What to Install for Well Water, In What Order, and What It Costs (2026 Guide)

To filter well water, you test it first, then put in only the stages your results call for, one after another after the pressure tank. The photo shows the full set of whole-house stages side by side, and most homes need only a few of them: about 4 in 10 of the well tests my customers send in show two or more of the common problems, and about 1 in 5 show none. This guide goes through each tank, the order they go in, how to size them and what each one costs today.

What Is a Well Water Filtration System?

A well water filtration system is a multi-stage setup of tanks and cartridge filters that treats private-well groundwater before it reaches your plumbing. Each stage handles one kind of problem (sediment, iron and sulfur, low pH, hardness, taste and odor, or bacteria), and each stage also protects the equipment after it.

The well pump pushes water up to a pressure tank inside the house, and the pressure tank sends it through the pipes at 40 to 60 or 30 to 50 psi, depending on the pressure switch. Every filter and treatment tank goes after that pressure tank. If you just moved into a house with a well, my guide for the new well owner covers the pump and tank and what to do first.

I walk through the whole path, from the pump in the well to the pressure tank to the treatment tanks after it, in this short video.

TL;DR: The Proper Well Water Filtration Sequence

If your water test shows multiple contaminants, the system must be installed in the correct order. Here is the order I use, starting where the water comes into the house:

• 1. Well Pressure Tank: Creates household water pressure and helps support filter backwash requirements.
• 2. Sediment Filter: Removes dirt, sand, and grit before they damage valves and downstream equipment.
• 3. Iron Filter and Acid Neutralizer, if your test calls for them: The iron filter removes iron, manganese and the rotten-egg smell. The neutralizer raises low pH. If your pH is low, an acid neutralizer goes in too, and I set its place from your test.
• 4. Water Softener: Goes after both, and removes hardness, including the hardness the neutralizer adds.
• 5. Carbon Filter, if you want one: Improves taste and smell. It goes after the softener and before the UV light.
• 6. UV Light: Kills bacteria. It goes last, once the water is clear and soft enough for the light to work.
• Optional: Under-Sink Reverse Osmosis: A drinking water system at the kitchen tap, after the whole-house stages are in.

The reasons behind each position are in the correct order for well water treatment equipment.

Which problems most wells have

Hard water and coliform bacteria show up most in my customers' well tests. About 4 in 10 tests show two or more problems at once.

Of the 262 tests where the lab reported all five of the common problems (low pH, iron, manganese, hardness and bacteria), 52 showed none of them, 99 showed one, and 111 showed two or more. So the test comes first. The iron share leaves out 70 reports that only said iron was under 2 ppm, too high a cutoff to tell. The EPA limits in the table are written for public water systems; on a private well, testing and treating is up to you.

The certified well water test reports every problem in this table except sulfur, which you find by the rotten-egg smell, and PFAS, which takes its own test. When your report is in hand, how to read your well water test results goes number by number.

What each tank does

Each tank does one job, and the ones you need are the ones your test points to. I walk through every one of them in this video.

The well pressure tank

Most well houses already have a pressure tank, and everything else goes after it. Air on top pushes against a bladder, the bladder pushes on the water below it, and that sends water through the house whenever a faucet opens. Before any treatment goes in, have a licensed plumber or your well driller check that the tank is in good shape and the bladder is not ruptured. If yours needs replacing, the Well-X-Trol WX-203 package is the one we sell, and my pressure tank guide covers sizing.

The sediment filter

The sediment filter goes first after the pressure tank and catches sand and grit before they reach the valves and tanks after it. The quick check: lift the lid off the toilet tank you use most, and if there is dirt settled in the bottom, you need one. I recommend the 20 inch Big Blue with a 5 micron cartridge, because it is big enough that it does not cut down your water flow. My sediment filter guide covers the other types and where each one goes.

The iron filter

The iron filter takes out iron, manganese and the rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide in one tank. The one I recommend is the Fleck 2510AIO with Katalox Light (the filter media inside), rated for up to 30 ppm of iron, 15 ppm of manganese and 10 ppm of hydrogen sulfide. It cleans itself by backwashing, uses no salt or chemicals, has no yearly maintenance, and the media gets replaced every 6 to 8 years. The iron filter works best near pH 8, so if yours is lower, send me the report before you order. How to remove iron from well water compares it with the other methods.

The acid neutralizer

An acid neutralizer raises low pH so the water stops eating copper pipe, your water heater and your fixtures. It does it with calcite, a natural limestone media that slowly dissolves into the water. I recommend the 2.5 cubic foot Clack non-backwashing neutralizer: it needs no power and no drain, and a tank that size needs calcite added about every 24 to 36 months. Below pH 5.5, the calcite gets mixed with FloMag (magnesium oxide). If you have low pH and iron over about 0.5 ppm, a backwashing neutralizer keeps the calcite from fouling with iron. In the video above, the iron filter goes ahead of the neutralizer. That was one customer's water, with high iron, low pH and a sulfur smell; yours may call for a different order, and I set it from your test. My low pH well water guide covers sizing.

