Virgin pool owner, new Doughboy to be installed soon

[BrandonD]

Hi everyone. My wife and I just purchased an 18x34 oval Doughboy to be installed within a couple weeks. The supplier I went with is a distributor for the PristineBlue products, and I'm glad I found this forum and researched that topic as I told them to keep their chemicals and credit me instead. However, now I'm stuck with having a 18,000 gallon pool installed and I've never maintained a pool before.

My first major concern is filling this beast. I have a private well and boy does the water suck. Raw water from it is quite visibly discolored (I believe iron) and smells a bit (I believe sulfur). I do have a nice softener and filter system installed, but even after that the water is still slightly discolored, although the smell is gone. My two main concerns here are, I want a crystal clear pool like everyone else, and I don't want to burn up my well pump. I contacted my well guy, and he recommended I fill the pool while periodically shutting off the water, and if I leave it running over night to just have the spigot on partially so the pump can cycle. He also recommended I put my filter system in bypass, so that I'm putting raw water into the pool.

From what I've read on a few threads here, the general process is to fill the pool and then address the iron content before trying to balance the water. Any recommendations here? I've also seen where people have attached a sock or paper towels around the hose end to help catch some of the iron.

I've read up a bit in the Pool School, are the recommended testers listed on this page still relevant? Any particular recommendation of those?

Thanks.

 

[jcowart]

Welcome to the forum. You found the right spot to really learn about what YOUR pool needs. The first step is get a good test kit. The TF-100 is the best bang for the buck. The K-2006 has the same testing chemicals but in smaller bottles. Go on and get one and you can get an idea of what your fill water is like minus the CYA. The iron test kit is pricey so you might want to get a sample tested maybe at a pool store. Just to get an idea and also if they even test for iron. I do not have to deal with iron so I can't help whit that. Just read, read, read pool school. Take it in small chunks and you will see that it really is not hard to keep a trouble free pool.

 

[Charlie_R]

Have you considered having trucked in? It would be highly likely that the water would come from a municipal supply, so would be in better shape initially. Check your local area for someone that could/would do this, and what it would cost over what it would be for the electricity to fill from your well. Figure in also the time/chemicals it would take for you to clean up your well water.

 

[BrandonD]

Thanks guys. I purchased the TF-100 kit.

I have considered having it trucked in. I'm in FL so the pool will most likely stay filled year round, but I would still have to top it off with well water. I have searched and searched through Google, local pool companies, called the Fire Dept, water utilities, etc. etc. and have been unable to find anyone. I have a quote request out to a company based about 100 miles from here, but I don't have hopes. On their website they state it starts at $250 per 6,000 gallon load. So I'm looking at $750 right off the bat, and I'm sure it's more as I'm at the very end of their service area range, if not outside of it.

I've since read up on using a DIY filter between the hose and the pool. I've seen the "slime bag" and a DIY substitute, and I've seen where someone filled a container with pillow stuffing, poked holes on one side and connected the hose to the other. It might be worth doing something like that and then evaluating whether I need sequestrants.

[edit] Just got a call back from the company, $475 per 6,000 gallon load, so looking at around $1500 for that option.

 

[Charlie_R]

Have you been able to test your water yet?

Quite often, water that is high in iron, is also high in CH.

There is a method to reduce the CH, and I'd bet the iron and sulfur would be reduced with it.

You will have to google it, but from what I can remember of it, it involves adding something to the water, then waiting a couple of days for the calcium to precipitate out.

If you find how it's done, think about doing a batch a day in a couple of cheap plastic wading pools like Walmart sells tons of every summer. It might take a couple of weeks to fill you pool, but you wouldn't be risking staining etc on a brand new install.

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome Brandon!

If you have Iron, I would do everything possible to locate a source without it. It seems like you may have a whole lot and you may be in for true misery with that much in your fill water.

I would suggest a TF-100 kit, because it is the best value on the market and it uses the same excellent reagents from Taylor.

 

[BrandonD]

I have been unable to test my water yet. My TF-100 kit comes in tomorrow. I can test tomorrow evening and post the results.

I decided to check out the water yesterday. It had been a while since I saw the raw, unfiltered well water. I think I might have over estimated the problem. There's definitely a tiny bit of discoloration to the water, but not nearly as much as I thought. The filtered, softened water is actually about the same color. There is a faint rotten egg smell to the unfiltered water, but from what I understand that will go away with balancing the chlorine level?

