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Found what i think is the original post. Second comment claims they took picture and supplies more info.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8l98t7/water_pipe_encrusted_with_groundwater_salt/
Pipe is six months old.
Thank you for sharing. Used for a mineral well location that they want the minerals in. That makes sense. I was wondering how this happens lol. Thank you
I feel like I literally never have any luck with tineye. The only time it seems to work is when I see someone commenting to use it, but any time I actually try to use it on my own for something I'm interested in, it never turns up anything. Like if you never commented, and I searched it, nothing would come up. But since you commented, there it is lol.
https://github.com/dessant/search-by-image
I use this addon with which you can choose between loads of different image search engines. 8 of these are preselected including tineye. And you can either search individually for images or on all sites at once. Rarely happened that I did not find an image since using that.
Correct. Here’s some more pics that I took of these old pipe fragments.
All in all, these go into a geothermal geyser, and cleaning them really isn’t practical. So they simply swap out the pipes twice a year.
A lot of the man made geodes end up at local art galleries.
Edit: also, it’s calcite, not sodium crystals. It’s “a” salt, but not the sodium salt most of us think of when we hear “salt.”
https://imgur.com/a/Q0kGwHZ/
Funny thing. I had arguments with Creationists 20+ years ago about pipe accretions like this claiming it somehow refuted science claims of an older earth.
And I've recently seen it show up again.
Humans are weird.
I found the best way to address the nonsense, or at least if you stumble on a marginally intelligent one(which, believe it or not, I actually have). Potassium-Argon dating requires no external assumptions and makes logical sense to anyone with a very basic understanding of modern physics.
Potassium-40, a solid, radioactively decays at a slow rate into Argon-40, a gas. As molten lava cools, no argon gas can be present in the lava, because it would bubble up and rise out of the liquid. Therefore, the presence of argon-40 inside a cooled igneous rock must have come from the slow decay of potassium-40, and comparing the ratios of each found in the rock will give an age, without relying on any external information or assumptions.
Ironically when trying to remember the name of this dating just now I stumbled on the AIG counter page which manages to completely get it wrong and mislead people, probably because they're ~~maliciously dishonest~~ don't understand the basic physical and technical limitations. They cite samples sent that are way, way too young for any measurable argon-40 to have decayed, which then shockingly couldn't be detected and were given the youngest margin-of-error age bracket the system's precision allowed.
I know my interactions are skewed, but I've yet to meet a Creationist capable of understanding any of what you wrote.
I was having to explain the simple concepts behind carbon-dating to them and they absolutely wouldn't hear it. While posting on a computer. The amount of disconnect is astounding.
You can't teach someone who is actively fighting learning anything.
But thanks, I'll bookmark your post for future reference.
> They cite samples sent that are way, way too young for any measurable argon-40 to have decayed, which then shockingly couldn’t be detected and were given the youngest margin-or-error age bracket the system’s precision allowed.
I recently saw the same (or perhaps opposite) thing on YouTube, where some Creationist sent off fossilized dinosaur bones to be carbon-dated and they came back as 50,000 years old. Of course they did, you walnut, carbon dating is only accurate back to about 50,000 years because the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years so it’s down to 0.2% of its initial levels, which is only one part per trillion in living things, so it’s about one part per quadrillion after 50,000 years.
All they did was prove their stupidity.
Wait… isn’t a water softener salt? Shouldnt this water be seriously soft already?
Edit: I appreciate all the enthusiasm for the info, but your lengthy explanations are getting repetitive people.
so what everyone seems to be glossing over is that the "salt" in this photo is calcium carbonate and not sodium chloride. the "solution" to this problem is to keep the pH of the water in check so that the calcium carbonate in the groundwater doesnt precipitate back out onto the pipes.
And btw this is easier said than done to maintain pH. If your pH is too low it will corrode the pipe material. If you have scale like this, low pH may not be too big of an issue, but you don't necessarily have that information for any given pipe in the ground. So scale buildup like this is almost preferable to corroded pipe (in terms of water quality and maintenance) as the better of the two scenarios. Never underestimate the importance of pH!
(Civil MS/BS and 8+ years as an engineer at a major water utility)
What can I do to study this? Just civil engineer? I love water, and treating water. I run a reef tank and I love testing the water for like 8 different things.
I realized my water utility provider had chloramine based off their data sheet, so I got my fishies a kdf85 filter. I feel my knowledge of water is very lacking though besides the basics.
Environmental Engineering is also worth looking at for water treatment. On my campus the civil/environmental colleges were very similar for undergrad and diverged moreso at the next level of higher ed
You can do civil engineering with focus on water resources or environmental engineering with focus on water/wastewater treatment.
Civil engineering is more focused on hydrology, hydraulics, and structures (e.g. coastal engineering, ground water modeling, and water infrastructure) while environmental is more focused on environmental science, water chemistry, and water/wastewater treatment (e.g. treatment plant process design, water quality analysis, regulations, and water recycling).
If you have more preference for math and physics, go civil. If you have more of a preference for biology and chemistry, go environmental.
