Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New Owner - Removing Iron from well water

Hi Everyone,
I just recently had a 1 acre pond in East Texas rebuilt. I have an extra well that I am using to fill the pond. I have not tested the water but my first issue is that it is irony. I plan to build a fake stream for the water to splash down mostly for aesthetics. I obviously don't want my stream bed to turn a lovely shade of rust. I spoke to some people at the fish farm I plan to use when I am ready to stock the pond. He recommended running the well water through a couple of barrels spilling over some type of media (I'm not sure what) in order to aerate the water and knock the rust out of solution to presumably settle at the bottom of the barrels. Conceptually, I understand this but I'm looking to see if anyone has experience with this and might have some drawings to go by.

Thanks.

Here in Polk County everything (dirt etc) is already red from the iron. Not sure what your environment looks like, but you might want to pick the typical brown river rocks for your stream bed and accept what nature gives you.

My challenge is my house well. Its being tested but I have hydrogen sulfide (stinky) and suspect it is related to iron.

Lots of iron here in East Texas.

Well water on my property comes out nice and clear but has a horrible gassy smell. Also 3 different places on my property I used the well water to water plants and all 3 areas the plants died. Not sure why but I'm sure not drinking it and I won't feed it to my fish!! I am in deep east Texas near the Louisiana border. I would sure get that water tested good before you feed it to your fish. Good luck and welcome to the forum!!

FWIW I also have a lot of iron in my well water. I have an iron filter, hydrogen peroxide injector and water softener that condition our house water. If I take a bucket of water straight from the well and let it sit exposed to oxygen for awhile, the iron settles out. A sediment pond prior to your stream might help a lot if the dwell time is long enough.

Not a pro...just my one cent

My artesian pond is fed by a well with high iron content. The GSF that spontaneously generated in it don't seem to mind. It is only 30' across, so I added a single small LMB to see what happens...

My iron content in the pond water this time last year was 1.82ppm and is considered high by the LSU Agg dept. It does not seem to effect the fish or I don't see any effect it might have. I know of a few areas across E. Texas where water wells have some natural gas and the gas is separated from the water and provides some energy in the rural homes. Some can feed a fire at the water facet when lit. Natural gas has no smell unless it is hydrogen sulfide which does have that rotten egg smell and sometimes there will be some sulfur there also. So if the water has a real bad smell I would think it would be from some small amount hydrogen sulfide gas. I would suggest to Rick D. to send a water sample to TA&M for testing, just so you know what's in your water.

Pretty simple, really....Oxidize the dissolved iron by running the well water into the pond in about a 30 foot long "stream" over course rock, or stack and drill holes in about 5 buckets filled with course rock.....this will also saturate the water with oxygen (well water rarely has any dissolved oxygen in it)

Cecil Baird uses the stacked bucket method to supply his trophy trout ponds...It's not a pretty way to do the oxidizing, but it IS very effective...There are pics of Cecil's stack method in the thread.....

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post437919

Hi Rick,
Most of E. Texas has a large amount of dissolved iron in there water. So my pond and temporary house uses well water. I am getting it straight from the aquifer 250 feet below the surface. Like most have started it will have a bad smell. Mine is so bad with iron it will start affecting the hose facets after about 2 years. I had to learn a lot about dissolved Iron quickly. Fortunately for me the guy that dug my will has a lot of experience with iron.

For my house he added an iron blocker that is self generating and added a water softener. that killed about 90% of the iron but on some day I could still smell something. He put in an (what he called) aerator tank. Basically a tank that the house water goes through before entering the house. He claimed the iron has a bacteria that not harmful to humans but that is what makes the water smell. When the water mixes with the air in this tank it will release the smell. Whatever it worked.

I put the well water directly into my 2 acre pond to keep it topped off in the dry months and I have not had any problems with fish dying or anything else. Good luck with your pond.
Joe

I would build your stream out of red iron ore rock to match the iron that will be deposited from the water. I think you will end up spending a lot of money removing it before it enters your pond.

Waterfall/aeration into a small settling pond (rubber liner?) that is out of sight, then over your main cascade you want to see.

I have a small intermittent spring that is iron-rich, and the iron only shows for the first few feet on the way to the pond before it is reduced to a level it no longer precipitates.

What type of rock would you recommend ? Do you think using rip rap in the stream would be sufficient? We have a lot of iron coming out of our well, making our pond extremely orange. I'm worried about it all settling before we get out fish in.

Have you tried shock sterilizing the well with bleach? If it is iron bacteria, maybe that would work.

https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/water/wells/waterquality/ironbacteria.html#:~:text=Iron%20bacteria%20are%20small%20living,%2C%20pumps%2C%20and%20plumbing%20fixtures.