It's a deep subject.
We've been here 4.5 years and have put up with the brown/red staining in the toilets and tubs and the occasional water cough of brown water. We have a good bit of iron in the water. Well, I decided to start filtering it with one of the 4x10" 5 micron filters. It worked great, but plugged up in 2 days. So I tried a spin-down filter and that would plug up quickly and need flushed a couple times a day and cleaned every couple of days. Not good. I took that out then, and a couple days later, my well pump died (unrelated, probably). Not knowing how deep it was or what style pipe I had in there, I called up a well company for an emergency visit. He showed up with a couple kids and pulled my 160' well with black poly pipe in about 2 minutes, after checking to make sure my pressure switch and power wires were in good shape. The pump was "ironed up" as he called it, or better described as full of orange colored sludge that was impeding the impellers from pumping. He had the right replacement Goulds pump on the truck and had water flowing again in about 15 minutes. He hung the pitless adapter off of the edge of the well casing and let it flow for a while. The brown sludge that pushed out of my pipe was amazing.
All of the loose crud that got stirred up is still trying to clear itself out of my pipes right now. The well guy suggested getting my water tested and then selecting an AirCat filter that back flushes itself and uses no chemicals or salt and has no maintenance for 5 years. I will likely go that route. He also pointed out that at some point, someone spliced my horizontal underground line with 3/4" pipe instead of the 1" and it was restricting my flow. So I will dig that line up, find the splice, and replace it with 1" using the stainless steel barb he left with me for that purpose. I think I'm going to replace my 22 gallon pressure tank with a 86 gallon pressure tank, too. It will make the new pump run less often and run longer when it does, so maybe it will last longer than 15 years.
I'm also thinking about buying a replacement pump and storing it in the house. I have the model number (7G07) and I can easily weld up the roller tool they clamped onto my well casing to help pull the pump. Next replacement I can do myself and not have to wait all day on the well guy. In fact, he suggested I could do the next one myself. I did it at my last house with a 55' deep well, but I didn't want to attempt this one because I thought it was almost 300' deep. It turns out it's half as deep as I thought and well within my means of pulling myself.
New well pump + the emergency call was about $1300. Even if I have the worst iron problem ever in my water, the biggest filter system is only $2200. New pressure tank and stainless tee is about $900. It hurts, but it will be worth it in the long run. Last month, I had the privilege of buying a new central AC unit and new transmission for the Suburban, too.