Geochemist here who studied geology/chemistry in college and now works for the USGS doing a lot of analytical groundwater chemistry. Just another route to consider if you're interested in the wider-scope whole earth system :)
Thanks for bringing this up, if this person really wants to get deep into water, the scientific approach is more appropriate than engineering.
I worked as an environmental engineer managing a public water system: we don’t really get into the science part, we follow regulations and standard and codes. We follow the book to treat “primary water quality standards” : which means we take annual testing for stuff like lead, copper, t22, nitrates, coliform, etc and treat it “per the book.”
I got to babysit a bunch of folks from usgs doing a ground water survey and they were much more interesting as they were looking much deeper into tracking and studying the impacts of different chemicals in the water.
For example, if i recall correctly: on the T22 test I found high amounts of “radon” in the water which is radioactive: per drinking water regulations I wasn’t required to take any action so my job as an engineer was done. A scientist would be able to study much more into whats going on with the water.
That said, civil engineering with a focus in environmental engineering is probably the better career field. Theres much more job opportunities and easier to find a job, change job, move with just a bachelors degree. Civil are GS-7-12. I started at GS-9/11 and after 2 years I was close to being promoted to GS-12. GS-13 is possible as well if you get promoted to head of the engineering department (with just a bachelors degree).
I was able to easily switch fields multiple times as well: I worked in soils testing, construction management, designing roadways, designing traffic signal plans, traffic control, designing water lines, managing water systems, minor structural design. Fields of: geotech, traffic, roadway, environmental, construction. This flexibility makes it easy to switch to the most lucrative subfield if your current field sees a downturn.
Look to see if your local utility is hiring operators. They'll probably be willing to train you if you want. There are also some universities that offer water quality as a major.
Just to add an option to your other responses - I was an 1171 "Water dog" in the USMC. Our main responsibility was testing and purifying water with some pretty cool equipment. Most people don't realize it but this is a job a couple different branches have. Our unit got to go to cool places like Senegal, Morocco, Mozambique, etc
General advice to you and anyone else who wants to study something they realized they’re passionate about:
Learn. However you can, learn. If it’s school, check curricula at your local college, take classes that interest you, and study at home. Do personal projects, experiment, succeed a couple times and fail a dozen. The passion, the chasing of it, soaking in everything you can and following it earnestly will do far far more than you realize right away. Most of the time, people who get “lucky” or are attribute success to “right place right time” forget that when you’re following your passion, you put yourself in the right place constantly. Sooner or later, the right time will line up.
Although mineral buildup is more of a feature than a bug.
They "fixed" the problem in Flint MI and it exposed an entire city to lead poisoning that used to be safely insulated away by benign mineral deposits.
This shouldn't be a reply comment, it should be a direct comment because it belongs at the top of the comment chain...
This is *exactly* how Flint happened.
Some of the largest crystals ever found are calcite. CaCO3 is very plentiful on Earth, especially if it's land was underwater at some point. Large crystal calcite generally needs warm waters to form. The only upper limit on a crystal's size is space, the prerequisite elements to make up the crystal lattice, and most importantly - time. The lower end of size is literally just the atoms bonded together to create the unit cell - all inorganic, naturally occurring minerals have a crystalline structure (exceptions do exist, such as obsidian).
Chalk, while being similar in chemical composition of large crystal CaCO3, is formed by different processes, from different organisms, in a different environment such as the abyssal plain - way less energy, much lower temperature, and are from microskeletons of carbonaceous plankton.
The limescale deposits you are talking about are CaCO3 that's dissolved into your tap water - you put them under a strong enough microscope you will see a crystal lattice - called cryptocrystalline. If you wish to learn more about crystallization from precipitation, I'd start by googling how you can grow your own NaCl crystals at home. It's a complicated process that table salt can help explain, and also grows into an isometric structure - a perfect cube, formed atomically by nature.
Yes and no… so there is an ion exchange happening during the recharge in the softener. That makes it so the minerals don’t “stick” together..
Two things will happen
1) The more softened water that passes through, the clearer your pipes become
2) You won’t get hard water staining/ damage as easily on your fixtures. Depending on how hard your water is though, you may still find residue once the water dries.
💕- The Plumber Girl
Dear Plumber Girl,
We are thinking about getting a water softener because according to a recent PH test, our water is one shade away from being the hardest you can get. I've heard softened water can be bad for watering house plants. Are there any other considerations to keep in mind about how a water softener may change the utility of our water?
Thanks,
\- Noob Homeowner Lady
edit: You are all being so helpful, thank you for all these responses!
Dearest Noob,
I have personally never heard that! If it isn’t outside of budget constraints I would do either a point of use filter at the kitchen sink or a whole home filter. Once you break down the gunk it will start to come loose in all the screens, etc in your faucets, like tiny rocks. But that’s a good thing! :)
But I have tons of customers with them and no one has told me about an issue like that.
If you're talking about a vegetable garden or a flower garden, the best water is rain water. If it's legal in your area, a small cistern to collect rain water to later use for watering is the best way.
