Just bought an Intex 18 x 48 easy set pool, 5400 gal. Also purchased SWG. I'm new to being a pool owner and am worried about filling my pool with well water. We just had a new softener put in and when the water was tested, the hard water has iron 27ppm. I'm not sure about filling with softened water over a period of days, or using a Camco or other water filter. I dont want to get the brown water everyone says they get. Any suggestions?
Filling pool with well water
- Thread starter Ernap01
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!
27 ppm is very high. There are various things that can get a fair bit of that out of the water, including the water softener, but there will probably still be enough iron left over to stain the pool.
Filling with the water softener shouldn't be too bad. You will need to watch for when it decides to recharge and stop filling while that happens. It will take several recharge cycles, but with a 5K gallon pool it shouldn't be too bad.
27 ppm is very high. There are various things that can get a fair bit of that out of the water, including the water softener, but there will probably still be enough iron left over to stain the pool.
Filling with the water softener shouldn't be too bad. You will need to watch for when it decides to recharge and stop filling while that happens. It will take several recharge cycles, but with a 5K gallon pool it shouldn't be too bad.
What about using the filters you use for RV's attached to garden hose. Would that help?
Yes, it would help, but not a whole lot. Those filters are specifically designed for very low flow rates, and only capture 1/2 to 3/4 of the iron at best, and would saturate with iron and stop working fairly quickly.
Well, kind of and really no. There is a technique for removing iron that involves adding a lot of chlorine quickly and hoping that the iron clumps up and can get filtered out. However, doing that with boost on a SWG is very unlikely to work. A SWG is designed to add chlorine slowly and steadily. But to prevent staining when using this approach to remove iron it is critical that the chlorine be added very quickly.
I'm sorry about the numbers...our water hardness is 27 and iron is 2. Does this change anything?
Yes, that helps a great deal. The water softener should be able to handle an iron level of 2 ppm without much trouble. And if it does miss some of the iron, your iron level should be low enough that it is fairly easy to manage.
I use well water to add water to my pool that has some iron in it. I started using the CuLator packets in my pump skimmer basket and in my hot tub filter area (separate stand-alone hot tub). I have not had any metals in my water since. I use the Taylor test kits for Iron and Copper every couple of weeks.