trout culture in a pond?
I know this may be out of the realm for most of you, but I would like to find an economical efficient way to filter out precipitate iron from my well water before it goes into one of my trout ponds. I'm hoping that someone has some experience with this or knows someone that does.
I understand the chemistry of it -- (water comes out of the well crystal clear, but when it gets exposed to oxygen the iron precipitates and becomes visable). The problem is this iron irritates the gills of especially brook trout, causing stress and possible disease problems.It's also not attractive in a small pond (water is murky brown).
From my research I have found some options are:
1.) Slow trickle iron filter (really expensive for the 45 gpms I pump)
2.) Water softener. Also really expensive for the amount of water flow.
3.) A set up with alternating layers of filter material and sand and gravel receiving the well water by gravity into a tank after aeration (I'm leaning toward this one)
4.) Biomass material or stone in the tank that the iron sticks to before going into the pond.
5.)Holding the freshly aerated well water in a pond to allow the iron to settle out before pulling it off the surface into the trout pond. (Not an option in summer as the water would warm up by the time it would reach the trout pond which is counterproductive.)
6.) Lining a large pit with sand and gravel in which the recently aerated water is dumped into, and once flowing through the material it is pulled off the bottom and into the trout pond. The problem I see with this option is, at some point the material will have to be excavated and disposed of which could be a problem.
Anyone know of anyone else with this problem and what they did?