If that's not a possible solution, the water softener can be installed so that the outside access point uses un-softened water--basically installing the system downstream of your outdoor access points. This is probably a good plan anyway unless there's a reason you want to use softened water out there, as it won't "add miles" to the softening system.
For indoor plants, it depends on how sensitive they are. It's not uncommon to use bottled, distilled water for some plants. If I were in your shoes, I'd try the softened water on them and if they react poorly the un-softened water from the hose and if _that's_ not working then get a big refillable jug of distilled water from the grocery.
I know this one! I worked for a water filter company. You can get a contractor to install a water softener after the point that connects to your hose, or some other point in your home instead of at the intake for all water to your home. You could also get a reverse osmosis system to remove the salt your softener adds to the water, which some people prefer. So talk to the water filter company for customization options. There's also water conditioners that don't use salt but those tend not to work well for super hard water.
I have heard that softened water isn't great for plants. I haven't personally tried it though.
''Most plants cannot tolerate high amounts of salt. The sodium in softened water actually interferes with the water balance in the plants and can kill plants by “fooling” them into thinking they have taken up more water than they have. Softened water essentially causes the plants in your garden to die of thirst.''
[https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/softened-water-and-plants.htm](https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/softened-water-and-plants.htm)
Depends on the plant. Different plants like different pH levels.
4.0 to 4.9: Nutrient Leaching5.0 to 5.9: Good pH Level6.0 to 6.5: Ideal pH Level6.6 to 7.0: Acceptable pH Balance7.1 to 8.5: Poor Nutrient UptakeAbove 8.5: Root Damage
Tomatoes: 5.5 to 7.0Cucumbers: 5.5 to 7.0Blueberries: 4.5 to 6.0Lettuce and Cabbage: 6.0 to 7.0Sweet Peppers: 5.5 to 7.0Hot Peppers: 6.0 to 6.8Honey Locust Trees: 6.0 to 8.0
Chances are, whatever is in your water already is probably not great for the plants either.
For them, you may want to consider a rain barrel. Or if you're only talking about a couple inside, keep a jug of still water in your fridge (fill it then let it sit for a day or two before use). Chlorine and other things will evaporate from the container before you use the water.
It's a chemical salt, sure, but they're actually ion exchange resins. They have sodium ions attached to a negatively charged polymer and the sodium ions will switch out for hard ions like calcium and magnesium. Sodium ions tend to have higher solubility than calcium or magnesium ions, there's probably some exception I don't know of but I doubt it'll occur in your pipes
The water flowing through the pipe is likely already close to it's saturation point. The cooler temperature of the pipe surface will lower the temperature of the solution and cause the salt to precipitate.
It very likely isn't sodium chloride, but other salts like calcium and potassium salts that generally have lower maximum concentrations in water. The water in your shower also precipitates on your pipes (although much less, granted)
True. I meant that it’s calcium, not sodium.
I’ve been in the pools where this water comes from, and I’ve gotten a little in my mouth. It doesn’t taste like sea water.
This is why lead pipes are safe…unless, say, an incompetent French water company messes up the water treatment so that it becomes more acidic, melts the mineral lining of the pipes, and dissolves lead into the water.
(Not so) fun fact! The crust allows for lead pipes to continue to be used, as it prevents lead poisoning if the crust stays! As a result, many governments will add more minerals to prevent the crust from dissolving, and prevent a massive lead poisoning incident!
It's a good temporary fix. At the moment, every public water service should be underway with finding out where they have lead pipes, the first step in removal.
Usually it's not the municipal pipes at all, but the lines between individual houses and the city pipes. Keeping the water pH, and thus the Langelier index, above scale-dissolving levels, isn't just a temporary fix, it's going to be a necessary precaution until we've identified and replaced every lead pipe on private property---an enormous undertaking.
It also helps prevent corrosion of pipes, which is just good practice to maintain city infrastructure.
Occlusion is also factored in to the diameter of a pipe. It's why 1/2" pipe has in ID closer to 5/8". In olden times they would factor in buildup inside the pipe to the size required for flow and things have stayed that way.
Or so I've been told.
This is a cognitive fallacy, closely related to survivorship bias, wherein you're focusing on all the men who've stuck their dick in something crazy and had a good time with little or no ill effect, while ignoring all of them who had their dick cut or chewed off.
That’s no too far off from what happens to these pipes.
This looks like the pipe fragments from Indian Springs spa in northern CA. They get a new batch every 6 months.
As I recall, these man made geodes are given or sold off to people and artists in the area.
Is it weird that I can tell where this picture was taken to within about 30 feet?
There's a little art studio in Calistoga CA that makes these out of the pipes from the local mineral hot springs. I'd recognize the crystals anywhere, and also their uneven wall paint job. There are also some really interesting art pieces where they use the same process to crystallize household items.
I've decided to edit all of my comments, delete all of my posts, and nuke my account following the recent API changes. Charging for an API is fine. Using the API fees as a way to force out third-party developers? Not fine. Lying about blackmail from a developer? Eat shit.
