anymore.

This is what they did and told everyone who had a problem in Walkerton town with Ecoli ...

Kills bacteria and Ecoli.... I try to remember to put a cup of bleach in my well a few times a year.

We have a dug well.

Our daughters drilled well had over the limit of coliform in hers and we did this to their well, and it came back 0 coliform....

Good Luck...

and I do agree have it tested..

 

[AppyLover2]

I don't have any recommendations about the smell; just wanted to say that rust in water is not unusual if that particular "faucet" isn't used frequently. My outside spickets (hydrants) are only turned on occasionally and they usually run rusty looking water for a few minutes. The water's fine....just looks yucky.

 

[MiLo Minis]

Most horses don't like to drink strange water. I would, as everyone has suggested, have the water tested to be sure it is okay and then run it to clear out the pipes as rust and crud have likely built up over the years. For your horses that you haven't moved over yet I would start adding a bit of jello (most like cherry flavour

) and gradually increase it until it is coloured and then when you get them to the new place do the opposite - add the jello in a fairly large amount and taper it off until they are drinking plain water. If you can bring some of the old water over to the horse that you have already moved and gradually add some of the new water to it you should be able to get him switched. You have to be careful when suddenly changing water with horses - they can actually colic and almost always have diarrhea to varying degrees. Feeding extra salt in the diet will help encourage them to drink as well. Colic can be a problem if they quit drinking on you especially at this time of year when they are eating nothing but dry hay. You can also soak their hay down but be careful because you don't want to put him off his feed too if the water makes the hay smell funny.

 

[Genie]

Most horses don't like to drink strange water. I would, as everyone has suggested, have the water tested to be sure it is okay and then run it to clear out the pipes as rust and crud have likely built up over the years. For your horses that you haven't moved over yet I would start adding a bit of jello (most like cherry flavour

) and gradually increase it until it is coloured and then when you get them to the new place do the opposite - add the jello in a fairly large amount and taper it off until they are drinking plain water. If you can bring some of the old water over to the horse that you have already moved and gradually add some of the new water to it you should be able to get him switched. You have to be careful when suddenly changing water with horses - they can actually colic and almost always have diarrhea to varying degrees. Feeding extra salt in the diet will help encourage them to drink as well. Colic can be a problem if they quit drinking on you especially at this time of year when they are eating nothing but dry hay. You can also soak their hay down but be careful because you don't want to put him off his feed too if the water makes the hay smell funny.

The tip about the jello is interesting and as well, soaking the hay with the same water the horse dislikes could very well pull him off the hay.

Good points, I never thought about that!

 

[coopermini]

With our construction business every new well that gets put in is run for hours if not days to flush the well and pipes. We usually dump in bleach after it has run an hour or so. Let sit over night and then run hose for most of the day. After all this then a water test is taken but the water has to run for a min 10 minutes then a sample taken.

Mark

 

[Dona]

THANK YOU ALL! And THANK YOU MARYLOU! This forum is a Godsend. I know I can always count on "experienced" suggestions for any problem I have. I now know what I have to do to correct the problem. Maybe I'll be able to move all my minis in by Christmas.

 

[MinisOutWest]

Did you say the plumber ran new pipes? cause when we moved in, our water was rusty cause the pipes were rusted out and had to be replaced. But let'er run and run and run. try to start it at like 4 am, go back to bed and then babysit all day, dont want to run it dry and burn up the pump, but needs to be ran good one day, off 2 days, then re-run again and off for 2, when I say off, dont run 1000's of gallons out of it, just normal use is ok, but run it hard for 3 or 4 times, then you know all the settlement on your supplying rocks and or supplying aquifer is good and cleaned out.

 

[CyndiM]

We go to the well drilling company and get a dry chlorine to put in our well. It clears it up right away. It's been a while so I would need to ask how much to 'shock' (his term) the well. You put it in run the faucets until you smell the bleach then shut them down, let it sit for several hours. Turn the faucets back on and run until you no longer smell the bleach.

My daughter just uses the bottles of household bleach. I don't know how many she puts down her well. I'll ask if you want me to.

I agree with the others who have said the pipes and pump need to be flushed after that many years of just sitting. But just a short time should be good, not several hours. If your well is that bad I would get a well man out there. JMO