Iron in well water

[rhouse77]

I have a 1000 gallon intex soft side pool, with the 500 gph pump it comes with.

i have 2 water sources
1) city water, no problems except about $12/1000 gallons
2) well water, seems to have iron.

I fixed my well water source that i use for outdoor activities and refilled the pool.
After shocking, I got a brownish cloudiness in the pool.
Years ago I had a hot tub and I think I decided then it was easier to use the city water than deal with the iron.

I've read several threads here as well as site that advise using towels and socks to filter the iron out of the water.
I am quite tempted to try that method, has it worked for members here?

I went to Jack's Magic website, but got confused since there are so many different solutions there.
What is the difference between a flocculant and a sequestrant?

 

[Leebo]

With the price of city water, I'd go that route. Much easier to deal with.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol:

A flocculant clumps smaller particles together so they can be filtered out....it won't work on iron.

A sequestrant keeps iron molecules in the soluble form so they don't precipitate out into visible particles. It musty be constantly replenished.

Do yourself a HUGE favor...dump the water, rinse the pool and use city water from here on out....you'll never look back.

 

[topher]

shock it turn pump off and it'l settle to the ground in a day or so.. and then vacuum it up.. I have well only water.. and it is VERY high iron.. I have been battleing for a few weeks now. and I added some floc clear in the morning went to work and pool was crystal clear with the rust all sitting on the floor vacummed it up and pool is now a little cloudy but not orange.. or brown. so lets see how it is today when I get back.

 

[XsAllOverIt]

For $12, I would certainly use the city water to avoid any unnecessary work in the future.

 

[rhouse77]

topher, vacuum it with a shop vac or something? The little pool vac I have just has a net bag, certain it will not hold any iron particles.

(really do not want to refill this blasted pool again, but am not rejecting the "use city water" advice, just exploring)

 

[topher]

your probably right.. I just vacummed it to waste and when I filled it up again I took a PVC pip connected to my hose and jammed old socks in there.. they came out orange and the water was clear (in a cup) while filling.
If I had the option of paying $12 for water I would go that route. I cant afford a truck to bring water or would of ordered water myself.

 

[rhouse77]

Yes, I put a sock over the "in" water from the filter and it was orange very quickly!
Not sure what I am going to do. Trying to teach the kids to use the well water outside.... draining the pool again will make me crazy, but it might happen!
The neighbors seem to think it is just rust in the system rather than iron in the water, but I am not sure I buy that. It didn't appear until I shocked the new water.

 

[JulieS]

I have a well with A LOT of iron, and when I filled my pool it was a funny color... I added HTH metal control, and cleaned/changed my filter every few hours for the first couple days, then shocked the pool. Then I took a sample to the local hardware and had it tested (their test checks for metals and mine doesn't). The test showed that I had no metals in my pool. I still clean my filter daily and it is rusty looking, but my water is crystal clear and my only trouble is moderately high TA.