What type of iron?

[mrtmills]

Hello,

I have a 1 year old well, 350' deep. Everyone around here has iron problems of one form or another. When I shock the well with chlorine tablets the water clears up and tastes fine for about 3 weeks. At this point the iron slowly comes back as indicated by color and taste. It is clear water iron, which after 30 min turns orange. After the iron precipitates out only a fraction falls to the bottom and the rest just stays suspended in the water indefinitely. After the iron precipitates, the water tastes good again and that is what I have been doing for drinking water. My white plates have black stains too so I assume there is manganese as well. As time goes on the iron gets worse and worse and starts to smell a little. If I had iron bacteria, should the shocking not clear it up for more than 2 weeks? I am just afraid if I call a treatment guy in he is just going to throw an iron filter in and call it a day while my well potentially clogs up with slime.
thanks a lot

[pawaterguy]

Firstly, I'd recommend to get your water tested so you know what you're dealing with. You can't treat water without knowing what you're treating. When you get results post them and we can evaluate them and give some suggestions in an effort to help you out.

[mrtmills]

Thanks. I am going to figure out a place tomorrow and get those numbers as soon as possible.

[mrtmills]

As I notice the iron content and smell of the water get worse and worse, I cannot help but feel that an analysis of the iron will more likely read my current iron bacteria problem than anything else. The water treatment people I spoke to said that they don't believe in treating wells, rather they prefer to treat the water coming in. Is there a test which can be performed which will once and for all identify if this is a bacterial problem? If it is not a bacteria problem I could understand getting the analysis done, but as for now there has not been a day where the water constantly exhibits a certain taste or smell, it is always slowly getting worse until I shock again. I don't want to waste my money analyzing something that is going to be different in a few weeks, does this make sense?
thanks agian