The water softener

The softener goes after the iron filter and the neutralizer, because the calcite adds about 4 to 6 grains per gallon of hardness on top of what your well already has. I recommend the Fleck 5600SXT, which meters the water you use and regenerates only when it needs to. A softener is not an iron filter, so do not count on one to take the iron out. Salt-free conditioners that use Filtersorb SP3 work only up to 25 grains per gallon, cost almost double and need about $1,200 of new media every 3 years, so I recommend the salt-based softener. The water softeners page has every size.

The whole house carbon filter

A carbon filter is optional on a well. It is there for taste and smell, and it goes after the softener and before the UV light. I recommend the 2.5 cubic foot Clack non-backwashing carbon filter with Centaur carbon, and the carbon gets replaced about every 5 years. Carbon also reduces some PFAS, but which treatment fits depends on what your PFAS test finds; PFAS in drinking water goes through carbon, PFAS resin and reverse osmosis.

The UV light

The UV light goes last. A UV light kills bacteria, including coliform and E. coli, as the water flows past the lamp; it adds nothing to the water and removes nothing else. It needs clear water to work: VIQUA, the maker, calls for a 5 micron sediment filter ahead of it, iron under 0.3 ppm and hardness under 7 grains, which is why it sits after the iron filter and the softener. I recommend the Viqua VH410, which VIQUA rates at 18 gallons a minute at its standard dose. The lamp gets replaced once a year ($170), and the controller counts down to the change. After a UV goes in, the plumbing after it gets disinfected once; what to do after a positive coliform test has the steps.

How to size the equipment

To size a system, I need your lab test, how many people live in the house, how many bathrooms you have, and your well's flow rate.

Most homes buy the 2.5 cubic foot iron filter, and the 2.5 cubic foot neutralizer and carbon tank are the sizes I recommend most, because a bigger tank means less upkeep. For a softener I usually recommend a 48,000 or 64,000 grain; what size water softener you need picks between them from your hardness and your household.

The flow rate matters for any tank that backwashes, most of all the iron filter. It needs about 10 gallons a minute to backwash properly, and a well can pump anywhere from 5 to 20 gallons a minute, depending on the pump in it.

A low flow rate does not have to mean a smaller filter. A caller in West Virginia had a weekend house with 20 ppm of iron on a well that makes about 5 gallons a minute. At that iron level a 1.5 cubic foot filter would only cut the iron about in half, so he needed the 2.5 anyway. I told him to backwash it every day for 20 minutes instead of the standard 14, to make up for the lower flow, and he would be fine.

You also do not have to buy everything at once. If acidic water is the main problem, a sediment filter and a neutralizer may be all you need to start. Retest after it goes in, because the neutralizer can raise the hardness enough that you add a softener later.

Have your test results?

Text me your well test

Send a photo of your lab report, how many people live in the house, how many bathrooms you have and your well's flow rate if you know it. I'll go over it and give you an honest opinion of what you need.

Text Aidan443-277-2204 Call800-460-5810Aidan

8 AM to 5 PM Eastern, seven days a week. A real person, not a call center.

What the equipment costs today

Each stage costs $195 to $2,495 at today's prices. All six treatment stages together come to $8,870 with the 48,000 grain softener, or $9,070 with the 64,000. Most of my customers' tests call for fewer than six.

	Stage	Model	Price today
	Sediment filter	20 inch Big Blue kit, 5 micron cartridge	$195
	Iron filter	Fleck 2510AIO, 2.5 cubic foot	$2,495
	Acid neutralizer	Clack non-backwashing, 2.5 cubic foot	$1,495, or $1,695 for pH under 5.5
	Water softener	Fleck 5600SXT, 48,000 grain or 64,000 grain	$1,995 or $2,195
	Carbon filter	Clack non-backwashing, 2.5 cubic foot	$1,695
	UV light	Viqua VH410	$995
	Pressure tank, only if yours needs replacing	Well-X-Trol WX-203 package	$1,295

In the video on this page I say a full system is $5,000 to $6,000. That was March 2026 pricing; the prices in the table are today's. In the same video I also say the retail companies charge anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for a system installed, depending on how many tanks it has.

What ships: each tank ships empty, with its media in separate bags that are loaded at install, and drain tubing is not included. I recommend a licensed plumber for the install, and I support your plumber by phone at 800-460-5810. Packages cost less than the same tanks bought one at a time: the 6-stage package with these tanks and the 64,000 grain softener is $8,295. Every package is on the well water systems page, and my cost guide breaks the price down system by system.

What buyers wrote about their systems

These are verified purchases (each matches an order), quoted as the buyers wrote them, newest first.

Frequently asked questions