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Residential water issues
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cyclin_al:
Please bear with me since the topic is water but there is an electrical aspect to it.
Moderators:  I think this is a 'general' topic, but please move if there is a more suitable category for this.

I would like to ask a question about water.  I know some here on this forum have knowledge that goes well beyond electrical and electronics, but possibly electrical knowledge comes into play as well.
My residential water supply is described as "very aggressive" and I am looking for what I can do about it I foresee the home plumbing work getting expensive.
You can see some worrisome symptoms in the 4 photos attached (fixtures rusting, fixtures eroding, development of tiny leaks and mineral deposits).
     
What are your thoughts about investigating further if there is any issue with the following:

* galvanic corrosion?
* the water is an electrolyte?
* biological issues?
* something I have not though of?
What I know about the situation is demonstrated in the attached photos.
The water is known to have total dissolved solids of 48 grains (not the correct unit of measure, but the slang used by plumbers) which is mostly Calcium and some Sodium.
pH is 7.2, which is pretty good.
We see no issues with water hardness when soap is used; there is a water softener.

The water supply is from a well at 350 feet deep (Canada is in reality only quasi-metric still).
The well pump is submerged and runs on North-American 240 VAC, 3/4 horsepower.
The supply line to the house is plastic to the pressure tank (now replaced with fiberglass tank).
From there, tubing is PEX until noted otherwise.
This leads to a screen filter to take out sand.  A small amount of sand builds up over time, but the filter has taken on a red tint.
Next is a large capacity water softener, which is working well according to water tests by the installer. 
Last treatment is a 5 micron carbon block filter.  (water may smell a bit of sulfur and pressure drops when this filter is due to be replaced)
The water then feeds to the hot water heater tank.
From here onward, the tubing is all copper pipe throughout the house.
There is a grounding cable clamped to the cold water copper pipe immediately after the supply to the hot water tank.

I have read a couple of books about water and they do not offer any clues.
My chemistry is long-forgotten so have not looked into any serious books on this aspect.
Any thoughts or practical advice of what I should look into?
shakalnokturn:
Sorry for not giving any answers...

Considering your photos are of the outside of the plumbing, does it actually leak?
What's the air quality lie where you live? Any chance it could be caused mainly from condensation on the outer-side of the brass links?
jogri:
That blue stuff is copper(II)sulfate, looks like you have quite a lot of it. The white stuff could be calcium sulfate as it has a rather poor solubility (the moisture would have deterioated salts with a high solubility in water). It is normal for water to have a rather high amount of dissolved sulfates, but it shouldn't attack copper pipes like that. The red tint on your sand filter could be some form of rust.

You mentioned that it "smelled like sulfur" when your filter needs replacement? Do you mean a smell of rotten eggs? That's not sulfur, that comes from trace amounts of dissolved H2S.

Sorry that i can't offer you any concrete ideas how to fix this problem, but you should definitely get your water checked for high concentrations of ions (sulfate, CO2-, etc). And where was the pH measured? If it was measured at the well you should also measure the pH of the water that comes out of your tap.
Red Squirrel:
That's a really oddball issue.  I would try to clean it all up just to see if it starts doing it again.  Maybe buy a piece of copper pipe and let it sit just to see if it happens to a piece of pipe that is not actually part of the plumbing system.   It could at least rule out an environmental issue like temp/humidity or some kind of gas in the air causing it.

Wonder if some kind of electrical issue could cause this, like current leaking through the pipes.  Put a clamp meter around the pipe to see if it's passing current.   Not sure if that would actually cause that problem though.
SeanB:
If your well water is sour ( the sulphur) then you really have no option but to remove it, as it will corrode the piping from the inside out, leaking to pinhole leaks. Only way to do it cheaply is to buy a large ion exchange column, and run your drinking water through it, and run this to your taps for drinkable water, like the kitchen and basin taps. The other water probably best to simply replace the copper piping with PEX, and for the hot water check the sacrificial anode in the water heater, which will be wearing away fast, probably gone in 6 months.

All pipes replace with PEX, and for the input side have some cascaded cartridge filters before your pressure bladder, probably at least 3 stages, finishing off with a 0.3 micron one. For both water feeds a charcoal filter as well, to remove the odours, and non return valves where it splits to the 2 separate feed systems. water softener for the washing feed, sounds like you need to get a lot of carbonates out, but it is not getting the sulphates out, which is causing the corrosion.

Grounding will have to be separate to ground rods, the more the merrier, installed correctly.

At a first check magnesium anodes, likely they are gone in the water heater.
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