Green/Opaque Sediment clogging hot water line

Hello,

I've been battling a greenish clear crystal sediment thats been forming in our second floor bathroom with no luck! It's not coming from the hot water heater as I've put an inline filter in and it's not in the cold water. Every time I clean it out more forms....

We're on well water - but have a whole house filer before it hits anything,.

I've attached images of what was behind the hot water valve clogging the bathroom sink.

Thanks for any help in advance!

Water could be reacting with somthing in the faucet. Is this new or has this be occurring regularly?

voletl said:

Water could be reacting with somthing in the faucet. Is this new or has this be occurring regularly?

Click to expand...

It's a new faucet and has only started in the past two years or so... This happened on both faucets but only tends to happen on the longest run in the house?

this might also coincide when we installed a new water softener, but not 100% sure if the timing aligns?

It looks like meada from the water softner.

I agree. Water softener media. maybe it was installed backwards or membrane it damage.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wat...24vbAhWk2YMKHSm2C6gQ_AUICygC&biw=1680&bih=887

Mr_David said:

I agree. Water softener media. maybe it was installed backwards or membrane it damage.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wat...24vbAhWk2YMKHSm2C6gQ_AUICygC&biw=1680&bih=887

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The only question I would have for that is that it's only occurring in one bathroom in a house with 5 bathrooms and this one is on the second floor. Like I said it's the longest run from the hot water heater in the house. I will definitely make sure that the softer lines are correct, but I would assume the media would be showing up in every faucet if that was the case.

It's also very mineral like... Parts will dissolve or can be crushed. In person it does not look like softer media.

Would be helpful to find out what it is actually made of. I would get a comprehensive chemical analysis of the well water to start. Not cheap but it should give you a good idea of what is going on. You could start with some quick checks. Get some test strips that have pH, alkalinity, hardness, etc... Also, you can do some quick checks of the "gunk" to narrow it down. You said it dissolves? Put it in a strong acid solution and see what happens. (vinegar is good, hydrochloric is better). Does it fizz or give off bubbles in acid? If so it has a lot of Ca/Mg carbonate in it. If it doesn't all dissolve, what is the residue like?
Have you flushed your hot water tank recently? I bet there's a lot of this stuff sitting on the bottom of the tank. Is your tank anode rod in good shape?

Try valving the cold side and then take a glass and flush out the hot side real good.

Micah Carroll said:

The only question I would have for that is that it's only occurring in one bathroom in a house with 5 bathrooms and this one is on the second floor. Like I said it's the longest run from the hot water heater in the house. I will definitely make sure that the softer lines are correct, but I would assume the media would be showing up in every faucet if that was the case.

It's also very mineral like... Parts will dissolve or can be crushed. In person it does not look like softer media.

Click to expand...

Seems odd that it shows up in the most remote fixture from water heater. Do you have a comfort system type hot water recirculating system?
has a pump on the hot side of water heater supply or under a remote sink and uses the cold line as a hot return.
Just maybe a guess on the hot mixing with the cold causing the minerals to leak out of water,
Water softener for hot and cold or just hot?

That does look more like stuff I flush out of the bottom of a water heater.

I flushed my heater about 6 months ago because it was really banging and knocking.
I was thinking about going one step further and going to try to descale it with acid, BUT when I put a sample of the residue into a glass jar with some CalciSolve Acid, it had no Effect. Not a Calcium based residue

There is nothing coming from the water heater... We have a whole house filter on the cold line prior to the water heater and I installed a whole house hot water filter after the hot water heater.

Could this be copper corrosion flaking off the inside of these pipes? it's just amazing how much of this stuff is in the line. A few days after it's cleaned out it's clogged again!

Are there inline filters/screens I could install under the cabinet?

FYI: I put the sediment in an acid and absolutely nothing happened. It did not bubble, dissolve or anything.

Here the most recent photos: Same stuff all from the tub - Wet and then dry. Penny added for scale.

I guess the next test would be to put some of it in a flame. If it melts or burns to ash, then it is polymer from some filter media. If it doesn't burn then I'm stumped. Looks like coarse sand in the pictures you posted but how would sand be getting into your plumbing?

You can get a sediment filter like this one. Reusable filter screen. Open flush valve at the bottom to rinse filter as needed.

Rusco 1-100ST-F Polyester Screen Sediment Trapper System