Any Pool guys here?

[oldmountvernon]

ok so i filled this pool with well water. Sweet looked great! Added pool shock BOOM instant brown lol .
So the shock brought out the Iron i presume, now what?

 

[fishingpol]

Go to a pool store and get a liquid metal remover. It binds the iron up into bigger particles and can be removed. Works for copper from pool heaters. Shock most likely oxidized the iron.

 

[343amc]

+1 on the metal remover. I have the same problem when refilling the hot tub. Just looked to see if I had a bottle of it so I could give you a name, but I'm out. You can get it at any pool supply store. A little bit goes a long way.

Then again, I could probably cast engine blocks with my well water if I put enough time into it.

Prepare to clean/backwash your filter a bit more frequently for the first few days.

 

[oldmountvernon]

thanks guys. so im reading and i see the metal remover dont actually take the metal out it just puts it back in a suspended state i guess you would say. So every time you over shock the pool this happens? correct me if i am wrong.
found this video of a guy using pillow stuffing removing the iron...

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

warning mute unless you like dubstep

 

[oldmountvernon]

oh and i suppose if i would of let the water run thru my water softener i wouldnt be having this problem.

but me being a brainiac i said oh if i bypass the softener i will get more water flow and fill faster :banghead:

 

[fishingpol]

The metal remover will bind the iron together into particles that can be removed by the filter. As long as you are not adding a lot of water, it should stay clear.

 

[343amc]

Once you get the metal precipitated out you'll be fine unless you drain and refill the pool. Even top offs with the well water won't cause a huge problem.

I had one of those soft side temporary pools for the kid a few years back and it took 3 days and about 10 filter cleanings before the water cleared out. After that it was fine for the rest of the season.

I used a thing called a 'Pre Fresh tap water fill' filter to fill my hot tub last time. Screws to the end of the garden hose and knocks a lot of the iron and calcium out. Slows the flow down a lot however. It says its good for 8000 gallons, which means about 1500 for me.

 

[oldmountvernon]

ya i saw the trap (broken link removed) man why did i have to bypass the water softener!

 

[343amc]

Man those are pricey. I use one of these for $20.

(broken link removed to http://www.spadepot.com/shop/Pre-Fresh-Spa-Pool-Water-Fill-Filter-P784C632.aspx)

•edit• I see the filter in the link you posted is good for 50000 gallons. That explains the price difference.

Not sure about how true this is but I've heard that softened water is bad for hot tub shells and pool liners. You may have done the best thing even though you have a pool that looks a bit nasty at the moment.

 

[DexterDay]

I bought a salt water system this year and have done NOTHNG in 6 weeks, I don't have hard water, but they say you can use the water softener tablets instead of pool salt if needed. A couple hundo gets a decent system able to handle 15,000 gal pools.

Chemicals are a thing of the past. Get in the salt water band wagon. Better for your skin and cheaper overall (year over year) than reg chemicals.

 

[festerw]

Nothing to do but add the sequestring agent and let the filter run 24/7 and vacuum up any settling on the bottom. For your sake I hope you don't have one of the Intex pools with the cartridge filter as it will make the process longer and frustrating. (broken link removed to http://www.troublefreepool.com/index.html) is a great forum for anything pool related also.

I bought a salt water system this year and have done NOTHNG in 6 weeks, I don't have hard water, but they say you can use the water softener tablets instead of pool salt if needed. A couple hundo gets a decent system able to handle 15,000 gal pools.

Chemicals are a thing of the past. Get in the salt water band wagon. Better for your skin and cheaper overall (year over year) than reg chemicals.

I hope by 'nothing' you mean that you are at least checking the water at least a couple times a week, chlorine generators are a great addition and I have one myself but they don't take away all pool maintenance concerns. If you need to add salt the pool salt or Morton Solar Salt (blue bag) is acceptable, the Morton System Saver (yellow bag) has added chemicals in it that you likely don't want in a pool.

You will need to periodically add muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate to lower the PH as it will raise as a byproduct of the chlorine generation.

 

[oldmountvernon]

That link i posted about the pillow stuffing, really worked to get the iron out. i also added the metal remover. i used the vacum and sucked it all up from the bottom and ran the return thru the pillow stuffing and it filtered all the iron that was sitting at the bottom. Thanks for the help guys

 

[Highbeam]

You will need to periodically add muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate to lower the PH as it will raise as a byproduct of the chlorine generation.

We use sodium carbonate to lower the pH. Regular pool stuff. Don't folks use that anymore?

Iron from well water. Yes, we get that. Metal remover and regular filtering make it go away for us.

 

['bert]

another vote for TFP here - by far the best pool forum out there. I would suggest that anyone that suggested the OP go to a pool store spend a bit of time on the troublefreepool.com site.

 

[festerw]

We use sodium carbonate to lower the pH. Regular pool stuff. Don't folks use that anymore?

Iron from well water. Yes, we get that. Metal remover and regular filtering make it go away for us.

Sodium carbonate should actually raise PH, though it is weak and wouldn't surprise me if given other variables could lead to lowering it.

I use muriatic acid at home because it's cheap by the gallon. The big pool (300k gallons) gets CO2 to lower PH that gets expensive usually an average of 6 300cf cylinders a month and 60 gallons of chlorine.

 

[Highbeam]

Sodium carbonate should actually raise PH, though it is weak and wouldn't surprise me if given other variables could lead to lowering it.

I use muriatic acid at home because it's cheap by the gallon. The big pool (300k gallons) gets CO2 to lower PH that gets expensive usually an average of 6 300cf cylinders a month and 60 gallons of chlorine.

I'm a hot tubber now but ran pools when I was a kid and through college. Since switching to hot tubs I find it very easy to maintain the levels since pH always goes down over time and of course the chlorine goes away. I just find it odd that you all are lowering pH. We used auto feed sodium hydroxide to raise pH in the big pools plus gas chlorine. Seems that we never had an issue with pH being too high.

It seems odd to see pH too high. Is this a result of the salt system?

 

[festerw]

I'm a hot tubber now but ran pools when I was a kid and through college. Since switching to hot tubs I find it very easy to maintain the levels since pH always goes down over time and of course the chlorine goes away. I just find it odd that you all are lowering pH. We used auto feed sodium hydroxide to raise pH in the big pools plus gas chlorine. Seems that we never had an issue with pH being too high.

It seems odd to see pH too high. Is this a result of the salt system?

Chlorine gas, bromine and trichlor cause PH to lower as it added where as sodium hypo, cal hypo and lithium hypo all cause a PH rise. Dichlor is the only one I can think of that is PH neutral.

Chrlorine generators basically turn salt water into sodium hypo therefore a PH increase.

 

[Highbeam]

Thanks fester, great info. I am now into drinking water supply and we are going to install our first onsite chlorine generator. These systems use a brine tank to create salt water and then electrolysis to split off the chlorine which is then stored in liquid form (hypo) before being injected into the drinking water stream.

Being into pools as a kid is what got me into engineering. Same stuff but even bigger.

We use dichlor in the hot tub so the drop in pH must be from the organic loading.

 

['bert]

I'm a hot tubber now but ran pools when I was a kid and through college. Since switching to hot tubs I find it very easy to maintain the levels since pH always goes down over time and of course the chlorine goes away. I just find it odd that you all are lowering pH. We used auto feed sodium hydroxide to raise pH in the big pools plus gas chlorine. Seems that we never had an issue with pH being too high.

It seems odd to see pH too high. Is this a result of the salt system?

Highbeam - in my case the high pH is a result of using well water to fill the pool. Anyone here that hauls town water to fill their pool has low pH. Might be a touch of soda in the ground water.