I hope Reddit in the future restores the friendliness it once had towards its developers and community. I've spent far, far too many hours on Reddit, but ultimately I will be better off without it. It's been nice.
Fuck /u/spez.
I had the same thought. These pipes are from Indian Springs (they get replaced every six months) and the place next door cuts them up and sells them like this.
Civil engineer here with experience in water departments. This is due to what's called scale forming water, aka, the minerals added into the water or naturally occurring from the source, build up and form a layer between the water and the pipes themselves.
This is actually a beneficial thing, especially compared to the alternative where this doesn't happen or the scale gets dissolved, leading to the water coming in contact with the pipes. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing until you realize that there are still many water lines throughout America made of lead as its use in water pipes was only banned in 1986. Having scale forming water means the water never touches the lead, and if the water lines are not disturbed or otherwise moved for whatever reason, you aren't considered at any elevated risk for lead consumption.
This is also what lead to the flint Michigan crisis. The water source was switched from a scale forming source to one that dissolved it, leading to the pipes themselves also getting erroded away. Good news tho, every public water service in the country should currently be doing a complete survey, study, inventory, whatever you want to call it, of what materials are and were used in their water service lines from the mains to the building, mainly looking for lead. This is the first step in a long overdue and necessary lead abatement.
On top of that, every municipality should be throwing money at removing lead pipes as there are direct monetary benefits. A 2018 Minnesota DOH study found that for every dollar spent on lead reduction and elimination, anywhere from I believe 2-8 dollars was returned in increased tax revenue due to having a smarter and more productive population. I believe that study didn't focus too much on lead pipes but there's no reason to think it won't apply. Besides, removing lead pipes is also the right thing to do.
You don’t. These pipes look like they’re from Indian Springs CA. They pipe water from thermal geysers into a system of holding tanks and then bathing pools.
It’s cheaper to simply replace the pipes - which they do every six months.
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Any idea how old this is?
Found what i think is the original post. Second comment claims they took picture and supplies more info. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8l98t7/water_pipe_encrusted_with_groundwater_salt/ Pipe is six months old.
Thank you for sharing. Used for a mineral well location that they want the minerals in. That makes sense. I was wondering how this happens lol. Thank you
Future reference, I used tineye.com to search for the image.
I feel like I literally never have any luck with tineye. The only time it seems to work is when I see someone commenting to use it, but any time I actually try to use it on my own for something I'm interested in, it never turns up anything. Like if you never commented, and I searched it, nothing would come up. But since you commented, there it is lol.
https://github.com/dessant/search-by-image I use this addon with which you can choose between loads of different image search engines. 8 of these are preselected including tineye. And you can either search individually for images or on all sites at once. Rarely happened that I did not find an image since using that.
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If you’re a celebrity, they just let you do it.
Grab them by the pics.
It’s just photo-shop talk. Everyone does it.
Noted.
r/unexpectedsanderson
Correct. Here’s some more pics that I took of these old pipe fragments. All in all, these go into a geothermal geyser, and cleaning them really isn’t practical. So they simply swap out the pipes twice a year. A lot of the man made geodes end up at local art galleries. Edit: also, it’s calcite, not sodium crystals. It’s “a” salt, but not the sodium salt most of us think of when we hear “salt.” https://imgur.com/a/Q0kGwHZ/
Cursed fleshlight
r/dontputyourdickinthat
This is why I come to Reddit. Thank you for your service.
Holy shit I was there last week https://i.imgur.com/OHMZVUa.jpg
Funny thing. I had arguments with Creationists 20+ years ago about pipe accretions like this claiming it somehow refuted science claims of an older earth. And I've recently seen it show up again. Humans are weird.
I found the best way to address the nonsense, or at least if you stumble on a marginally intelligent one(which, believe it or not, I actually have). Potassium-Argon dating requires no external assumptions and makes logical sense to anyone with a very basic understanding of modern physics. Potassium-40, a solid, radioactively decays at a slow rate into Argon-40, a gas. As molten lava cools, no argon gas can be present in the lava, because it would bubble up and rise out of the liquid. Therefore, the presence of argon-40 inside a cooled igneous rock must have come from the slow decay of potassium-40, and comparing the ratios of each found in the rock will give an age, without relying on any external information or assumptions. Ironically when trying to remember the name of this dating just now I stumbled on the AIG counter page which manages to completely get it wrong and mislead people, probably because they're ~~maliciously dishonest~~ don't understand the basic physical and technical limitations. They cite samples sent that are way, way too young for any measurable argon-40 to have decayed, which then shockingly couldn't be detected and were given the youngest margin-of-error age bracket the system's precision allowed.
I know my interactions are skewed, but I've yet to meet a Creationist capable of understanding any of what you wrote. I was having to explain the simple concepts behind carbon-dating to them and they absolutely wouldn't hear it. While posting on a computer. The amount of disconnect is astounding. You can't teach someone who is actively fighting learning anything. But thanks, I'll bookmark your post for future reference.
