I've been battling iron in the water the whole time I've lived here with this pool. I don't have a reading on the amount of iron, but I can tell it's pretty high. I'm on city water, but the source is apparently wells. My house was also built in the 50's, so maybe my pipes are adding to the problem.
I've only been able to swim about 2 times per year and spend the rest of the time cleaning. I don't want to do that again. ?
Last year I tried Pro Team Metal Magic, vacuuming to waste the iron that dropped to the bottom (or released from staining?), filtered the hose water through a whole house filter with an activated carbon filter to top it back off each time, and repeat. It was a never ending cycle. The filters were definitely caked in orange/brown after a few hours of running hose water through them and I would swap them out and continue, so they were filtering a good amount of iron out, but not enough. I was still vacuuming iron off the bottom in the fall.
So, I'm looking into my options before I open the pool this year. I was planning on emptying it and re-filling, but it's looking pretty expensive. My pool is about 40,000 gallons.
Option 1: renting iron filters from the water treatment company across the street = ~$500 + increased water bill (~$100-200)
Option 2: trucking in water = $1500
I wasn't planning on spending quite that much, so Option 3 would be to leave the water that's still in the pool and do a partial refill with one of the above options at a lower price. I think I have a little more than half of the water in there from last year and I vacuumed to waste as much as I could on closing day.
Added info:
Option 1 - I don't have the full details yet, but it looks like their filters oxidize the iron to convert it to solids, which are then filtered out before going in the pool, but they said they only have a few tanks left and they are discontinuing this service once those tanks are empty, so I wouldn't be able to do this again next year.
Option 2 - He said it's city drinking water and I'm not sure if it's actually iron free or not.
I've read through a lot of threads about iron.
I have tried polyfil and didn't get good results. I probably didn't do enough of it, but I have a LOT of water to filter.
I don't really want to have to keep up with sequestarants if I can manage to refill without iron.
I tried to keep the ph at 7.2 - 7.4 the whole season. My TA was high and I was not able to get it down.
My chlorine was around 2.0 for most of the season, but I did have to slam a couple times which obviously didn't help the iron situation.
The filters I used were 5 micron, so maybe they weren't fine enough? I'm still going to need some sort of filter option for topping off the pool throughout the summer.
I understand that filters won't get the non-solid iron, so what's the best option for top offs?
I'd really like to actually be able to use the pool.
What would you do?
Pictures from last year:
Last year I decided to have a pool company drain, acid wash, and scrub the pool. I didn't know about the iron at the time. This picture is when I was a day or two into refilling it after it was cleaned.
and by the time it was almost filled it was green. It was still cold out and it snowed while I was filling the pool, so I was sure it wasn't algae. I sent pictures to the pool company that did the cleaning and they told me it was iron.
I vacuumed the bottom
I used Metal Magic and this was the result after 24 hours...
But then I stupidly brought the chlorine to shock level and had to start over.
I've only been able to swim about 2 times per year and spend the rest of the time cleaning. I don't want to do that again. ?
Last year I tried Pro Team Metal Magic, vacuuming to waste the iron that dropped to the bottom (or released from staining?), filtered the hose water through a whole house filter with an activated carbon filter to top it back off each time, and repeat. It was a never ending cycle. The filters were definitely caked in orange/brown after a few hours of running hose water through them and I would swap them out and continue, so they were filtering a good amount of iron out, but not enough. I was still vacuuming iron off the bottom in the fall.
So, I'm looking into my options before I open the pool this year. I was planning on emptying it and re-filling, but it's looking pretty expensive. My pool is about 40,000 gallons.
Option 1: renting iron filters from the water treatment company across the street = ~$500 + increased water bill (~$100-200)
Option 2: trucking in water = $1500
I wasn't planning on spending quite that much, so Option 3 would be to leave the water that's still in the pool and do a partial refill with one of the above options at a lower price. I think I have a little more than half of the water in there from last year and I vacuumed to waste as much as I could on closing day.
Added info:
Option 1 - I don't have the full details yet, but it looks like their filters oxidize the iron to convert it to solids, which are then filtered out before going in the pool, but they said they only have a few tanks left and they are discontinuing this service once those tanks are empty, so I wouldn't be able to do this again next year.
Option 2 - He said it's city drinking water and I'm not sure if it's actually iron free or not.
I've read through a lot of threads about iron.
I have tried polyfil and didn't get good results. I probably didn't do enough of it, but I have a LOT of water to filter.
I don't really want to have to keep up with sequestarants if I can manage to refill without iron.
I tried to keep the ph at 7.2 - 7.4 the whole season. My TA was high and I was not able to get it down.
My chlorine was around 2.0 for most of the season, but I did have to slam a couple times which obviously didn't help the iron situation.
The filters I used were 5 micron, so maybe they weren't fine enough? I'm still going to need some sort of filter option for topping off the pool throughout the summer.
I understand that filters won't get the non-solid iron, so what's the best option for top offs?
I'd really like to actually be able to use the pool.
What would you do?
Pictures from last year:
Last year I decided to have a pool company drain, acid wash, and scrub the pool. I didn't know about the iron at the time. This picture is when I was a day or two into refilling it after it was cleaned.
and by the time it was almost filled it was green. It was still cold out and it snowed while I was filling the pool, so I was sure it wasn't algae. I sent pictures to the pool company that did the cleaning and they told me it was iron.
I vacuumed the bottom
I used Metal Magic and this was the result after 24 hours...
But then I stupidly brought the chlorine to shock level and had to start over.
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