Help with big iron in well water!

Have a water well that was clean and clear for 8 years, then iron started creeping in during the last 2 years. California drought era - perhaps due to water table [?] at time of drilling, had carefully chlorinated well and entire system to ensure against iron bacteria.

Now have bank of 5- 5 micron WW house filters, plugging in about a month with reddish, very fine, rust looking powder. Still have iron in tubs and toilets.

water test: Iron= 1.52, manganese=.48, PH=7.1, calcium=19

Well feeds 2 rental houses with perhaps 6 or 8 people. Been providing enough water for years with a 1/2 hp pump and smaller pressure tank. But now iron issue is causing complaints with renters. My research shows that the PH is low for effective manganese removal? Seems like a very complex matter to spec the right components and not get fleeced, or have it all die in a year.

Perhaps a very well done well and system chlorination would work? Might be just a iron bacteria issue.....

I don't know what a WW filter is. I would think you need some kind of backwashing filter, and that would take the load off of your filter media that is getting clogged with ferric iron (rust). Pretty much any backwashing filter does that as a bonus. If you had the right media, I am confident that things would get even better. While I am not the person to recommend media, somebody will be able to help you with that.

I use a Centaur Carbon filter for iron and sulfur quite effectively. I don't have the manganese, and my pH is higher than yours. But still, it matched what my well needed.

I know some will recommend chlorination followed by a contact tank and then a backwashing activated carbon filter. That is a time-tested solution. Somebody may have something more compact to suggest. Dittohead has been teasing (as in the sense of a teaser in broadcasting) about some new media that will be announced soon. We will be eager to hear about that.

I say your best bet is to install a chlorination/dechlorination system with a 120 gallon retention tank. A lot of the iron will be oxidized and settle in the retention tank followed by the carbon tank which will remove the rest of the iron.