High Alkalinity Well Water Source

[hawkeye_eng]

I recently purchased a home and drained and cleaned the entire pool surface (previous owners did not maintain it).

I have now re-filled the pool with fresh water, which comes from a well. The water has a green tint and is cloudy.

I tested using my dropper kit and have total alkalinity of 360 ppm. PH 7.2. chlorine 0ppm.

I am slowly in the process of reducing the alkalinity using dry acid, but I realize that this will take some time to reduce alkalinity down to reasonable levels (I've heard it can take weeks).

Should I start adding CYA and shocking while I am still working on reducing alkalinity?

Any advice would be appreciated. I am new to well water and did not anticipate this issue ahead of time.

Thanks,

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!

You need chlorine now! You may have iron, so adding chlorine may make the water green, but it should be clear. If you do, you can filter out some of the iron but you will need to use sequestrant from now on.

You should use muriatic acid. Dry acid adds sulfates to your water which eventually can damage pool equipment. The MA is cheaper too.

There is no specific reason to drop TA unless you have high CH and you have to manage CSI to prevent scaling.

How are you testing?

I recommend getting 30 ppm of CYA into a sock hanging in front of a return and then adding 3 ppm LC/bleach and maintaining the FC DAILY.

Take care.

 

[hawkeye_eng]

Ok thanks for the tips. I have cya going now and am adding chlorine. I wondered if the green was iron. I used chlorine bleach to clean the surface and then rinsed the pool before refilling. I wonder if the bleach from cleaning turned the iron in the water green as it was filling.

As a general question, will I struggle to maintain water clarity with such high alkalinity water? I am wondering if others have been able to get clear water with over 300ppm alkalinity.

Thanks!

 

[hawkeye_eng]

By the way my calcium hardness is 300