Brown poolwater

[Acquarius]

Live in the northeastern part of Thailand, upcountry, some miles outside of a small town with ricefields around. My pool is 10 years old. Filled it with water from the nearby artificial lake and filtered it with the own housewaterfilter during first filling. Changed to groundwater some weeks ago. It is a bit salty, but very clean. Must have iron in it. Why do I know that? For about 2 1/2 weeks the water remained very clear without adding any kind of chemical substances. Suddenly turned green and greener. Thought it must be because of copper or iron. Wrong! Full of Algae ! Put chlorine in it. Next day I had coffee in the pool. Filtered the water about 36 hours and then the water was again crystal clear and is at present still very clean. But soonest algae will return for sure.
questions:
1.How can I eliminate the iron. Because coffee will return again soon for sure if I use chlorine.... I googled a lot but could not find an answer for my problem.
2. Is there a cheap non-chlorine algae killer known to the experts or any kind of a iron-off method? We do have here in this country professional poolspecialists but all of them want to sell incredibly expensive stuff.

Thanks a lot for your hints and tipps.
(btw..I still wait for the professional water analysis which I will receive soonest I hope)

 

[ComputerGuyInNOLA]

I can't answer your question but I just wanted to welcome you to the forum. You are the first member I have seen from Thailand. Could you post some pictures?

 

[Swampwoman]

Hi there. Don't forsake the chlorine or you'll be trading coffee for cloudy green water

However, there are metal sequestrants that will help "tie up" the iron so it doesn't oxidize as much. Are you able to order Metal Magic or Jack's Magic (pink) online? If so, order a case at a time if you can't change your water or get an iron-free source. The key ingredient is phosphonic acid. Its the same stuff many water pants use to tie up/sequester iron.

Re the now-brown water....Your sand filter will very slowly get "some" of the oxidized iron out...but never all, IME. Sometimes wrapping your skimmer basket in a cloth/sock will help get some of it too. So filtering, lots of sequestrant, may look after the brown appearance, but you will still have iron in the water.

Maintaining a sequestrant level will help avoid the otherwise inevitable iron staining, and maintaining your pool the TFP way will help you AVOID having to shock to high levels in the future, which in turn will reduce the likelihood of the tea effect

So please read through pool school to get a handle on that if you haven't already.

I have iron from my well water and with high startup dose of sequestrant (in my case, 5 bottles) and weekly additions to maintain, I don get stains anymore. I keep my FC level between 5-7 ppm for my CYA level and never have problems now even at higher levels, though I've never had to shock since learning TFP.

Good luck! I hope you're able to find some good metal sequestrant in your country, or someone who will ship. Otherwise, you'd be better off trckng in water, because there's really no way to get iron entirely out of a pool except water change.

 

[Acquarius]

Hi, Computerguyinnola,
Thanks for your being interested in the place where I live. Buddhis Kingdom of Thailand, rich in buddhist culture, founded 1292 AD, 65 M inhabitants, 60% ricefarmers, 40 % industrial prod. and tourism, one of the top ten touristplaces in the world (among the US! friendly, smiling people, incredible good food...
best regards Alfred [email protected]

 

[northrn]

Wow! What a stunning view!

Welcome to TFP!

 

[pooldv]

Yeah, that is awesome!

 

[Acquarius]

Hi there. Don't forsake the chlorine or you'll be trading coffee for cloudy green water

However, there are metal sequestrants that will help "tie up" the iron so it doesn't oxidize as much. Are you able to order Metal Magic or Jack's Magic (pink) online? If so, order a case at a time if you can't change your water or get an iron-free source. The key ingredient is phosphonic acid. Its the same stuff many water pants use to tie up/sequester iron.

Re the now-brown water....Your sand filter will very slowly get "some" of the oxidized iron out...but never all, IME. Sometimes wrapping your skimmer basket in a cloth/sock will help get some of it too. So filtering, lots of sequestrant, may look after the brown appearance, but you will still have iron in the water.

Maintaining a sequestrant level will help avoid the otherwise inevitable iron staining, and maintaining your pool the TFP way will help you AVOID having to shock to high levels in the future, which in turn will reduce the likelihood of the tea effect

So please read through pool school to get a handle on that if you haven't already.

I have iron from my well water and with high startup dose of sequestrant (in my case, 5 bottles) and weekly additions to maintain, I don get stains anymore. I keep my FC level between 5-7 ppm for my CYA level and never have problems now even at higher levels, though I've never had to shock since learning TFP.

Good luck! I hope you're able to find some good metal sequestrant in your country, or someone who will ship. Otherwise, you'd be better off trckng in water, because there's really no way to get iron entirely out of a pool except water change.

Hi Swampwoman,
Thanks a lot for your helpful hints and tips. As I am in Thailand, I do not have access to the products familiar to you. Anyhow, in Bangkok there are many shops specialized to pool chemistry. And I have now to contact them by mail first. Living upcountry, it will take some time until I get stuff from them here by postal parcels. I shall also go through Pool School to get acquainted with the subject.
Thanks again for your help and have good times.

Kindest regards
Alfred