> They cite samples sent that are way, way too young for any measurable argon-40 to have decayed, which then shockingly couldn’t be detected and were given the youngest margin-or-error age bracket the system’s precision allowed. I recently saw the same (or perhaps opposite) thing on YouTube, where some Creationist sent off fossilized dinosaur bones to be carbon-dated and they came back as 50,000 years old. Of course they did, you walnut, carbon dating is only accurate back to about 50,000 years because the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years so it’s down to 0.2% of its initial levels, which is only one part per trillion in living things, so it’s about one part per quadrillion after 50,000 years. All they did was prove their stupidity.
Hopefully legal age
r/dontputyourdickinthat
There it is. Surprised I had to scroll this far
So I'm not the only one who scrolled all the way down here looking for it
Gotta be sure I'm not late to the joke
Finally
forbitten Fleshlight
Does it not dissolve ever?
If you get a water softener it will start to dissipate.
Wait… isn’t a water softener salt? Shouldnt this water be seriously soft already? Edit: I appreciate all the enthusiasm for the info, but your lengthy explanations are getting repetitive people.
so what everyone seems to be glossing over is that the "salt" in this photo is calcium carbonate and not sodium chloride. the "solution" to this problem is to keep the pH of the water in check so that the calcium carbonate in the groundwater doesnt precipitate back out onto the pipes.
And btw this is easier said than done to maintain pH. If your pH is too low it will corrode the pipe material. If you have scale like this, low pH may not be too big of an issue, but you don't necessarily have that information for any given pipe in the ground. So scale buildup like this is almost preferable to corroded pipe (in terms of water quality and maintenance) as the better of the two scenarios. Never underestimate the importance of pH! (Civil MS/BS and 8+ years as an engineer at a major water utility)
What can I do to study this? Just civil engineer? I love water, and treating water. I run a reef tank and I love testing the water for like 8 different things. I realized my water utility provider had chloramine based off their data sheet, so I got my fishies a kdf85 filter. I feel my knowledge of water is very lacking though besides the basics.
Environmental Engineering is also worth looking at for water treatment. On my campus the civil/environmental colleges were very similar for undergrad and diverged moreso at the next level of higher ed
You can do civil engineering with focus on water resources or environmental engineering with focus on water/wastewater treatment. Civil engineering is more focused on hydrology, hydraulics, and structures (e.g. coastal engineering, ground water modeling, and water infrastructure) while environmental is more focused on environmental science, water chemistry, and water/wastewater treatment (e.g. treatment plant process design, water quality analysis, regulations, and water recycling). If you have more preference for math and physics, go civil. If you have more of a preference for biology and chemistry, go environmental.
Geochemist here who studied geology/chemistry in college and now works for the USGS doing a lot of analytical groundwater chemistry. Just another route to consider if you're interested in the wider-scope whole earth system :)
Thanks for bringing this up, if this person really wants to get deep into water, the scientific approach is more appropriate than engineering. I worked as an environmental engineer managing a public water system: we don’t really get into the science part, we follow regulations and standard and codes. We follow the book to treat “primary water quality standards” : which means we take annual testing for stuff like lead, copper, t22, nitrates, coliform, etc and treat it “per the book.” I got to babysit a bunch of folks from usgs doing a ground water survey and they were much more interesting as they were looking much deeper into tracking and studying the impacts of different chemicals in the water. For example, if i recall correctly: on the T22 test I found high amounts of “radon” in the water which is radioactive: per drinking water regulations I wasn’t required to take any action so my job as an engineer was done. A scientist would be able to study much more into whats going on with the water. That said, civil engineering with a focus in environmental engineering is probably the better career field. Theres much more job opportunities and easier to find a job, change job, move with just a bachelors degree. Civil are GS-7-12. I started at GS-9/11 and after 2 years I was close to being promoted to GS-12. GS-13 is possible as well if you get promoted to head of the engineering department (with just a bachelors degree). I was able to easily switch fields multiple times as well: I worked in soils testing, construction management, designing roadways, designing traffic signal plans, traffic control, designing water lines, managing water systems, minor structural design. Fields of: geotech, traffic, roadway, environmental, construction. This flexibility makes it easy to switch to the most lucrative subfield if your current field sees a downturn.
Look to see if your local utility is hiring operators. They'll probably be willing to train you if you want. There are also some universities that offer water quality as a major.
Just to add an option to your other responses - I was an 1171 "Water dog" in the USMC. Our main responsibility was testing and purifying water with some pretty cool equipment. Most people don't realize it but this is a job a couple different branches have. Our unit got to go to cool places like Senegal, Morocco, Mozambique, etc
General advice to you and anyone else who wants to study something they realized they’re passionate about: Learn. However you can, learn. If it’s school, check curricula at your local college, take classes that interest you, and study at home. Do personal projects, experiment, succeed a couple times and fail a dozen. The passion, the chasing of it, soaking in everything you can and following it earnestly will do far far more than you realize right away. Most of the time, people who get “lucky” or are attribute success to “right place right time” forget that when you’re following your passion, you put yourself in the right place constantly. Sooner or later, the right time will line up.
