Hi All,
I've been lurking since around September when I picked up an Intext 15'x48" round metal frame pool on closeout for my kids for Christmas. I've been reading here since then trying to get familiar with everything as this will be my first pool. My plan was to set the pool up sometime within the next month and add an Intex sand filter as well as an Intex SWG.
Now for my dilemma and the reason for my post. I live in Northern California with no hope for city water anytime in the forseeable future and trucking water in is prohibitively expensive which leaves me with filling the pool with water from my well. I purchased one of the 6-way tests from Walmart just to get a baseline for my water quality as I knew I had very hard water. The results of the 6-way test are below:
PH 7.2
Total Alkalinity 380
Total Hardness 1200
As you can see I've got some really bad water, although I'm not sure how accurate the hardness test actually is because when I did the initial 5 drops of Hardness Indicator it turned a dark purple instead of the red the test says it should turn. I then read this may be caused by interference with any metal ions present in the water and I should redo the test and add something to prevent this interference but, the 6-way test comes with nothing to do that. For what it's worth when I had my water softener installed my water tested 93grains hard and was positive for Iron and Manganese.
Now for the question. What would you do? Would you bother setting up a pool with the above water quality if it was pretty much your only choice for both fill and top off water? Is it possible to get the water under control with some work? I'm at home all day anyway so I have the time if that's what it would take. I also plan on buying a much better test kit if the knowledgable folks here think it's doable, just don't want to throw money away if this is going to be a losing battle.
Thanks for any and all advice/suggestions!
I've been lurking since around September when I picked up an Intext 15'x48" round metal frame pool on closeout for my kids for Christmas. I've been reading here since then trying to get familiar with everything as this will be my first pool. My plan was to set the pool up sometime within the next month and add an Intex sand filter as well as an Intex SWG.
Now for my dilemma and the reason for my post. I live in Northern California with no hope for city water anytime in the forseeable future and trucking water in is prohibitively expensive which leaves me with filling the pool with water from my well. I purchased one of the 6-way tests from Walmart just to get a baseline for my water quality as I knew I had very hard water. The results of the 6-way test are below:
PH 7.2
Total Alkalinity 380
Total Hardness 1200
As you can see I've got some really bad water, although I'm not sure how accurate the hardness test actually is because when I did the initial 5 drops of Hardness Indicator it turned a dark purple instead of the red the test says it should turn. I then read this may be caused by interference with any metal ions present in the water and I should redo the test and add something to prevent this interference but, the 6-way test comes with nothing to do that. For what it's worth when I had my water softener installed my water tested 93grains hard and was positive for Iron and Manganese.
Now for the question. What would you do? Would you bother setting up a pool with the above water quality if it was pretty much your only choice for both fill and top off water? Is it possible to get the water under control with some work? I'm at home all day anyway so I have the time if that's what it would take. I also plan on buying a much better test kit if the knowledgable folks here think it's doable, just don't want to throw money away if this is going to be a losing battle.
Thanks for any and all advice/suggestions!