What could cause this? Plumbing

[Snipe Hunter]

The short of it: Every once in a while we get stained water in the two upstairs toilets. It clears itself after a couple flushes. The water is close to the color of tea. If I don't catch it quickly, I have to wash out the bowls.

A little about the house: We bought it last fall. It's on a well. The well has sediment, high iron and stained water, we're near the bay and the well is dug in sand so from what I understand, we aren't the only people with dirty water. Because of the iron, we have a distinct rotten egg smell in the hot water. That's generally caused by gasses from decomposing iron and the bacteria that feeds off it. There was a treatment system which was not maintained. I took it out and replaced it with a whole house cartridge filter, calcite filter and a potassium permanganate/green-sand filter and I replaced the sacrificial anode in the hot water heater with an aluminum/zinc allow anode.

All this cleaned up the water, balanced the Ph, got most of the iron out and almost cleared up the smell. It's not bad when we use a lot of water but it gets a little stinky when it sits in the hot water heater a while.

That being said:

I do think we may have a clogged (or partially clogged) waste vent, I've got a bum leg right now so I can't really get up on the roof to look. All drain lines are tied into the same vent pipe. The reason I suspect a clog is I can hear loud, uneven draining in the pipes from the upstairs bathrooms while I'm downstairs. Not sure if this has anything to do with the staining but I thought I would be all inclusive here.

The staining is only in the upstairs toilets and it will be in both at the same time.

This only happens once in a while. The last time it happened was after we had 3" of rain in one night. I don't remember if we had rain the other times staining occurred.

Any ideas?

[blackhat]

Venting issues are not connected to the bowl staining problems.  Are you sure the toilets are getting treated water?  Some folks considered that a waste and sent raw water to thrones.  Any staining in the tanks?  Possible you are having backwash issues with the greensand and some Potassium is not being rinsed after a regeneration?  Pot per will leave ugly stains in a hurry.

[Snipe Hunter]

The whole house filter is right after the pressure tank and the water treatment equipment is directly after that. I put it in. Everything is treated. I've thought about it being from the Pot Perm but it's only in the top floor bathrooms, never had a problem in the lower bathroom.

[fixtureman]

To help with the smell get an activated charcoal filter. The stain may be from a nail or screw in the supply line.

[kencombs]

How often are these toilets used? I suspect seldom, and the little iron present in ALL the water oxidizes over time from just sitting there. I've had the pleasure of dealing with high iron content water before. In one house the smell of a hot shower was really bad, along with stained water in the least used bath.

[Snipe Hunter]

All three toilets in the house get about the same amount of use.

[blackhat]

Fill a white plastic pail with water and let it sit for a few days keeping an eye on it. Better yet, fill a smaller container every day and mind all of them for a while. See if it's something getting through your treatment towards the end of its cycle or at the beginning of a cycle.

[Snipe Hunter]

good idea.

Have you ever seen an algae bloom? I've seen it in ponds where I fish. Clear water one day and opaque the next. It's just not this color but it reminds me of that.

[K. L. McReynolds]

Thinking that a vent would not cause stains in supply water, has to be something in the supply lines. Like an iron section of pipe. When the water sits in the supply line(toilets not being used), the iron rust in the pipe leaches into the supply water.

[Snipe Hunter]

There is no iron pipe as the house was built in 1990 unless it's the tube inside the tub spout.. I have a theory (several really): Because of the bad water and neglect of the previous owner there is a leaking tub faucet at the shower head and tub spout in the master bath upstairs. That tub and plumbing is next on the rehab list and will all be replaced. If I do have a clogged vent stack (which is very possible because we had lots of tree limbs over the house which have since been removed), air can be sucked through the leaking faucet into the water supply when the toilet is flushed. Siphoning can happen. Since that particular shower isn't used much, there may be something going on in the tub spout and/or shower head. That tub is right next to the toilet.