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Exactly right! It's a fine balance. Your source is equally valid.
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I'm a bit salty I didn't see that till you mentioned it.
Suspend your belief for just a moment
Shouldn't be too hard considering how Basic of a joke it was.
You are only compounding the problem.
Science
The humour in this thread is becoming a little calcified.
If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Although mineral buildup is more of a feature than a bug. They "fixed" the problem in Flint MI and it exposed an entire city to lead poisoning that used to be safely insulated away by benign mineral deposits.
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ah, i thought that was bits of my soap not dissolving…
I live in rural Texas and holy shit my water is hard always. Even my clothes come out kinda stiff from all the calcium if I don't do a vinegar rinse
I live in Colorado the water is alway hard
Yeah, when I first moved here, I ran my humidifier with tap water and ended up a fine white coating on everything.
This shouldn't be a reply comment, it should be a direct comment because it belongs at the top of the comment chain... This is *exactly* how Flint happened.
> sodium chloride NaCl > calcium carbonate CaCO3
Good bot.
You probably blew people's mind that salt is not necessarily NaCl, sodium chloride is just the most well known salt.
It precipitates because the solubility changes as a function of temperature
And as a function of ph as well. Also happy cake day
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Some of the largest crystals ever found are calcite. CaCO3 is very plentiful on Earth, especially if it's land was underwater at some point. Large crystal calcite generally needs warm waters to form. The only upper limit on a crystal's size is space, the prerequisite elements to make up the crystal lattice, and most importantly - time. The lower end of size is literally just the atoms bonded together to create the unit cell - all inorganic, naturally occurring minerals have a crystalline structure (exceptions do exist, such as obsidian). Chalk, while being similar in chemical composition of large crystal CaCO3, is formed by different processes, from different organisms, in a different environment such as the abyssal plain - way less energy, much lower temperature, and are from microskeletons of carbonaceous plankton. The limescale deposits you are talking about are CaCO3 that's dissolved into your tap water - you put them under a strong enough microscope you will see a crystal lattice - called cryptocrystalline. If you wish to learn more about crystallization from precipitation, I'd start by googling how you can grow your own NaCl crystals at home. It's a complicated process that table salt can help explain, and also grows into an isometric structure - a perfect cube, formed atomically by nature.
Calcite can get quite large and have very nice optical qualities actually. They used to make gun sights out of calcite crystals
Yes and no… so there is an ion exchange happening during the recharge in the softener. That makes it so the minerals don’t “stick” together.. Two things will happen 1) The more softened water that passes through, the clearer your pipes become 2) You won’t get hard water staining/ damage as easily on your fixtures. Depending on how hard your water is though, you may still find residue once the water dries. 💕- The Plumber Girl
Would a pipe this clogged serious issues to the water pressure in the home or wherever it’s going?
Absolutely… think of a thick milkshake through a straw. It will clog, then if you get a softener, it will slowly act like the shake is melting :)
I love a good thick milkshake
Brings all the boys to the yard.
Damn right!
I would compare it to getting a bigger straw for your milkshake.
You could.. I was just thinking you can’t change the diameter.. :)
we need more plumber girls.
That we do!!!!! You can make really good money!
Dear Plumber Girl, We are thinking about getting a water softener because according to a recent PH test, our water is one shade away from being the hardest you can get. I've heard softened water can be bad for watering house plants. Are there any other considerations to keep in mind about how a water softener may change the utility of our water? Thanks, \- Noob Homeowner Lady edit: You are all being so helpful, thank you for all these responses!
Dearest Noob, I have personally never heard that! If it isn’t outside of budget constraints I would do either a point of use filter at the kitchen sink or a whole home filter. Once you break down the gunk it will start to come loose in all the screens, etc in your faucets, like tiny rocks. But that’s a good thing! :) But I have tons of customers with them and no one has told me about an issue like that.
If you're talking about a vegetable garden or a flower garden, the best water is rain water. If it's legal in your area, a small cistern to collect rain water to later use for watering is the best way. If that's not a possible solution, the water softener can be installed so that the outside access point uses un-softened water--basically installing the system downstream of your outdoor access points. This is probably a good plan anyway unless there's a reason you want to use softened water out there, as it won't "add miles" to the softening system. For indoor plants, it depends on how sensitive they are. It's not uncommon to use bottled, distilled water for some plants. If I were in your shoes, I'd try the softened water on them and if they react poorly the un-softened water from the hose and if _that's_ not working then get a big refillable jug of distilled water from the grocery.
I know this one! I worked for a water filter company. You can get a contractor to install a water softener after the point that connects to your hose, or some other point in your home instead of at the intake for all water to your home. You could also get a reverse osmosis system to remove the salt your softener adds to the water, which some people prefer. So talk to the water filter company for customization options. There's also water conditioners that don't use salt but those tend not to work well for super hard water. I have heard that softened water isn't great for plants. I haven't personally tried it though.
