My toilet also has that brown sludge inside the reservoir and I do
have well water. If the problem comes from iron bacteria, is this
indicative of a problem with the well water supply?

Thank you.

Eugene Liu

All three of mine had the same kind of stuff in them when I moved in. It
also showed up in the bowl soon after I cleaned them. My toilets were 19
years old and still had original parts, i.e., flapper, ballcock, etc., and I
am on city water. It was black as night in each reservoir. So it may not
be your well..grab ahold of your flappers and see it you get alot of black
gunk like tar on your hands. It will hard to wash off using normal soap.
It this is the case then you need new flappers and probably new seals for
the flappers and the ones on the reservoir to bowl. I just finished
rebuilding two of mine last month and so far the reservoirs are clean. In
the rebuilding process I took each reservoir outside and scrubbed them with
a brush using a garden hose and Iron Out. I would start with new flappers
and through in some Iron Out in the reservoir before trying to replace the
other two gaskets.


"Rambaldi1444" wrote in message
om...
My toilet also has that brown sludge inside the reservoir and I do
have well water. If the problem comes from iron bacteria, is this
indicative of a problem with the well water supply?

Thank you.

Eugene Liu

"Rambaldi1444" wrote in message
om...
My toilet also has that brown sludge inside the reservoir and I do
have well water. If the problem comes from iron bacteria, is this
indicative of a problem with the well water supply?

Thank you.

Eugene Liu

It sounds like you have manganese in your water. I had this problem when I
lived in the Santa Cruz mountains in California. I would just put a half cup
of bleach and leave it sit for a half hour or so before flushing. Bleach
works for a lot of other things like mold and algea but use it sparingly
because it can damage surfaces too. I have seen it eat the plating off of
tub fixtures when used to clean tile....good luck on your project, Ross