Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Sep 07, 2017 3:32 pm Hi I ran into another decision point in regards to planning the irrigation for my front two lawn sections. The top section is surrounded by a soon to be textured wall and painted in a light colour. I do not want bore stains on it. The bore is 6months old and has only ran driplines to this point no sprinklers. There is old iron oxide orange staining on the front walls from the old bore. The new bore is only 6m away so I am doubtful I will have the luck that it is clear water. That said the neighbor across the road has white staining from limestone, the bore guy said only a few m can sometimes mean the difference btw orange, white stains or clear water. I probably should go out the back and cut out a section of my drippers to inspect. I think I have seen a orange coloured slime on them. Assuming I do have bore staining. I see two options 1 Install the Aquabiotics system which has a tank requiring refills every 6-8weeks with either 1 or 2 bottles at $45 each. Install cost not yet determined. 2 Just in this one area near the new textured walls I convert to mains. Ie. I run a hybrid system. My controller the Rainbird ESP-ME apparently can do this, see page 17 here http://www.rainbird.com/documents/turf/man_ESP-Me_en.pdf Set Master Valve by Station. Apparently I could have my mains watered zone only connected to the COM connector but not the MV. I would set the MV to off for this station. They said this just means I can not have a master valve on the mains watered zone which one would normally have. Just the one solenoid valve (though buy a tested one for more reliability). (If I didn’t have this feature in my controller I would probably go with a Hunter Node 1 controller that could be dug in right by the water meter) Further I would add a Backflow Prevention Device cut in close to the meter. Do people think this would work? Flow wise, I think my tap is only about 28Lpm. I was told that possibly the flow rate may increase by cutting in the Backflow Prevention Device to 40 or more. Either way the mains section might need a different design then the proposed MP Rotators or RVANS or Gear Drives. Re: Bore Staining - Irrigation Design considerations 2Sep 07, 2017 6:02 pm I took a photo of the lines just off the mainline Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and they look like they all have that iron oxide orange staining. Note this is only 6 months worth of running the new bore. So it seems I should convert the top section of lawn to mains water... but I spoke to the Aquabiotics people about StainStopper http://boresaver.com.au/boresaver-stain ... series-iii he says that all the Netafim Boreline w Tiran Drippers I have installed, 6 months ago, will block completely within a year. They are now all dug in and under pavers, under 10mm black basalt, cobra clipped etc - it would be a severe pain for all that work to go to waste. So now I am thinking of almost having to put in a solution like this because apparently the Aquatek Liquid PLUS solution also flushes out and cleans your existing pipes and drippers. Anyone verify this or agree that its inevitable my drippers will clog? Any rival stain removal systems. Cost is about 1150-1500 for install and about $300 py maintenannce. Re: Bore Staining - Irrigation Design considerations 3Sep 07, 2017 6:58 pm Found this informative link http://www.netafimusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Control-of-Iron.pdf Iron deposit problems (ochre) in drip irrigation systems have been reported mainly in the United States, but also from other parts of the world including Australia, Zambia, Taiwan, and Israel. These deposits create severe clogging problems in drip systems. Iron deposit is described as a filamentous amorphous gelatinous type of brown-reddish slime that precipitates from water that contains iron. Iron combined with slim gets stuck in drippers and causes complete plugging of the system. The problem exists in well water areas where the groundwater aquifers are formed mainly of sandy soils or organic muck soils (very common in Florida) usually with a pH of below 7.0 and in the absence of dissolved oxygen. These waters contain ferrous iron (Fe+2 ) which is chemically reduced, 100% water soluble and serves as the primary raw material for slime formation. Iron bacteria, mainly from the filamentous genuses like Gallionella Sp. Leptothris and Sphaerotilus and less from the rod type like Pseudomonas and Enterobacter, when present in the water, react with the ferrous iron (FE +2 ) through an oxidation process. This changes the iron form to ferric iron (Fe +3 ) which is insoluble. The insoluble Ferric iron is surrounded by the filamentous bacteria colonies and creates the sticky iron slime gel that is responsible for clogging the dripper. Concentrations of ferrous iron as low as 0.15-0.22 ppm (parts per million) are considered as a potential hazard to drip systems (H.W. Ford 1982). Between 0.2-1.5 ppm emitter clogging hazard is moderate. Concentrations above 1.5 ppm are described as severe (Bucks and Nakayama 1980). Practically any water that contains concentrations higher than 0.5 ppm of iron cannot be used in drip systems unless they are treated chemically or otherwise. Maybe i need to have my water tested. Another link http://micromaintain.ucanr.edu/Prediction/Source/Groundwater/Potential_for_clogging/CP/Treatments_to_minimize_clogging/Iron,_manganese/ I note it says on taking water for sampling If the water is to be analyzed for iron, the sample must be acidified to a pH of 4 or less or the ferrous iron in solution will precipitate as ferric iron before it can reach the lab. If this happens, the water analysis will show little iron in solution. Thus, if iron and other dissolved constituents are to be determined, you must collect two samples: an acidified sample to test for iron and an unacidified sample to test for the remaining constituents in solution. The laboratory can provide a sample bottle with the correct amount of acid in it that you can use when gathering the iron sample. Do not rinse the bottle before you collect the sample. more here https://www.water.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/4044/59824.pdf Hi Brainstrust, I had a go at creating my own irrigation plan, keen to get some feedback. It will be run from one 750-800W pump, off 2* 5000L rain tanks. Each zone… 0 22747 there should be ss cable so you can pull up bore pump for service 1 3145 Ideally you would engage a landscaper to give you some insight what they may need in the space to make your vision come to life… 1 13633 |