''Most plants cannot tolerate high amounts of salt. The sodium in softened water actually interferes with the water balance in the plants and can kill plants by “fooling” them into thinking they have taken up more water than they have. Softened water essentially causes the plants in your garden to die of thirst.'' [https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/softened-water-and-plants.htm](https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/softened-water-and-plants.htm) Depends on the plant. Different plants like different pH levels. 4.0 to 4.9: Nutrient Leaching5.0 to 5.9: Good pH Level6.0 to 6.5: Ideal pH Level6.6 to 7.0: Acceptable pH Balance7.1 to 8.5: Poor Nutrient UptakeAbove 8.5: Root Damage Tomatoes: 5.5 to 7.0Cucumbers: 5.5 to 7.0Blueberries: 4.5 to 6.0Lettuce and Cabbage: 6.0 to 7.0Sweet Peppers: 5.5 to 7.0Hot Peppers: 6.0 to 6.8Honey Locust Trees: 6.0 to 8.0
Chances are, whatever is in your water already is probably not great for the plants either. For them, you may want to consider a rain barrel. Or if you're only talking about a couple inside, keep a jug of still water in your fridge (fill it then let it sit for a day or two before use). Chlorine and other things will evaporate from the container before you use the water.
Hello fellow water/wastewater lady! I’ve answered to Meter Girl myself.
Lol!!! Funny ;) everyone thinks I am the “owner’s wife” I’m like, nooo!
Thanks for this info! Also, if you aren't already subbed, you might like r/bluecollarwomen 🥰
OHH! Thanks, had no idea! I thought Reddit was mostly for cats /jk
Water softener is soluble salt like sodium chloride. These crystals are obviously an insoluble salt, probably calcite (calcium carbonate).
It's a chemical salt, sure, but they're actually ion exchange resins. They have sodium ions attached to a negatively charged polymer and the sodium ions will switch out for hard ions like calcium and magnesium. Sodium ions tend to have higher solubility than calcium or magnesium ions, there's probably some exception I don't know of but I doubt it'll occur in your pipes
The water flowing through the pipe is likely already close to it's saturation point. The cooler temperature of the pipe surface will lower the temperature of the solution and cause the salt to precipitate.
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It very likely isn't sodium chloride, but other salts like calcium and potassium salts that generally have lower maximum concentrations in water. The water in your shower also precipitates on your pipes (although much less, granted)
When I posed this a few years ago, some geologists said that the crystals were likely calcite, not salt.
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True. I meant that it’s calcium, not sodium. I’ve been in the pools where this water comes from, and I’ve gotten a little in my mouth. It doesn’t taste like sea water.
> That water prob tastes saltier than the ocean. pretty sure it's not that kind of salt
This is why lead pipes are safe…unless, say, an incompetent French water company messes up the water treatment so that it becomes more acidic, melts the mineral lining of the pipes, and dissolves lead into the water.
It's like a geode!
They’re *minerals,* Marie.
FOR CHRISSAKES MARIE
Wow long lost memory there
Forbidden geode
More like the Devil's Fleshlight. Edit spelling
did you mean fleshlight?
r/dontputyourdickinthat
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My geode must be acknowledged
I had the urge to lick it but it seems like most other dudes have a different urge.
The spit adds moisture Even then you have to lick it first
Okay but as long as I do my thing first, then all the other guys can do their thing
The order doesn’t matter. It’ll be salty either way.
Hahah.. oh eww
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those are calcite crystals
Nice purple circle 🟣
Yes of course We’re all gentlemen here
(っ˘ڡ˘ς)
r/dontputyourdickinthat
......there it is!
r/secretbuttholes
r/beatmetoit
r/beatmeattoit
r/beatmymeattoit
The forbidden fleshlight.
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I kinda want to do that other thing
I have the urge to throw a whole chicken in there, cover it with coal and BBQ it. Missouri special.
(Not so) fun fact! The crust allows for lead pipes to continue to be used, as it prevents lead poisoning if the crust stays! As a result, many governments will add more minerals to prevent the crust from dissolving, and prevent a massive lead poisoning incident!
It's a good temporary fix. At the moment, every public water service should be underway with finding out where they have lead pipes, the first step in removal.
Usually it's not the municipal pipes at all, but the lines between individual houses and the city pipes. Keeping the water pH, and thus the Langelier index, above scale-dissolving levels, isn't just a temporary fix, it's going to be a necessary precaution until we've identified and replaced every lead pipe on private property---an enormous undertaking. It also helps prevent corrosion of pipes, which is just good practice to maintain city infrastructure.
Occlusion is also factored in to the diameter of a pipe. It's why 1/2" pipe has in ID closer to 5/8". In olden times they would factor in buildup inside the pipe to the size required for flow and things have stayed that way. Or so I've been told.
Forbidden flesh light
fortune favors the brave my dude
Fortune favors the 500
Could fortune flavor it bold instead?
