We get a bit of a reddish orange slime around our sink drains, toilet bowls, and shower. I am curious as to what might be causing this. Our well is about 6 years old. The slime seems to appear wherever a bit of water is sitting. It is not alot, but it is noticeable and gross. We do have a neutralizer and water softener on our system. Any ideas. Thanks.

My best advice

Contact a Certified Water Specialist. Staining from wells can be many things, get water tested and determine a solution from there.

Cheers!

DTP

It's called "Serratia marcescens Bacteria" and you can do a google search on it, basicly you just need to scrub and use disinfectant to curtail the onset of the bacteria.

1-16-08, 1:25pm

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Ok, so I found some good information here, [www.townofcary.org]
So is this bacteria not a problem until it starts to grown then shows up in the form of the pink slime. This article talks about some potential health problems associated with it. I guess my question then is, is our water safe to bath in and drink? Do we just need to treat the slime as it appears?

have you had this slime for 6 years?or was it just started?when was the last time your softener was serviced??if you look into the salt tank,do you see the discoloration on the salt??

The bacteria is not in your water. It is "around" in the environment, and finds a friendly climate to grow on tubs and toilets. It can be cleaned with normal disinfectant cleaners.

Start with a spray bottle of chlorine bleach and attach those areas showing formations, to eliminate them.

Take a clean sample of your raw water and have it tested for potability at the county, its free, and then you will know for sure.

Best Wishes

You will see that the article says it's basicaly harmless and not known to cause waterborne diseases, and that means it's o.k. to drink.

Many years ago after WWII the government conducted testing with this bacteria in the San Francisco area to study air movement in case of chemical or biogical warfare attack.

The bacteria was thought harmless and was easy to trace so they used it however; a few days latter high numbers of people only in certian area's were comming down with cold like systoms. Well the health department could not figure out why only certian pockets of the city were comming down with colds and other parts were not.

To make along story short the bacteria is harmless in water but when airborne it can cause systoms such as minnor colds, so scrub, bleach and spray cleaners as needed like I do and you will be fine.

1-18-08, 3:40pm

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Thanks for all of the great feedback on this!! I love to solve a good mystery and am even more excited to have a solution to the problem and some peace of mind. Thanks again.

The softener hasn't been serviced lately and I would say that it has been an ongoing problem since we built the house. And no there isn't any discoloration in the softener tank.

We've got to thank Gary Schreiber for teaching us all about this one...
A while back in another thread he taught us about Serratia marcescens Bacteria and I must say I was on an a service call when a customer asked about the orange stain around the tub was. I spouted off about Serratia marcescens Bacteria and they thought their plumber was some kind of rocket scientist!
[www.plbg.com]
I also answered a question about it in another forum!

Thanks Gary for sharing your knowledge with us!

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the brine tank can show signs of the water problems if they can live through the sodium treatment .softening