New Pool filling with Well water - comments appreciated

[hdude]

Did basic test of my well water.
PH 8 (confirmed by using supplemental Acid Demand - each drop lowered PH .2)
TA 130 ppm
CH 40

Based on what Pool Math and what I've learned ... My plan is to fill pool and
Day 1 - start with a Dichloride shock (15oz for 5300 gals) in part to introduce CYA up to 30 ppm and FC to 12.
( I have some non-chlorine oxidizer that I've decided not to use)
Day 2 - Test FC / CYA / PH. If needed use Muratic acid/Baking Soda to adjust PH to 7.2
Again Test FC until it drops down to 4 or 5 and only add liquid chlorine (as needed) there after.
Day 3 - Test FC / CYA / PH. Adjust PH - Plan on adding upto 10lbs of Borax (to 30ppm) and possibly acid to maintain PH towards 7.5
Again Test FC - add liquid chlorine as needed.
Day 4 - Happy Days ?

As I am on well water: I have some Metal Control (EDTA) and Clarifier (cationic polymer) to use as needed if it appear

 

[DarrelB]

I use well water and it has suspended iron in it. Sand filter only takes 2 days until crystal clear, best thing I ever bought for the pool. Get your TA and PH balanced first, then do your chlorine and stabilizer.

 

[jwoodyu]

I have an Ultra 18' and i am on a well. I would manually regenerate the water softener the night before you fill. Fill it partially the next day, regenerate again and fill it the rest of the way. Based on my CH I regenerate my softener every 10K gallons so i fill my pool in two batches your millage may very based on your well.

@DarrelB I have a good well but it is pretty hard with both types of iron, a little sulfate and a little copper. When it came time to replace my softener i geeked out learning about it, built my own system from a couple of suppliers. In the end I put a Katalox Light filter inline before my water softner and it is doing a killer job. I backwash the Katalox once a week with a diluted bleach solution for sanitation and brine backwash the softner every 10K. You might want to read up on Katalox light depending on your iron.

 

[DarrelB]

My system works just fine, water tests and tastes great. Was all set up by company that specializes in well water and water testing.
Thanks anyways.
I do not pull my pool water through the softener, I have a bypass for the outside tap.

 

[philc]

I am on a well also, and the outside faucets bypass the water softener. Lots of iron here too, it scared the he** the first time I added chlorine to the water, it went from clear to rusty over night as the iron reacted with the chlorine. As DarrelB said above, a sand filter will clear it in a day or so.

 

[jwoodyu]

Sorry guys the iron filter was a side note not intended to offend or confuse and not specifically germane to the OP. My "roll your own" system kicks our previous name brand, pro installed and maintained green sand filter and softener combo to curb for way less money. I got off topic and I am sorry.

Iron in the pool is not a problem. However, if the OP has a softener on the well, as so many do, and the pretest was done after the softener it can be misleading if the bibs bypass the softener. You can raise the CH if it is to low but if your CH is too high you will live with scale or drain down and find a water source with less CH.

 

[atswag]

How does your well water bypass the softener? Wouldn't it overload your pump as well? The water company that services my well system expressly stated no way should I use the hose longer than 15-20 minutes straight at any one time. Over days, using the pump in the manner could seriously damage the overall system. This would be nice to have and save me $250 per fill up on my AGP.

 

[Isaac-1]

There are many different ways to set up a well, this partly depends on the geology of where you live. One of the issues is the recovery rate of the well, if the well recovery rate is slower than the well pump can sustain you can run into issues like mentioned above with limited allowed run time. Then of course there is the style of well equipment, down well submersible pumps are very popular in many / most areas and have been for decades, in addition to this there are also jet pumps which look a bit like pool pumps and can be used directly in shallow wells (less than 25 feet) or used with a special foot valve for deeper wells down to about 100 feet, these work by injecting water down one pipe and using it to bring even more water back up. Then there are air lift pumps which work similarly to deep jet pumps, but instead use an air compressor and the water is lifted by the expanding air bubbles as they rise up the pipe. This last one is the type I have, and is very popular in my area for deeper wells as the fine sands we have are prone to silting up submersible and deep jet pumps.