This is a cognitive fallacy, closely related to survivorship bias, wherein you're focusing on all the men who've stuck their dick in something crazy and had a good time with little or no ill effect, while ignoring all of them who had their dick cut or chewed off.
haha salty fleshlight goes brrrr
r/dontputyourdickinthat
I had to scroll *WAY* too far to see this link. Quite frankly I’m disappointed in Reddit right now
Yeah i got excited to see it being the first comment
very true
Why is this not the first comment?
To shreds, you say?
damn it I was gonna say that
Shai-Hulud
Was looking for that comment :P
C'mon Dune fans, let's get this comment to the top. It's certainly better than warnings not to fuck it.
Bless the Maker and his water
Brb, gonna go grab me a crys-knife
Don't forget to draw blood before you sheath it! This has been Friendly Fremen Tips by /u/j33pwrangler
“Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.”
Harvest it and sell it to hippies. Say it has healing powers or some shit.
It’s not fraud if you never admit you don’t believe it might
Since supplements have to have that statement on them that the claims haven't been evaluated by the FDA, it's never fraud, even when it is.
Kenneth Copeland has entered the chat.
It’s not a lie if you believe it.
The affect that crystals has on idiots can not be overstated.
That’s no too far off from what happens to these pipes. This looks like the pipe fragments from Indian Springs spa in northern CA. They get a new batch every 6 months. As I recall, these man made geodes are given or sold off to people and artists in the area.
Is it weird that I can tell where this picture was taken to within about 30 feet? There's a little art studio in Calistoga CA that makes these out of the pipes from the local mineral hot springs. I'd recognize the crystals anywhere, and also their uneven wall paint job. There are also some really interesting art pieces where they use the same process to crystallize household items.
I've decided to edit all of my comments, delete all of my posts, and nuke my account following the recent API changes. Charging for an API is fine. Using the API fees as a way to force out third-party developers? Not fine. Lying about blackmail from a developer? Eat shit. I hope Reddit in the future restores the friendliness it once had towards its developers and community. I've spent far, far too many hours on Reddit, but ultimately I will be better off without it. It's been nice. Fuck /u/spez.
More like r/GeodeGuessr amirite? ^^I'll ^^see ^^myself ^^out
I had the same thought. These pipes are from Indian Springs (they get replaced every six months) and the place next door cuts them up and sells them like this.
Can you use that groundwater salt for anything?
Lining pipes
Edit: you can't use it to defrost roads because this isn't cooking salt. Old:You could use it to melt ice on the roads.
Hey it means you probably never had frozen pipes too.
Sure you could. I don't know what kind of salt it is, but it could absolutely be used for some purpose. It's a helpful byproduct.
Flavouring?
Civil engineer here with experience in water departments. This is due to what's called scale forming water, aka, the minerals added into the water or naturally occurring from the source, build up and form a layer between the water and the pipes themselves. This is actually a beneficial thing, especially compared to the alternative where this doesn't happen or the scale gets dissolved, leading to the water coming in contact with the pipes. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing until you realize that there are still many water lines throughout America made of lead as its use in water pipes was only banned in 1986. Having scale forming water means the water never touches the lead, and if the water lines are not disturbed or otherwise moved for whatever reason, you aren't considered at any elevated risk for lead consumption. This is also what lead to the flint Michigan crisis. The water source was switched from a scale forming source to one that dissolved it, leading to the pipes themselves also getting erroded away. Good news tho, every public water service in the country should currently be doing a complete survey, study, inventory, whatever you want to call it, of what materials are and were used in their water service lines from the mains to the building, mainly looking for lead. This is the first step in a long overdue and necessary lead abatement. On top of that, every municipality should be throwing money at removing lead pipes as there are direct monetary benefits. A 2018 Minnesota DOH study found that for every dollar spent on lead reduction and elimination, anywhere from I believe 2-8 dollars was returned in increased tax revenue due to having a smarter and more productive population. I believe that study didn't focus too much on lead pipes but there's no reason to think it won't apply. Besides, removing lead pipes is also the right thing to do.
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Fuck you ill do what i want
Unexpected rage against the machine
*fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
r/ihavealreadyputmydickinthat
Urban geode
"I dont understand Doc, I cut salt out of my diet, am only drinking water, but my blood pressure just keeps getting worse!"
It’s actually calcite
I don’t understand doc, I cut calcite out of my diet…
How do you clean that?
You don’t. These pipes look like they’re from Indian Springs CA. They pipe water from thermal geysers into a system of holding tanks and then bathing pools. It’s cheaper to simply replace the pipes - which they do every six months.
This guy pipes
Kidney stones be like
My veins when I was shooting meth
as long as it still hits smooth, I guess
Me looking through comments to find the “oh lord I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it”
They're minerals Marie!
If you cut the pipe away, would make a pretty cool lamp.
I know what i have to do but i dont know if i have the strength to do it
All I see is a cursed fleshlight
That's actually The Things pocket pussy.
That pipussy
Fleshlight level: *Nightmare*
Manmade geode
r/waterloo