So I was doing annual maintenance on checking well receiver and replaced a barbed elbow that was weeping at the well head - fix something break something...damm you Murphy well pressure gauge stuck at 38psi, went to press the Schrader test valve in adjacent port and of course it wouldn't reseat. So new gauge and I plugged the Schrader test port. Decided to flush the bottom of water heater and a light brown funk was coming out with the water. After returning from town it had settled and is definitely some bacteria growth. It has been set to the economy mode ~117-119F, but I remember seeing something about preventing bacteria growth at 130F water heater has been installed less than a year
160 with a mixing valve set to deliver 115. The heater is a heat pump, loooong recovery, 80G tank and high set point gives you more effective capacity to deal with the long recovery time. The tank is super insulated. Plumb in a 2 foot drop off the outlet to avoid excessive heat siphoning.
I set mine at 120F. The lower the temp, the more efficient. I've never had a scale or bacteria problem. Well water, like God intended.
Why do you think it is bacteria growth? This is well water and that tank is a huge settling tank for all kinds of junk to fall out of the water while it waits for you to use it. I would always expect, even on city water, schmuck on the bottom of the tank. Sediment, iron, manganese, etc. Not likely to be any kind of bacteria in 120 degree water.
Mainly believe it is iron fixing bacteria that may be lurking in the well. Like I said during flushing water was cloudy then after run to town I came back and instead of sediment in the bucket it looked more like a slime suspended in the bottom 2"
When I had my old well point and alot of iron then was actually alot of "black slime" I didn't know until I got my artesian well and they flushed out the old pipes with chlorine...It was almost like black gooey tar but a little less gooey....
