Green/Brown pool water

[cmmyers13]

Hello!

New to pool ownership and forum, appreciative of guidance!

Have a 15K, chlorine, in ground with vinyl liner pool that turns green/brown after topping off with our well water.

We have a katalox iron filter in our basement which the well water passes through prior to the outdoor spicket and our water tests at the pool store all register 0 iron.

We have gone through SLAM method and flocculant treatment but still unable to clear the water and stains on liner.

Current test results are:
FC - 15.28 (high from the SLAM)
TC - 16.79 (high from the SLAM)
Combine Chlorine - 1.5
pH - 7.5
Alkalinity - 124
Calcium - 165
Total iron - 0
Copper - 0.1

Attached are photos from after the flocculant and today after vacuum and top off

Thank you for any guidance!

 

[PoolStored]

Welcome to TFP!!! From Ashtabula...

This is certainly concerning...and above my pay grade...

Let see what @ajw22 @JamesW and @JoyfulNoise have to say...

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

In spite of your filter and testing it sounds to me like you have iron in your water. Or other metals.

What test kit are you using?

 

[cmmyers13]

Welcome to TFP.

In spite of your filter and testing it sounds to me like you have iron in your water. Or other metals.

What test kit are you using?

These test results are from our local pool store, and yes I agree that it would appear to be metals in spite of being told there is no iron or copper showing up on their test.

In addition to the water color we have brown/orange staining on our chlorine box/skimmer baskets which does react to ascorbic acid as I had read in a different forum to test that.

I’ve read other threads on how to clear the water with AA, polyfill, etc method to filter out existing but if I want to clear the source up (well water) would there be a huge downside to running an extra fill line through our home water softener system?

 

[PoolStored]

would there be a huge downside to running an extra fill line through our home water softener system?

No, many run their pool water through their softener. You need to know the generation time and the amount of fill water per generation. The softener is only going to lower CH, nothing else...

 

[cmmyers13]

Excellent, thanks so much for the expertise here.

As we have an in ground pool I was contemplating setting up a slime bag with polyfil in our return in order to filter out the existing iron and then hit with AA for any remaining stain on the liner.

Does this sound like a feasible plan versus the 5 gallon bucket of polyfil I’ve seen other setup for above ground pools?

 

[Mdragger88]

Get you some poly fill in the skimmers asap to catch the iron & get it out.
A skimmer sock with polyfill on the returns will help too.
Aa for the stains afterwards followed by sequestrant.
You vaccumed the floc to waste correct? It can wreck your filter media.
What kind of pool filter do you have?
You can get some filters for your fill hose since your fill water comes out oxidized.
Here’s the options

Iron Fill Water Filter - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[cmmyers13]

Get you some poly fill in the skimmers asap to catch the iron & get it out.
A skimmer sock with polyfill on the returns will help too.
Aa for the stains afterwards followed by sequestrant.
You vaccumed the floc to waste correct? It can wreck your filter media.
What kind of pool filter do you have?
You can get some filters for your fill hose since your fill water comes out oxidized.
Here’s the options

Iron Fill Water Filter - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Thank you!

Yes, vacuumed to waste
We have a sand filter.

Will grab polyfil, skimmer sock, AA and sequestrant today!

 

[Mdragger88]

Thank you!

Yes, vacuumed to waste
We have a sand filter.

Will grab polyfil, skimmer sock, AA and sequestrant today!

You can add some DE or cellulose fiber to your sand to help the filter catch the iron & finer sediments as well. You’ll need to watch the filter pressure as it can rise quickly.

Add DE to a Sand Filter

A clean pool filter will increase the efficiency of your pool! ... your filter are to backwash it, clean the manifolds and grids, and add new DE.

www.google.com

You don’t want to do the AA & sequestrant until after the water is crystal clear & balanced & the oxidized iron has all been removed.
Using sequestrant now will “hide” the iron & you won’t be able to remove it with the polyfill. You want to remove as much as possible now.
AA is for any remaining stains. It won’t clear the water.
its also a good idea to wait until the water is quite cold to do the AA treatment to help prevent algae growth (near closing or opening time) be sure to follow the guide

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com

 

[cmmyers13]

You can add some DE or cellulose fiber to your sand to help the filter catch the iron & finer sediments as well. You’ll need to watch the filter pressure as it can rise quickly.

Add DE to a Sand Filter

A clean pool filter will increase the efficiency of your pool! ... your filter are to backwash it, clean the manifolds and grids, and add new DE.

www.google.com

You don’t want to do the AA & sequestrant until after the water is crystal clear & balanced & the oxidized iron has all been removed.
Using sequestrant now will “hide” the iron & you won’t be able to remove it with the polyfill. You want to remove as much as possible now.
AA is for any remaining stains. It won’t clear the water.
its also a good idea to wait until the water is quite cold to do the AA treatment to help prevent algae growth (near closing or opening time) be sure to follow the guide

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com

AMAZING.

