Greetings, I'm doing a partial refill on my pool due to high CYA. I have a SWG. Prior to this forum and my TF-100 I was using the corner Pinch your wallet store for water testing. Since they had me adding a bottle stabilizer every time I had my water tested I'm pretty sure that was the culprit because from what I've read, using a SWG and not adding anything that has CYA in it shouldn't raise the CYA. It's at around 120, the pool math says I need to change roughly 5000 gallons, I know my well has a high iron, do I need to add something to take care of the high iron? When I bought the house back in March I had the well tested and the raw water had a total Iron of 1.58 mg/l if that helps.
Well Water Refill
- Thread starter edpritchett
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,797
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
You are correct to be cautious about well water. Once you add water with metals to the water, there's no turning back unless you exchange it. If you chose to have the water tested to confirm any metal content, do it before adding chlorine. Regardless, if you are not able to have fresh (non-well) water delivered, and are stuck with well water, then the more “pre-filtering” of iron you can do to physically remove it before treating chemically the better. Some folks have had decent success placing layers of dishrags, paper towels, or pillow batting in the skimmer to catch iron/rust particles. Others place socks, micro-filters, or other products over the garden hose as they fill from the water source to serve as a pre-filter.
After that, your best and most reliable method of metals management is to add sequestrant to the water and replenish it periodically. Sequestrant is a chemical that binds to the iron in the water so that it can't form stains or turn brown. Sequestrant breaks down slowly, so you need to add more regularly. ProTeam's Metal Magic and Jack's Magic the Pink Stuff (regular), the Blue Stuff (fresh plaster), and the Purple Stuff (SWG) are some of the top sequestrants. You can also find other brands with similar products, some of which are noticeably less expensive. Sequestrants based on HEDP, phosphonic acid, or phosphonic acid derivatives are the most effective.
Hope this helps.
After that, your best and most reliable method of metals management is to add sequestrant to the water and replenish it periodically. Sequestrant is a chemical that binds to the iron in the water so that it can't form stains or turn brown. Sequestrant breaks down slowly, so you need to add more regularly. ProTeam's Metal Magic and Jack's Magic the Pink Stuff (regular), the Blue Stuff (fresh plaster), and the Purple Stuff (SWG) are some of the top sequestrants. You can also find other brands with similar products, some of which are noticeably less expensive. Sequestrants based on HEDP, phosphonic acid, or phosphonic acid derivatives are the most effective.
Hope this helps.
Hi Ed, and welcome.
I have a bit more iron than you, and have battled the well since rehabbing this foreclosure a few years ago.
Here are some options if you don't truck in metal free water - note that these might ameliorate staining and reduce the iron load going into your pool, but will not necessarily AVoid/prevent some iron from getting in!
1. Try this...it seems to work reasonably well on my hot tub, which in winter, gets raw well water: Amazon.com : Pre Fresh Garden Hose End Water Filter all purpose, pool, spa, hot tub, pets, car wash : Garden Hose Parts : Patio, Lawn Garden. It has enough capacity for your fill and a few more top ups, but keep track as capacity is 8k gallons.
2. IME, Jacks pink or metal magic work best on iron -- apply immediately on adding water to sequester any iron getting in, and maintain. Metal MAgic may be more convenient for you with SWG in that its application reqs are to add with ph above 7.5, whereas Jack's requires first lowering ph to 7.2.
3. Since you're SWG, watch that ph...high ph causes staining with metals...if you're able to keep it at 7.2-7.4 ish, all the better
4. If you have a large capacity water softener, preferably dual tank to avoid regeneration/tapping out the water...you may wish to consider plumbing one of your outdoor faucets to it. That way you'd be adding mildly saline water...little iron gets through and you'd need less salt to account fr topping up/dilution. My soft water tap is about 450 ppm salt based on my hardness...everyone's is different depending on how many grains of hardness you have.
The 2 cons of this approach is that with plaster, you may need to ADD CH to keep your balance, and that the softened faucet will not be useful for plants/irrigation over time...eg a bit won't hurt, but in a dry spell, lawn and plantings can flag from salt build up. Which is why outdoor faucets usually bypass softener on construction
Also note that some of the "physical" filtering tricks like putting stuff in the skimmer noted in above post usually are used when an iron load has oxidized from shock level chlorine, which oxidizes the iron into visible water tint. Won't do much while iron is in suspension
Avoid high, shock levels of chlorine until at least a week after using sequestrant...preferably EVER. ...Which is possible using TFP testing and sanitizing approaches.
