iron in water

[dwint]

I have a 75 gallon and moved to a place with bad well water.I change my water ten percent every two weeks like I have for 8 years.I have to clean the glass and decorations every time due to this iron.Besides a ro system is there a filter I can use to remove it?I have a emporer 400 and I use the blue filters.I did use green filters years ago to remove copper,would they work?

 

[Goldguru]

If it is disolved iron in the water supply I would locate some diatomaceous earth. NON CALCIFIED, FOOD GRADE.
this product is used in sewage treatment plants to remove Gram positive Ion's from the water column.(treatment plants dont bother with food grade)
why it works.
the DE is Gram- so it has a natural attraction to Gram+,they come together & become neutral,growing in particle size to allow filter capture/settling.

this is NOT safe for Shrimp tanks...DE is most commonly know as pet flea powder, it works there by scratching the membrane on insect joints causing a crack which dries them out to kill.

recently I had neglected to scrub the brown diatom's off my glass etc waiting for the new tank syn,to pass.
then I aquired a Vortex XL diatom filter and was experimenting with it.filter bag was torn so was unable to test in tank @ this point.

reading up on its functions it is capable of removing disolved FE+ & FE++ from the water column.

My tank @ this point I was almost Unable to see thru the glass anibus leaves almost completly covered..

So I took 1/2 teaspoon (~4 grams/38 gal) of the powder I had gotten for the filter Food Grade DE,
and added it into my penguin 200 thru the filter top.(Major white out in tank)
24hrs later there was a noticable reduction in the growth on the glass,etc.(about 8 hrs to when the powder cleared)
36 hrs after 1st dose I did it again & in 3 days after glass,plants, decor were spotless.
reaching in & feeling glass it was totaly clean,no Biofilm,I thought Chit I just killed all my BB base,however testing daily for a week after showed that wasnt the case .

product i used.

Red Lake Diatomaceous Earth Canada

Red Lake Earth has an optimal cationic exchange capacity range of between 38-42 me/100 g.

Has been about 3 weeks since,I did a 50% WC 10 days ago & no signs of regrowth.

I had also tried a Polyfilter ( POLY-BIO-MARINE, Inc. ) which also is supposed to remove Gram+ from the water column,I was after removing Cu++ from my tank due to having copperslag substrate.I would have gone broke using those.It did turn green however it mostly was black.

Calcified DE (pool filter sand) is a different Product due to the heat treatment It reforms the slicates Back into crystaline Silica..not good for humans or other living things.

read the MSDS sheets of the products to find out it its heat treated or not.
RLE is 65% silica (as diatom exoskeletons)& 35% calcium Montmorillonite. (Clay).

MORE is not better start slow & allow time to work,my dose was effective however did I dose to much? dunno.next time i will start with 1/4 Tsp/38G ,2 Grams) & wait a week before 2nd dose,possibly why there has not been any return due to some DE still present even after the 50% WC.