Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations very rusty well water

I recently posted about pumping well water with air using the Geyser pump. After several tests with different models of pump we were able to produce about 2 gallons per minute. The well has not been in use for years 15+. The water looks like chocolate milk. We have not pumped much water yet only about 20 gallons so I hope it will clear some after we start running it for a while. It sure turned my grass orange were we ran it out to.
Would this rusty water do any harm to my pond? Seems like I read somewhere that iron fillings could help drop out phosphates.? Would iron oxide in the water do the same? Would it turn my albino catfish orange?
Thanks

I would not make any pronouncement on the water quality of a well, either new or long dormant, until after it had pumped for a considerable amount of time (between 1 and 24 hours). If your old, unused well has steel well casing or steel water pipe, either would have likely produced a lot of rust over 15 years. Now you're disturbing the well and knocking the rust loose and it's coming out. You've got to make sure that the 15 year supply of rust is gone and then you can see what your steady-state iron content is.

Every time I disturb my wells, like dropping a new pump in, they have to pump for an hour or so to clear.

Pump that sucker for a couple of hours, at least, and see if it starts to clear up some. If you want to get sign-tific you can take samples in buckets every half hour or so and more objectively see if they improve.

Thanks Theo. I figured it would have to run awhile to establish what iron content I have.
Any thoughts on using this first run out of very iron rich water to drop out the phosphates in my overly nutrient rich pond. I will try and find the post about iron filings clearing a pond. I think it was in a topic about Alum. Thanks

I had this page book marked about iron binding nutrients.
http://www.clean-flo.com/iron_filings.html

sciotoguy, i was curious how that air device was going to work.....2 gpm aint much but if it fills yer need, thats wonderful.

water wells are also a conduit for air exchange to the subsurface. it is very common in areas w/ high natural reduced iron to get whats called iron fouling of the well. this may be what is happening in your case. the reduced iron oxidizes near the intakes and iron bacteria and yucky iron gelatin stuff forms all around and commonly clogs wells, even PVC wells. pumping may or may not fix the problem, sometimes high pressure injection will help, followed by alot of pumping. if it is iron fouling, and you can clear it out, you should also be able to bump up yer gpms.

good luck.

Sciotoguy,

As I mentioned earlier, we used a system like this for house water in my early years. The solution to much of the mineral deposites including iron was to pump into a holding tank. The exposure to oxygen and settling took out most of the iron deposites...or so a knowledgable well guy told me. The water tasted fine...but having a frog in your water tank didn't exactly make folks want to bottle the water and sell it.