Thank you so much for these detailed instructions.

Already visited JoAnn Fabrics this morning and placed polyfill in our top skimmer with a separate mesh bag of poly fill at our return as well.

Will check in on it and clean out/replace as it becomes dirty.

Will add in the AA/sequesterant treatment post poly fill.

 

[cmmyers13]

You can add some DE or cellulose fiber to your sand to help the filter catch the iron & finer sediments as well. You’ll need to watch the filter pressure as it can rise quickly.

Add DE to a Sand Filter

A clean pool filter will increase the efficiency of your pool! ... your filter are to backwash it, clean the manifolds and grids, and add new DE.

www.google.com

You don’t want to do the AA & sequestrant until after the water is crystal clear & balanced & the oxidized iron has all been removed.
Using sequestrant now will “hide” the iron & you won’t be able to remove it with the polyfill. You want to remove as much as possible now.
AA is for any remaining stains. It won’t clear the water.
its also a good idea to wait until the water is quite cold to do the AA treatment to help prevent algae growth (near closing or opening time) be sure to follow the guide

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com

Follow up, started the polyfill work on Tuesday morning.

Below are pictures from the 3 day turn around. Unreal!

Going to start the AA/sequestrant treatment most likely Saturday.

I couldn’t find in the reading the sequence of the AA/sequestrant.

Is there a recommended wait time to add the sequestrant after the AA has lifted any remaining stains?

 

[PoolStored]

I would hold off to the AA/sequestrant until your polyfill no longer turns brown. You want to get everything out of the pool you can...even if it delays removing the stains from the pool.

Is there a recommended wait time to add the sequestrant after the AA has lifted any remaining stains?

Bullet 9. Emphasis Mine.

1. When the stain is gone, add enough sequestering agent for the volume of your pool - more is better than not enough.

 

[cmmyers13]

I would hold off to the AA/sequestrant until your polyfill no longer turns brown. You want to get everything out of the pool you can...even if it delays removing the stains from the pool.


Bullet 9. Emphasis Mine.

1. When the stain is gone, add enough sequestering agent for the volume of your pool - more is better than not enough.

Good point, thanks for that.

Also, bought a $5 converter for hose hookup to our kitchen sink (helps that out I ground pool is 10 feet from our back door/kitchen) which runs through our whole home softener versus our outdoor spicket which does not.

Tested 50 gallons from it into the pool this morning to see if it would bring back the green (iron) and it did not.

Going to have a new line run from the softener to outdoor to be our dedicated “pool top off” spicket for summer months only and have the problem eliminated for good. Will keep an eye on the regeneration time and gallons used during those times.

Cannot thank everyone here enough for your guidance!

 

[Mdragger88]

As poolstored said- don’t rush to do the AA - the stains are not nice to look at but you wanna get as much iron out as possible first.

 

[PoolStored]

softener to outdoor to be our dedicated “pool top off”

Softener removes CH, not iron.

 

[cmmyers13]

Softener removes CH, not iron.

To my knowledge a softener does remove trace ferrous iron from hard well water in the ion exchange.

Additionally we have a katalox iron filter installed before the softener, then use specific iron fighter salt in the brine tank.

Those 3 things result in no staining in any of our appliances/bathroom/laundry and resulted in no additional discolored water when I added it through that today.

 

[cmmyers13]

Follow up:

1. Changed Polyfill and cleared out remaining rust water from the skimmer top each morning with a siphon hose.

2. Backwashed yesterday.

3. Topped off 20 minutes through softener with no additional tint yesterday as well.

4. This morning even the liner stains are lifted out, may not even need an AA/sequestrant treatment.

Amazing, pic attached.

 

[Mdragger88]

Looks great
You may want to do the sequestrant for insurance.
What is your current fc, ph, & cya?

 

[JaneH55]

These test results are from our local pool store, and yes I agree that it would appear to be metals in spite of being told there is no iron or copper showing up on their test.

In addition to the water color we have brown/orange staining on our chlorine box/skimmer baskets which does react to ascorbic acid as I had read in a different forum to test that.

I’ve read other threads on how to clear the water with AA, polyfill, etc method to filter out existing but if I want to clear the source up (well water) would there be a huge downside to running an extra fill line through our home water softener system?

What is AA??

 

[Mdragger88]

What is AA??

Ascorbic Acid

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com