Well Water

[thaiblue12]

My outside spigot broke and my sister's boyfriend whom I gave money for the parts to and was suppose to fix it 2 weeks ago has still to show!
Anyway I am forced to use the well's spigot and I am sure that it comes straight out of the ground and does not go through the filtration system. Teh well is 450 deep and the water comes out clear for that small amount. I know when we fill the pool it starts to get cloudy.
My goats have free choice minerals and I notice since I got the Nigies a few months ago they are more colorful and look better than when I first got them. But on three this morning I notice a bit of fish tails. I am wondering if this is from the well water. I use plastic buckets that are rinsed daily, washed weekly with soap and they get fresh water each day.
I do know my water contained too much of something ( I forget what) that made the water smell maybe like sulfer or iron. It is hard to remember since we got a second whole house filter of charcoal that first year.
Is this water affecting them? Is it canceling out the minerals?

[southerngurl]

Iron can tie up the minerals. I've tasted high iron water before, it tastes like blood yech! Sulpher water smells like boiled eggs.

[fishhead]

High iron and sulfur smell are related. You mentioned the water got cloudy. That can be an indication of high dissolved iron. Does anything get a red ring around the water level mark?

If you aerate the water and then let it settle for a day or 2 the dissolved iron should oxidize and settle out as rust.

I've read that iron interfers with copper uptake so that might be the cause of the fish tail.

[thaiblue12]

I do get an orange marks in places even with the 2 whole house filters. But when I used filtered water from the outside spigot I had no fish tails or any issues.
How do you aerate water? I want to try that till I get the thing fixed.
Thanks

[sgian]

The sulfer smell can be caused by bacteria that feeds on iron, or so I was told by the well guy who came to pull my pump (it was submerged 480 feet down when the water level of the ground was only a couple of feet so I was breaking stuff when I tried to pull it myself). He poured some bleach in the well, told me to let it sit overnight, and then run the water for at least an hour in the morning. That got rid of the sulfur smell for my well water.

[Helena]

At this point I probably would pull out my old "fix it" books and fix the pipe myself. I hate to depend on people to do things for me..waiting. Good Luck !!

[manygoatsnmore]

Yes, iron water ties up the copper so it is unavailable to the goats. They will need extra copper supplementation. Bolus them with copper.