One of the down sides to an air lift pump like mine is the requirement for a holding tank and a separate pressurizer pump since the air lift pump introduces massive amounts of air into the water and does not provide a steady flow, instead is surges, much like buckets full of water coming out the pipe every couple of seconds, in my case this averages to about 15 gpm, I know this because my multi stage pressurizer pump is rated at a little over 12 GPM max flow and the recovery rate on the main holding tank from the well is slightly faster than the max flow rate on the pressurizer pump, I designed it that way when retrofitting stuff a few years ago so that a leak or a faucet left on could not drain the 1,000 gallon holding tank faster than the well pump could refill it.

Ike

p.s. no need for water softener here, CH is around 50 on the well water, no metals either, but pH is a bit low averaging around 6.8 (both numbers have some seasonal variation)

 

[Michcakes]

I'm on well water too. I filled an intex ultra frame twice and then our new 24' round last year off our well. We have high iron, and it was NOT fun trying to filter the iron out on an intex cartridge filter! Lots of ruined towels and it took 2 weeks. The next year we got a sand filter and it was clear in 2 days. We have a large cartridge filter on the current pool and it filters out just as good if not better than the intex sand filter. I just have to rinse the cartridge more often at first. After opening this year and dumping chlorine in and filling it back up off the well, we didn't get any iron that we noticed.

Most of the time all my pools have required is chlorine or regular bleach. Sometimes muriatic acid to lower my ph.

 

[jasnovanorder]

I'm on well water too. I filled an intex ultra frame twice and then our new 24' round last year off our well. We have high iron, and it was NOT fun trying to filter the iron out on an intex cartridge filter! Lots of ruined towels and it took 2 weeks. The next year we got a sand filter and it was clear in 2 days. We have a large cartridge filter on the current pool and it filters out just as good if not better than the intex sand filter. I just have to rinse the cartridge more often at first. After opening this year and dumping chlorine in and filling it back up off the well, we didn't get any iron that we noticed.

Most of the time all my pools have required is chlorine or regular bleach. Sometimes muriatic acid to lower my ph.

Same issue here with the cartridge filters and iron. I can have a brand new filter turn dark brown in 2 days. Plan on switching to a sand filter before the end of summer

 

[philc]

With my old intex cartridge filter I had to do the 3 gallon bucket filled with polyester fiberfill trick to filter out the iron. The sand filter does it much better. My house plumbing, to the outside faucets and the sprinkler system, comes off right after the pressure tank, but before the water softener. We are fortunate here, a shallow well and a fast recovery rate allow me to fill the pool from both outside faucets in about 6 hours. By running two faucets the pump does not cycle but runs continuously, which is supposed to save on well pump wear and tear.

 

[DarrelB]

When I used cartridges, I washed them out daily until the rust was finally gone, then just every couple weeks after that. Lasted me entire summer.

Same issue here with the cartridge filters and iron. I can have a brand new filter turn dark brown in 2 days. Plan on switching to a sand filter before the end of summer

- - - Updated - - -

Never heard of pump getting damaged bypassing the softener. I have been doing it for 22 years with no issues, and with the same pump!
My setup has the well pump inside the house, with a T on the outlet to the softener. The other side of the t goes to the outside tap. So the water I draw outside is 100% well water. All house water is through the softener.

How does your well water bypass the softener? Wouldn't it overload your pump as well? The water company that services my well system expressly stated no way should I use the hose longer than 15-20 minutes straight at any one time. Over days, using the pump in the manner could seriously damage the overall system. This would be nice to have and save me $250 per fill up on my AGP.

 

[duraleigh]

Sorry guys the iron filter was a side note not intended to offend or confuse and not specifically germane to the OP. My "roll your own" system kicks our previous name brand, pro installed and maintained green sand filter and softener combo to curb for way less money. I got off topic and I am sorry.

Actually, I thought the conversation veered a little bit but not really off topic and a TOTALLY important thing for people to talk about.

Iron in your fill water is a major problem. It is almost always from a well and that frequently is the only source water. Most of the posters above me have this figured out but that color shift from crystal clear to Brown or Green can be a huge nightmare for newish pool owners.

 

[mommao]

Last year I filled from the well (16x48 seasonal) through the softener, water turned brown after chlorinating, came clear after a few days pulling the water through polyfill-stuffed socks in the basket. This weekend, I'm filling pre-softener for season 2- we shall see what difference it makes. The biggest faults of our drinking water are sulfur and iron- the first should dissipate, the second I expect to filter out either way.