After enough research and talking with a few different companies, this is what I have found out.
Water Softener - this is good for removing Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, etc out of the water. It mainly used for getting a small degree of minerals out of the water. Using it primarily for high iron removal will decrease the life of the softener.
Chlorination - this will technically work for iron. You can get a pellet dispenser directly on the well. This would also help for bacteria. However, it would increase the arsenic levels which we are bordering high already. Its also not the greatest to be drinking chlorine.
Ozone Iron Filter - the benefit from what I researched with this is that the ozone will kill off bacteria. The maintenance can be somewhat costly from what I hear. Its once a year but costs 100 to 200.
Air Iron Filter - this is what we ended up going with. Maintenance is going to be around 20 for a new part each year, otherwise don't have to do much with it. Its going to cost about 1700 to 2100 which is close to the same price for ozone filter.
The average life of each system seems to be about the same, 10 - 15 - 20 years depending on the amount of iron or other minerals its filtering.
Update - we purchased an air iron filter because we had very high iron content. The water softener didn't remove enough of the iron. The new iron filter works very well, can't smell the iron anymore and the faucets don't get red. It does cycle through water quite frequently (2 to 3 days) and is pretty loud when it does. Overall though, it works well.
First, wait for a foul-smelling day and obtain samples from before your filter, and from hot and cold faucets. Send them to a testing facility that YOU choose.
Well-established bacteria can easily survive a chlorination treatment, as it will only kill the bacteria on the surface layer.
It might be your city's water. It happens from time to time in my city - just means I can't drink faucet water that day.
If it's in your system, you may need a shock chlorination or acid treatment, or possibly to replace some pipes.
To me, it sounds as though you have well-established sulfur bacteria in your house's pipes.
I would probably spend $20 on bleach before a treatment, just in case. Take out your filters, and using the filter assembly or well cap (if you're in the country), just systematically introduce a couple bottles. Run faucets individually until the bleach mix is coming through all of them. Shut them off, wait 15, run them all for 15, shut them off. Then wait an hour and repeat the process. Then do it again. Bang on the pipes to shake things up inside - Iron/Sulfur bacteria is literally a sludge layer on the pipes and banging on them is a tried and true method.
In rural WI, where I grew up, when farmers get a foul-smelling hint in their water they pop off the well cap and dump a bottle of bleach down. It's not technically chlorination, but it's cheap and it works.
If the bacteria is in your system and the DIY doesn't work (or you don't feel comfortable doing it), find a good plumber and tell him the situation, including the part about standard chlorination not working. Pipe replacement, shock chlorination, or acid treatment will be the next step.
Good luck.
Best Answer
It depends on how much you want to spend, how old your water heater is and what kind of water you have. The aluminum rods are usually the cheapest followed by magnesium. The combination rods I don't have much faith in as the least noble metal is eaten away first. powered rods that will last a lifetime are very expensive due to the platinum wire used. Your water is high in mineral content the Iron and possibly sulfur (rotten egg smell) so Magnesium would be the most cost effective. (with Low mineral content Aluminum would be the way I would go). I did have a P wire system on a metal boat instead of anodes it worked well and I no longer had to change out several a year but a water heater I think P wire systems are overkill on a home system. Make sure to turn off the water heater and flush it when installing the new anode this may help reduce the smell. Water heaters tend to last for ~10 years some 15+ so if you are at the upper end of the life scale you may want to go with the cheaper anode. Once the damage is done there is no way to reverse it.