In that regard if you haven't already, be sure you're not flying blind on your testing by getting a TFT100 or Taylor 2006k at http://www.tfttestkits.net if you haven't already, and be sure to read up in pool school (see links in my signature.)
Hope that helps!
I have a bit more iron than you, and have battled the well since rehabbing this foreclosure a few years ago.
Here are some options if you don't truck in metal free water - note that these might ameliorate staining and reduce the iron load going into your pool, but will not necessarily AVoid/prevent some iron from getting in!
1. Try this...it seems to work reasonably well on my hot tub, which in winter, gets raw well water: Amazon.com : Pre Fresh Garden Hose End Water Filter all purpose, pool, spa, hot tub, pets, car wash : Garden Hose Parts : Patio, Lawn Garden. It has enough capacity for your fill and a few more top ups, but keep track as capacity is 8k gallons.
2. IME, Jacks pink or metal magic work best on iron -- apply immediately on adding water to sequester any iron getting in, and maintain. Metal MAgic may be more convenient for you with SWG in that its application reqs are to add with ph above 7.5, whereas Jack's requires first lowering ph to 7.2.
3. Since you're SWG, watch that ph...high ph causes staining with metals...if you're able to keep it at 7.2-7.4 ish, all the better
4. If you have a large capacity water softener, preferably dual tank to avoid regeneration/tapping out the water...you may wish to consider plumbing one of your outdoor faucets to it. That way you'd be adding mildly saline water...little iron gets through and you'd need less salt to account fr topping up/dilution. My soft water tap is about 450 ppm salt based on my hardness...everyone's is different depending on how many grains of hardness you have.
The 2 cons of this approach is that with plaster, you may need to ADD CH to keep your balance, and that the softened faucet will not be useful for plants/irrigation over time...eg a bit won't hurt, but in a dry spell, lawn and plantings can flag from salt build up. Which is why outdoor faucets usually bypass softener on construction
Also note that some of the "physical" filtering tricks like putting stuff in the skimmer noted in above post usually are used when an iron load has oxidized from shock level chlorine, which oxidizes the iron into visible water tint. Won't do much while iron is in suspension
Avoid high, shock levels of chlorine until at least a week after using sequestrant...preferably EVER
. ...Which is possible using TFP testing and sanitizing approaches.In that regard if you haven't already, be sure you're not flying blind on your testing by getting a TFT100 or Taylor 2006k at http://www.tfttestkits.net if you haven't already, and be sure to read up in pool school (see links in my signature.)
Hope that helps!
Hi neighbor .... I start using this site couple of months ago. I too was using pinch a penny for all my testing and chemicals, and spent lots of money monthly, and still had algae and not good test results.
After following TFP suggestions I got it all nice and balanced to where I only have to add 2-3 cups of MA a week and stabilizer @ 3lb a month. Not bad....Oh and my SWG is set on 25% running on 8h a day and I have my FC at 7 to 8 ppm.
Like you, I am on well water here in Loxahatchee and I did the refill from well but through the softener system, not straight from the ground, as my CH levels from straight well water is at 500, so it would not help my with my high CH problem (CH>100 level through my softener system). I did only run it @40 min every 2h giving time to cool down for the well pump and aerator submersible pump, as water in the aerator did not rise as fast as the water would come out the hose (does it make sense?) I do see some 2-3 iron spots, @ size of 5mm, they come and go. I do have calcium scale I hope to get rid of slowly as I keep my CSI Balanced.
After following TFP suggestions I got it all nice and balanced to where I only have to add 2-3 cups of MA a week and stabilizer @ 3lb a month. Not bad....Oh and my SWG is set on 25% running on 8h a day and I have my FC at 7 to 8 ppm.
Like you, I am on well water here in Loxahatchee and I did the refill from well but through the softener system, not straight from the ground, as my CH levels from straight well water is at 500, so it would not help my with my high CH problem (CH>100 level through my softener system). I did only run it @40 min every 2h giving time to cool down for the well pump and aerator submersible pump, as water in the aerator did not rise as fast as the water would come out the hose (does it make sense?) I do see some 2-3 iron spots, @ size of 5mm, they come and go. I do have calcium scale I hope to get rid of slowly as I keep my CSI Balanced.