Use well water for fill and autofill?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
C

Circle-D

0
Platinum Supporter
LifeTime Supporter
Jun 12, 2009
58
Houston, TX
Our pool will be finished in a few weeks. We currently have it hooked up to our well for the auto fill. I am a little worried about the water quality though. I tested and it had a PH of 7.4, TA of 360. The calcium was also very high, 330. Also worried about the metals that might be in there. How can I test for that? I would like your opioiom if I am going to cause more headache and should just switch to city water. The well is a 50' irrigation well. The pool will be a 44,000 gallon IG pool.

Chris
 
I vote for city. The TA is too high as well as the calcium. I guess you could make the argument that the volume of top off water should be low so that the TA and CH will not make much difference, but why chance it. Plus, well water has the potential to contain metals. Too many problems with well water to make it worth it, especially since you have presumably clean city water you can use.
 
We used half city water and half well water to help cut down on having to pay for a lot of water to be hauled in. When it came to filling using the well water I went out and bought a filter from gander mountain that just hooked up to the end of the garden hose. This works very well from keeping all the impurities out of the pool as well as all the metals. The filter is reusable to, all you have to do when the flow starts getting slow is take it apart scrub it with a sos pad and put it back together, its very easy and I love it. Its up to you, but this is what I did. Good luck
 
The filter I am using is no ordinary run of the mill filter it is the cx90 ceramic water filter and it dose remove iron, calcium and a whole lot more. The cx90 ceramic cartridge is both cleanable and replaceable. The unbreakable polycarbonate housing stops particulates down to .9 microns. The only small downside to it is that it will slow down your flow rate to 2.5 gallons per minute. Here is a list of all of what it removes.
Aluminum
Bacteria
Cadmium
Chlorine
Cryptosporidium
Cysts
Fecal Coliform
Fungus
Heavy metal
Hydrogen sulfide/sulfate
Iron
Lead
Mercury
Mold
Odor
Sediment
Total suspended solids
Turbitity (cloudiness)
This is just a partial list of contaminates removed by the cx90

Here is a link So you can check it out yourself http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCatego ... uctId=2057
 
daniel00 said:
The filter I am using is no ordinary run of the mill filter it is the cx90 ceramic water filter and it dose remove iron, calcium and a whole lot more. The cx90 ceramic cartridge is both cleanable and replaceable. The unbreakable polycarbonate housing stops particulates down to .9 microns. The only small downside to it is that it will slow down your flow rate to 2.5 gallons per minute. Here is a list of all of what it removes.
Aluminum
Bacteria
Cadmium
Chlorine
Cryptosporidium
Cysts
Fecal Coliform
Fungus
Heavy metal
Hydrogen sulfide/sulfate
Iron
Lead
Mercury
Mold
Odor
Sediment
Total suspended solids
Turbitity (cloudiness)
This is just a partial list of contaminates removed by the cx90

Here is a link So you can check it out yourself http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCatego ... uctId=2057
Click to expand...

Very good info, thanks. But not sure 2.5 GPM will be good to fill it with. That would take about 12 days to fill. Just not sure if the benefits of free water, or almost free, are worth the extra hassle of filters and chemicals to fix it. It will cost about $400 to fill up my 44,000 pool with city water. Decisions, Decisions...

Chris
 
bk406 said:
I vote for city. The TA is too high as well as the calcium. I guess you could make the argument that the volume of top off water should be low so that the TA and CH will not make much difference, but why chance it. Plus, well water has the potential to contain metals. Too many problems with well water to make it worth it, especially since you have presumably clean city water you can use.
Click to expand...

I think I agree with you, just pay upfront and less $$ and hassle later. I would constantly be adding acid to correct the TA, and I have no idea about the metals.

Chris
 
My opinion would be to pay for the city water. At $400 that's less than 1¢ per gallon. Not having to deal with metals is worth way more than that.

The first thing I'd do is ask for and assay on the water before they dumped it into the pool. That'll give you a starting point for the balancing after the fill. All public water supply's are required to keep an assay on the water so it's not something special you're asking for.

Also, if you don't already have one go ahead and get a good testing kit. On a 44k gal pool I would suggest the TF-100. Have you decided on how you're going to chlorinate your pool? (liquid, SWCG, Pump, etc.)
 
Bama Rambler said:
My opinion would be to pay for the city water. At $400 that's less than 1¢ per gallon. Not having to deal with metals is worth way more than that.

The first thing I'd do is ask for and assay on the water before they dumped it into the pool. That'll give you a starting point for the balancing after the fill. All public water supply's are required to keep an assay on the water so it's not something special you're asking for.

Also, if you don't already have one go ahead and get a good testing kit. On a 44k gal pool I would suggest the TF-100. Have you decided on how you're going to chlorinate your pool? (liquid, SWCG, Pump, etc.)
Click to expand...

I already have the TF-100. Got it last week, great kit. That is how I tested the well water. I will look into the assay, good idea. We will be using a Pentair system, so we selected the IC-60 for our sanitation needs. Thanks for the tips.

Our last water bill was about $80 and we used about 10k gallons. So it should be less than 1¢ per gallon. I think it will be worth it.

Chris
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
duraleigh said:
Metals like iron and calcium found in well water are virtually impossible to remove mechanically.
Click to expand...


This can't be stressed enough. All of the filters mentioned on this thread will not remove heavy metals for the water. They MAY remove a small portion that could be precipiated out and have become chunky particulate matter. However, the metals that are in solution (which is the bulk of the contaminate in well water) can not be filtered soley by mechanical means. Filters which will remove the reduced, dissolved iron must be capable of first oxidizing the metal, then using the mechanical filter to remove the particualtes, or bind the oxidized metal to a chemical substrate that can be backwashed off. A few companies sell these types of filters. Hydropure sells one, and I believe Pentek maybe. I can almost assure you that the CX90 you show does not filter dissolved metals.
 
The best filters for removing dissolved iron from the water are greensand filters. They are quite expensive, relatively low capacity/flow rate, and need to have the greensand replaced regularly. When used properly they can remove nearly all of the iron. Water softeners will remove some/most of the iron. Reverse osmosis filters also remove iron, along with just about everything else.
 
The Pentek is based on green sand, and it is kind of pricey, ~$250 to get started and the refills are around $150. Depending on the level of metal in the water, they can filter from 80,000 gallons (1ppm) down to 16,000 gallons (5 ppm). I'm sure the actual numbers are somewhere in the middle. The Hydropure metal trap is based on green sand as well, but is a little cheaper. Bigger sytems that can be backwashed and re-used are around $1000.

The hydropure's are disposable, so you just throw out the body and all when its used up. A 10,000 gallon filter runs around $90 and will filter 10,000 gallons at 1-2 ppm, YMMV.
If you do the math, in a 600 sq ft pool, an inch of water is around 370 gallons. At 2ppm, you could put 27 inches of water in a pool before you need to replace it. For most people, I would guess it would last at least a season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply