When Richard and Peggy Marley moved to a farm outside of Mahomet, Ill., their new place had an excellent well but the water had a strong sulfur odor.

Richard works as assistant city engineer in Champaign, Ill., so he knew that cities use aeration to remove odors from water. So he figured he could find a way to do it, too.

He decided to try to do it with an aquarium pump and stone. What he did was to putt in a tank that mimics an aquarium. Once water has been "treated", it's pulled from there into the household pressure system.

He set up a 65-gal. plastic tank of the type you can buy at most farm supply stores. To maintain the necessary water level in the tank, Richard rigged up a flush box water valve and float. At the lower end is there's a compression fitting to allow it to go through the wall of the tank. Just inside the tank, he installed a brass elbow. Then, he put a special fitting with a WC thread into the elbow. After that was in place, he installed a conventional flush box control. Marley also fitted the tank with an overflow outlet to prevent damage if the float valve should ever fail.

"Any plumber can help rig up these fittings," he notes.

To supply the needed aeration, he installed a standard aquarium stone in the bottom of the tank and fed in air from an air pump just outside the tank. He wired the air pump to the pump switch so it turns on when the house pump runs.

Marley also added an in-line carbon filter to the water line. He says once he got the system going, the odor completely disappeared.