Experiment I never should have done

[Deb04]

We have a well. I was curious what would happen if I put a little bit of clorox in with my well water and tested it. I was wondering if any CC would show up.

I mixed water and a little clorox and waiting a few minutes. When I put in the powder, I just got black bits, no pink at all. Then I put in the R-0003 and it turned a very gross brown.

I'm guessing either my well water is in very bad shape or I used way way way too much clorox.

Any opinions?

 

[zea3]

Sounds like you may have iron in your well water.

 

[linen]

Or maybe FC concentration above 50 ppm? For example if you were mixing in a 5 gallon bucket, if you put more than 1/2 ounce of bleach, you would be above 50 ppm.

The FAS-DPD test is not accurate above 50 ppm...I don't really even know what it does up there.

 

[frogabog]

Awww... that's kinda like hot dogs... you don't wanna know what's in the water you drink. hehe

Isn't iron good for your blood? Enjoy! lol

 

[Deb04]

Ok, I can live with iron. I was afraid of something really gross.

I'll test again tomorrow mixing tap water in with some pool water. The chlorine probably was really too high.

So, if it is iron, is that a test I can trust the pool store to get right? I usually have the pool store check my water every once in a while because PB insisted on it for warranty. But, I haven't had them do it this summer. They've checked in prior years and copper and iron have always been zero. We've been topping off with well water for the four years we've had the pool, but I can certainly imagine the composition of the water changing as run off from various rivers in the area ebb and flow. Could explain the rust we've been getting in the toilets.

If there is iron in my pool, what do I do about that? Do I need to do anything about it?

Thanks

 

[Deb04]

Oh yeah, and I like hot dogs too.

 

[zea3]

If you ever need to do the shock process and the high chlorine causes the pool to turn brown then you will need to add sequesterant to the water.

 

[linen]

I would think if it was high metals, it might have shown up first in your mixture (not the test mixture). I sometimes test for metals this way.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Rust in your toilets is a sure sign of iron. The bottom line is not to worry about it but to be aware of it if your pool turns brown from shocking. As Zea said.

 

[Swampwoman]

Deb, do you use a softener system? And if so, does same feed your fill line?
If you have an aquarium kit, that's better for testing well water. The iron won't hurt you but you want to watch for nitrates. If you're just fooling around, no worries, but if you have concerns about your well, I'd let the water guy test it

If you do have iron and have any iron staining in your toilet, etc., using a hose filter may help reduce the amount that gets into the pool. My sand filter cleaned up most of the oxidized particulate that came from a bout of super shocking and weekly sequestrate seems to keep the rest at bay.

 

[jule]

Hi Deb,

Was reading your thread here and thought I'd share a similar curious brown color occurance.
I use a plastic 2 cup container along with my test samples.
I pre-rinse my tubes with pool water and if I put too much in a tube for my test samples, all that goes into the measuring cup so there's usually some on the bottom of it when I begin my tests.

I dump my completed tests in there too.

If I only do the FC test and dump that into the container, the water in there turns pink.
But when I do the CC test as well, and dump that test water into the container, the water turns brown.

(First time it happened, I thought the same...What's in my water?)

If I had more clean sample water to that container, the brown color will lighten up, so the ratio of concentration exists.

I've had my pool water tested for iron and metals, as it's well water also.
The results from one pool store tested no iron, .5 copper.
A second test from a different store tested no iron, no copper.

I've decided not to worry about that brown color, as it wasn't really a test for anything.
Unless of course someone reads this and says I should be after all.