Metal In My Water - I'm Getting Desperate

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C

crokett

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2007
677
Hillsborough, NC
My pool is one of the metal frame 'easy sets' that I take down every fall. I fill it from a well each spring. I know there is metal in the water - the first season you fine folks cleared up an algae bloom in a week that I'd been fighting for a month. This was due to the chlorine reacting to the metal. Last season I thought I knew what I was doing and had problems at opening with the chlorine reacting to the metal. This season I filled the pool, approx 4k gallons then added a bottle of Metal Free - directions on the bottle say 32oz treats 10k gallons. I waited overnight with the pump on, then added 48oz of bleach to shock. Water seemed fine. 3 days later after ground settling (moved the pool to a new area this year) I added 2 more " of water - approx 300 gallons. That night I shocked it again and the water turned yellowish. I got another bottle of Metal Free, dumped it in and waited overnight. Water cleared up, shocked it again and by the evening it was yellow again. Yesterday I dumped in about half a bottle, waited till this evening, shocked again and the water is yellow again.

The water is clear, just tinted. When I add the metal treatment, it clears up, at least until I add more bleach. I can also see the beginnings of algae at the bottom of the pool. What protocol should I be following? Should I switch brands? Add more Metal Free and wait longer - say 48 hrs? PH is 7.7 according to water test today. I need more of the stabilizer test solution, but the pool place says it is low right now. That is expected since I know it can take a week or so to fully dissolve.

thanks for any help
 
We have a well also. Every time we added water from the hose, even to "top off", we had to treat with a metal-out product to avoid problems. If we skipped it, or forgot, then we had pool water issues. :rant: We had to install a water softener in order to solve our indoor staining issues ( alot of rust) and we had the system enlarged to handle the extra capacity of adding water to the pool each summer. "killed two birds with one stone", so to speak. Not a solution for everyone, but it worked for us. There is no way to change the water that comes out of your well. If it has metal in it, then you have to deal with it in one way or another. You will have to add your metal out product probably every time you add water, even if its a little bit. Add enough to treat the whole pool. Also, if your PH is really 7.7, then you need to address that issue as well! That is too low. I'm sure the experts will be along soon to offer advice.
 
Thanks for posting this. We have well water as well and will be filling our Intex this weekend. We have high metal content so I"m expect the same issue. I hope you get some answers because I'd like to head off a problem at the pass if possible.
 
Actually 7.4 is about perfect, at 7.7 I would be watching very closely since it's on the high side - I would be thinking about dropping it down just for comfort - I always tend to run mine 7.2-7.4 You will need to post a full set of your numbers here so someone can help you figure out what is going on.

The thing with metals and algae and organics in the water is you need to treat your water to get balanced but then if there is algae, get the killed algae out of the filter/system. It's all a process that can take a long time to happen - keeping that shock level steady until there is no overnight FC loss. Are you backwashing or otherwise clearing/cleaning your filter at all?
 
If you are worried about metal staining or metals coloring the water, keeping PH around 7.2 to 7.4 is much safer than having the PH any higher than that. You also need to make sure your CYA level is appropriate, typically you want it around 40 to 50, though higher with a SWG.

I am not at all fond of Metal Free. Sequestrants based on HEDP, phosphonic acid, or phosphonic acid derivatives are the most effective.

At the first sign of the water turning yellow or stains starting you need to be adding more sequestrant. Sequestrant breaks down slowly, Metal Free a little faster than others, and needs to be constantly replaced. It takes some trial and error to find the right level for your pool.
 
The pool has been open a week. I changed the filter once already. I can't keep a shock level since the chlorine is reacting with the metal in the water. So a few hours after I add the bleach, the chlorine levels drop to almost 0 and the water changes color. The more chlorine I add the darker the water gets. The FC level never rises. There isn't a lot of algae, I am seeing spots on the bottom of the pool though. I am frustrated because what worked last season didn't work this season. What worked the first season after help from this forum didn't work last season.

In any case, here are the numbers as of this evening:

FC 2 - I expect that to go to 0.
ph 7.7
CYA 30, but it has been dissolving over this week so I expect that number to rise slightly.
TA 120, it is there naturally. The pool is vinyl and I've seen no reason to change that.
 
Having metals in your water IS frustrating but it just takes a lot of "POP" (Pool Owners Patience) and I'm here to tell you it really can be done but it is a process that takes repetition and work - We have well water and lots of metal in our water. So we have issues when we have to top off OR like this year, had to replace the liner and refill the whole thing. Check out my posts here: things-are-going-so-well-after-our-rough-start-t22166.html I must have brushed, backwashed, used a LOT of sequesterant, brushed some more and backwashed multiple times day and night to flush the stuff out - ad infinitum but it finally paid off - the water is crystal clear again
 
We had to have used at least 1/2 qt or more of that Iron Myte, about 6oz at a time between backwashing. We dished out our pool quite a bit more this time so I'm guessing a between 15k-15.5k gallons?
 

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So you added say, 48OZ for a 15k gallon pool? I am at 64oz already in a pool that 1/4 the size of yours. Maybe it is time to try something other than Metal Free. The only thing the pool place could do is to confirm metal in the water. So either something else is going on or I need a different brand.
 
Metals in the water don't use up chlorine. They will turn the water colors when chlorine is added, usually yellow, brown, or green, but they don't consume any meaningful amount of chlorine in the process.

It is the algae that is using up your chlorine, and you just need to add more to kill off the algae. When fighting algae it helps tremendously to attack it in a concentrated burst, adding more chlorine every hour at first until you can hold an FC level for more than an hour. After that you can slow down to twice a day.

The metals problem is separate from the algae problem. You need enough sequestrant to hold on to the metals even when you are shocking. Depending on what the metal level is in the pool that might be way more than the recommended dose, and as I said, I don't think well of Metal Free.
 
Jason, thanks for the correction on the chlorine. I thought it wouldn't help so long as I had the metals in there. I also called the makers of Metal Free, they said the dosage rates on the bottle assume 1 PPM of metal in the water. I know I am slightly above that. However they think I have way too much in there right now and the coloring I am getting is probably the shock reacting with the excess MF. Their recommendation is to keep shocking to use up the excess. They also said there is a filtrate powder I can add to the cartridge filter to reduce the size and filter out some of the metal. Do you recommend this?
 
The filter treatments to help filter out metals don't work at all reliably, and we don't normally recommend them. However, if you have a sand filter they might be worth doing anyway just in case you get lucky and can filter some metals out.

I don't believe their reasoning about excess MF reacting with shock to turn the pool yellow. If the water is turning yellow, that is iron reacting with the chlorine because it is not bound to any sequestrant.
 
Ok, but the chlorine is still doing its job, even though the water is yellow. Thanks for clearing that up. I can live with colored water for now. The first season I had a serious algae bloom. I was led to believe that was because the metals were reacting with the chlorine and it was not keeping the pool clean. I never want that again.
 
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