 

[Patrick_B]

Yea the smell will go away, but I'm still concerned with possible Iron. Do you see staining of things in the house like toilets, sinks, or tubs?

 

[BrandonD]

I do see staining, mostly just in our toilets until we replaced one. Cleaning the one keeps it from staining, but the other seems to be permanently stained.

I haven't given up hope on finding an alternative source. It looks like my only option after many, many phone calls is $1500. One possible option that my wife pointed out, I believe the house behind us have county water and aren't on a well. She suggested we ask if we could pay their water bill that month and fill running a long hose to their place. We've never met the people, not sure I want to play that game.

I've seen a few ways to handle this.

1. Shock the heck out of the pool, to where the iron precipitates out and falls to the bottom. Use vacuum to suck up particles.
2. Use a pre-filter on the fill hose to pull the iron out. Something like the slime bag.
3. Deal with the iron by constantly adding sequestrants regularly.

I'd rather not have option 3, or if the iron content in my water is so low that, combined with a filter on the fill line, I can add very little sequestrant then that would be doable.

Would I get more responses regarding the iron issue if I posted in the testing and balancing forum? Maybe I'll post my results there tonight. I'll see about getting my water treatment guy out and have him perform an iron test so we can see exactly what I'm dealing with. Should I ask for him to perform any other tests that my TF-100 kit can't do that might be needed?

 

[Vette]

Don't shock the heck out of it. That's terrible for the liner, will add nasty chemicals to the water (unless you "shock" using bleach), and I'm not sure if that actually works on Iron. I'm not very knowledgeable on the topic of iron in water since I'm on city water and haven't had to deal with it, but my advice would be to try to source water from something that doesn't have it. There are places that will deliver a truckload of water. Would save some stress on your well too.

BTW, welcome to TFP

 

[BrandonD]

Thanks for the welcome. Seems like an incredible resource. I would shock using bleach -- should it not oxidize the iron in the water, creating rust particles, that could then be vacuumed and filtered out by my pool filter?

Still searching high and low for such a service that won't break the bank. Nearest place I've found is 100 miles away at $1500. I'm going to call a few more local pool companies in hopes they can direct me somewhere. Still, I will be topping this guy off with well water and should probably figure out how to address it.

 

[Norcal Spearo]

Cycling a well pump, that's like cycling your pool pump because you think it's tired, I installed well pumps, and still do occasionally for family, from the training and experience I have, I was always told that cycling is the worst thing for any pump, when I was installing pumps we always told the customer when watering the yard, to have enough sprinklers on to keep the pump running continues, avoid cycling to prolong the life of your pump.

 

[Patrick_B]

Cycling a well pump, that's like cycling your pool pump because you think it's tired, I installed well pumps, and still do occasionally for family, from the training and experience I have, I was always told that cycling is the worst thing for any pump, when I was installing pumps we always told the customer when watering the yard, to have enough sprinklers on to keep the pump running continues, avoid cycling to prolong the life of your pump.

This is what I understand to be true from different sources with Well, pump, and general electrical motor knowledge. With the caveat that you won't pump the well off. We fear this a little and it has happened once long ago.

 

[jcowart]

Well the only problem you would still run into is your makeup water even if you had the first fill trucked in. Back to your pool. What pump and filter did you go with. DB dealers are bad at over sized pumps and under size filters.

Sent from my VS870 4G using Tapatalk

 

[BrandonD]

Sorry, just saw your replies.

The pump is a Waterway 165 variable speed pump. The pump will be approx 40ft away hard piped, which is why they went with an in-ground pump.
http://www.waterwayplastics.com/pro...-pumps/econo-flo-vsa-165-variable-speed-test/

The filter is a Waterway 125 cartridge filter:
http://www.waterwayplastics.com/pro...lean-single-cartridge-and-d-e-cartridge-test/

Thoughts about them?

 

[sargent]

For an 18.000 gallon pool, you will want a bigger cartridge than that. The table here indicates you need at least a 150 sq. ft. cartridge filter, but most people recommend getting around double the size that is indicated in that table for cartridge and DE filters. I would suggest as a minimum to get the 200 sq. ft. filter, but even better get one of the filters on this page, assuming you want to stay with Waterway.