Filters and clues for the clueless

Help? Bought a house. I'm halfway competent at amateur plumbing. Well is 20 years old. Everything was poorly maintained. Hot water smelled of sulfur. Rusty slimy crud in the toilet tanks. I figured iron bacteria and sulfur bacteria but installed a Rusco screen filter a couple months back to start with. Worked halfway OK. Filters fine but has to be cleaned too often. I have a 200 mesh filter screen in there now. Yesterday I shocked the well and ran the water heater up to 140 degrees.

That killed the sulfur smell. Ran 1000 gallons out of the well until chlorine was acceptable. Got a lot of sediment and crud flushed out. Still a bit of the rusty slime but more black sand/grit now. I figure it will settle down in a while. Right now, need to clean the filter like every 10 minutes of running water or the pressure drops too much. The Rusco has a purge valve. The sticky iron bacteria slime won't purge and you have to unscrew the filter and brush it off.

I expect the slime will go away eventually. If I need to shock it again, I can do that. I want a filter that needs minimal fiddling. Had enough trips to the basement at 6AM to clean the filter so my wife can shower. What would be a better filter? Greensand backwash? Bigger mesh on the Rusco? Automatic purge valve for the Rusco? What would work and need a minimum of attention? Bite the bullet and hire a pro? I hate to do that since they seem to know less than I do 80% of the time.

Any suggestions appreciated. There's also a broken Culligan water softener I'd like to get working again. But I can't get parts and will NOT pay them a grand to have some dope come out and lie to me. I'll buy a new one first.

I'd get rid of the spin down, 200 mesh isn't filtering out any thing but large chunks anyway. It is allowing the growth of bacteria, they love to live where the velocity of the water increases, like through screening.

And if you are getting slime out of the well because of shocking it, you need to pump off the well and not through any type filter.

Then you need to kill the IRB. Greensand filters do not kill bacteria. I suggest my inline chlorination system followed by a special carbon filter correctly sized for your peak demand flow rate gpm.

Then buy a new softener and install it yourself. I suggest a correctly sized softener for your peak demand flow rate gpm with using a Clack WS-1 control valve.

Well, I'm not going to chlorinate unless there's a whole lot stronger reason than iron bacteria. It's a nuisance and needs to get filtered but it isn't toxic. I've had wells in different places for 20 years. I ran the well for a couple hours this afternoon through an unfiltered outside spigot. The water is now more clear than it's ever been after the chlorine shock. Still want a good low-maintenance whole-house filter of some sort.

The Culligan softener that's here (accusoft 100) looks cosmetically nice but but won't work. I cleaned the venturi which was clogged with grit. It sucks water out of the brine tank if I put in a gallon with a bucket, but it won't fill the tank by itself. It doesn't bypass while backwashing and puts a lot of salt into the lines. Can't buy parts or get a manual for it so far as I know. If I can't fix it myself, I'll scrap it. It's a shame but I hate manufacturers that won't sell you parts.

Bob I hear ya. When you find the filter will you let me know what it is that will filter IRB?