How Do I Get Rid Of The Iron In My Water!

[tmoney7]

Alright so i have a well at my house and we have a large amount of iron in our water and i mean a lot of iron!  Since we had this problem we got a water softener for our house.  But i have heard many things about people having problems with using the water that goes through their water softeners for fish tanks.  So i decided to use the water that comes from a spicket outside of our house that bypasses the softener. only problem is now i have all of that iron in the water again.  So what i was wondering is if there is any other way to get rid of that iron so that it will not harm my plants or my shrimp that i hope to move in there once it is all set up.

 

[Zante]

RO Unit?

 

[raptorrex]

blowing air (better still O2) through the water for some time prior to adding new water will help.
though thats dependent on how high your levels are.

 

[fm1978]

This might sound totally mental but why not put a magnet in the tank? One of those magnetic tank cleaners would be perfect.
 
May not work if the Iron is in various salt forms, but, it couldn't do any harm to try it!

 

[tmoney7]

RO Unit?

i could buy RO water but i think that would be expensive after a while.
 

blowing air (better still O2) through the water for some time prior to adding new water will help.
though thats dependent on how high your levels are.

So how would one set this up, would i need a CO2 system?
 

This might sound totally mental but why not put a magnet in the tank? One of those magnetic tank cleaners would be perfect.
 
May not work if the Iron is in various salt forms, but, it couldn't do any harm to try it!

People have been saying that but i dont know where i would find one 

ill have to look on the internet!

 

[silenthawk2x3]

I don't think a magnet would help you any. Either an RO unit would work or you could supplement your regular water with RO water when you do water changes. It really depends on when you want to spend money. An RO water unit is an initial investment, yes, but perhaps you should look at how much it would cost to do water changes purchasing the RO or even how much it would be half RO/half spicket and then decide. Some red plants love iron and would do incredibly well in your tank, though I believe that they absorb most of their iron through their roots.

 

[coolie]

I did some searching and it turns out there are several types of iron in water such as red water, organic iron, clear iron water etc and even some bacteria in water with iron. Did you ever have it analysed to see what type you have?

 

[tmoney7]

yea at the moment i am using RO mixed in with my water to try to dilute the amounts of iron in my tank and now all i have to do is go back to my lfs to get it tested again (i hopefully will be able to get my own test so i don't have to keep going back there every time )
 
No i dont know what kind of iron i have in my water.  Is there a way or a test to find out or do i have to do some research and try and figure out what it is.

 

[coolie]

I would have thought that whoever originally put in the softener probably had a lab check the water, that that was the right technique to make the water drinkable? Maybe there were some water stats at that point?

 

[tmoney7]

That's a good point i'll have to check that out, that works out as well because we are very good friends with our water man or whatever you call him