Iron Problem .... Will this ever end??

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StephS

0
Jun 13, 2012
9
Northern Wisconsin
We have a Summer Escape 15' above ground pool. Had 3800 gallons of water brought in and added 200 gallons from our well..... BIG mistake. Within 4 hours of getting it filled our water was a light brown color. Knowing nothing about pools we added shock. Didn't help. I balanced the PH, stabilizer and alk and started chlorine. Water color got even worse. So we stopped the chlorine for 24 hours and added Iron Myte. It cleared it up very well. We did have a tiny tiny green tint to it, but the Iron Myte spokesperson told me once I started chlorine it would clear it up. So after 24 hours of much better water, I started the process again (balanced PH, stabilizer and alk) and I tried chlorine. 24 hours later and I'm back to light brown water. 2 hours ago I pulled my filter and chlorine tabs. Now what do I do??? :grrrr:
(Oh and I've changed the filter on the skimmer a total of 8 times ...... they were coffee colored each time I pulled them)
I probably sound crazy here ...... we are VERY new to this pool thing and I feel I'm going crazy. I thought this would be easy!!
Thanks in advance!!
 
Welcome to TFP!

When you have iron in the water you need to use sequestrant to bind to the iron and prevent it from redepositing as stains. Unfortunately, sequestrant breaks down over time, you need to be constantly adding more.

Iron Mite is a mixture of stain remover and sequestrant. For removing stains that works well. But for maintaining sequestrant levels you want something that is straight sequestrant.

Normally iron stays in the pool until the water is replaced. Once in a while the iron will get filtered out, but that is relatively rare.
 
There is a product called CuLator® that physically removes the metal from the pool, but it's had too few people using it and not 100% working results so we don't normally recommend it, especially because it's expensive. Nevertheless, if you actually measure iron in test kits (even from the pool store), then you could try it and see if it works and report back to us. It should noticeably lower the iron level in the tests if it works.
 
Mechanical filtration does not remove iron that is in soluble form in your pool.

The few (2) reports I have read of CuLator was that it didn't have enough capacity to be effective but, like chem geek said, that's not enough to form a solid report on it's ability.
 
Oh, I feel for you! I filled my first pool this year (really, my very first pool) using city water and never expected the poop-soup!

As duraleigh said, the mechanical filtration will not help with the soluble form of the iron, you will need a sequestrant along the lines of HTH-Metal Control (do a search on sequestrant here in TFP for some information about which one, what, and why); however, that is not your current problem.

The people on this website are generally a great bunch. That sumppump in a bucket-o-stuffing idea sounds like a winner! In addition to all of their suggestions may I also offer the "paper-towel" method... now I used this for removing rust/iron from my water before we upgraded to the sand filter, and even then afterwards to help keep as much of the iron out of the sand as I could, so this method should help with your issues too. Now I only deal with the dirt that keeps blowing in from the allyway... and when I have to top off the pool with the city water.

It WILL be a mess! With the papertowels be sure to change them out every few hours. Using either method, make sure you have a catch bucket ready to minimize the amount of stuff getting back into the pool.

Checkout these:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/i-may-be-a-chemist-but-the-pool-is-smarter-than-i-am-t44884.html
http://www.troublefreepool.com/a-tale-of-two-filters-and-ugly-rusty-water-t46130.html (one success... and pictures)
http://www.troublefreepool.com/jack-s-magic-vs-hth-metal-control-t20035.html (just one of many)
Best of luck!
-ca
 

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While you're at the pool store, you might want to pick up one of those filters you screw onto the end of a hose -- they're about $20 and don't last more than a few fills, but it still reduces somewhat how much you'll spend on sequesterant!
I have well water with iron, and it's a PITA. Once you get it cleaned up, make sure you avoid adding more (hence the hose filter....or other DIY media works too).
I've also been trying Culator -- it's not "turning color" so I've either sequestered it all (possible, as I am maintaining on Jack's Pink Stuff, which is supposedly aggressive with iron) or Culator doesn't work -- sadly, I don't know which.
Good luck.
 
Well, it appears I may have this under control. I let my chlorine get to zero and added "metal control" by hth. Waited 3 days and added my chlorine and balanced all my chemicals and my water is crystal clear!!!!! The company did recommend I add an ounce of the metal control once a week. Fingers crossed!!! Thanks again for all your advice!!!
 
StephS said:
Well, it appears I may have this under control. I let my chlorine get to zero and added "metal control" by hth. Waited 3 days and added my chlorine and balanced all my chemicals and my water is crystal clear!!!!! The company did recommend I add an ounce of the metal control once a week. Fingers crossed!!! Thanks again for all your advice!!!
Click to expand...


I would kill for only needing to add an ounce a week to control my iron problem lol! :mrgreen: :rant:

I've added 2 gallons of sequestrant so far and while my pool is now very clear it is still a very light yellow color. Good luck with yours, it truly sucks when your only source of water is really bad. :cheers:
 
rclifton said:
StephS said:
Well, it appears I may have this under control. I let my chlorine get to zero and added "metal control" by hth. Waited 3 days and added my chlorine and balanced all my chemicals and my water is crystal clear!!!!! The company did recommend I add an ounce of the metal control once a week. Fingers crossed!!! Thanks again for all your advice!!!
Click to expand...


I would kill for only needing to add an ounce a week to control my iron problem lol! :mrgreen: :rant:

I've added 2 gallons of sequestrant so far and while my pool is now very clear it is still a very light yellow color. Good luck with yours, it truly sucks when your only source of water is really bad. :cheers:
Click to expand...

It's terrible. I knew our water was bad but I thought only adding 200 gallons of it wouldn't be that bad. It's been 36 hours and our water is still crystal clear. However 2 weeks of coffee colored was enough. I really hope you can clear up you're water!!
 
Steph, have you looked into oxidizers such as Iron Curtain to address your well?
Just curious. We're thinking about getting that system for our (new-to-us, previously foreclosed) house, but our iron levels don't sound quite as bad.
The systems seem to run about $2,000, but as my h. pointed out, if a dual tank could produce enough fast enough to clean up the fill water, it'd be worth it as it would help preserve the remaining life of our pool equipment AND appliances overall.
 
Swampwoman said:
Steph, have you looked into oxidizers such as Iron Curtain to address your well?
Just curious. We're thinking about getting that system for our (new-to-us, previously foreclosed) house, but our iron levels don't sound quite as bad.
The systems seem to run about $2,000, but as my h. pointed out, if a dual tank could produce enough fast enough to clean up the fill water, it'd be worth it as it would help preserve the remaining life of our pool equipment AND appliances overall.
Click to expand...

We have a system that runs inside the house, but our outdoor hoses don't go thru our system or water softener. We screwed up when topping off our pool. We should have ran it thru the house.
Thanks though!!
 
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