Grayish Brown Moulds in Packaged water

I have packaged water that is developing grayish brown moulds, or maybe one would like to identify them as algae. Can you assist me on the problem. Our treat ment set up starts by a contact process(coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation); sand filtration, carbon filtration, polishing filtration, cartridge filter, RO system, reminerilisation, ozonation(01-0,4mg/l) and then bottling. Can it be that the mould is as a result of elevated levels of iron?

Dear imugs,

Welcome to the forum! Zimbabwe is quite a rare visitor i think.

Yr problem sounds like the X-files.

So many possible variables.

Delay time to see problem ? Zero secs ?

If there is that much iron present, a simple chemical check should reveal it. How about the composition of input raw water ?

And similar comment if a microbiological issue. Do you have a lab ?

Contaminated packaging (recycled container (?), which is plastic, glass ???) before or after filling ? (try a control packaging of known sterility, eg an autoclaved bottle). Is this a retail packaging or business size for office coolers ?

Same problem from sampling penultimate steps ?

One-off incident or long(er) term occurrence ?

Rgds / Charles.C

lmugs please revert with further information as per Charles reply.

Hi Imugs,

Good to have Zim on the forum, you are my 'homeboy'. I agree with Charles, in my previous experience we were picking this up from the system. Our filters were loaded with it. Unfortunately I didnt stay long enough to solve the problem. Do you have u.v lights in your system? Do you sterilise/sanitise your packaging? Micro analysis of raw and processed water should highlight if this is within your system. Do you store your water in bulk tanks after processing or does the line run straight to packaging? Is the filling line sanitised before each bottling run?Is your bottling plant ideally designed, moulds are also airborne...

I know, more questions than answers...

I have packaged water that is developing grayish brown moulds, or maybe one would like to identify them as algae. Can you assist me on the problem. Our treat ment set up starts by a contact process(coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation); sand filtration, carbon filtration, polishing filtration, cartridge filter, RO system, reminerilisation, ozonation(01-0,4mg/l) and then bottling. Can it be that the mould is as a result of elevated levels of iron?

Sounds to me like you need to check your ozone dosing. If your ozone dosing system is working correctly there will not be any growth. Also make sure that you check the ozone levels at the time of bottling because it will need to be sufficient to kill any organism in the bottle.

Regards,

Tony