Known iron in well water-new pool

melrumphius

Silver Supporter
Jun 16, 2019
17
Massachusetts
Hello, hope everyone is well. We are in New England and the weather is turning warmer so the pool is opened. We got a new 24 foot round 52 inch pool. We filled with 12 inches of well water while waiting for water delivery of ~8000 gallons(that's one delivery). That leaves us having to use the well for the remainder. I tried to get the guy to deliver 1/2 load but he wasn't interested. I figure we will have 8000 gallons from the delivery and about 5000 from the well. I know there is iron in there because we have always had it in the past. Also, we have been making bleach solutions to clean and the iron precipitates. We also have manganese, as we have black in our toilet tanks.
So finally after that long winded intro, could I have some advice on how to add the chemicals so that we do not precipitate the iron? I currently have a CU-later 4 in there and the filter will be going tomorrow. I've added nothing else.
These are my numbers using a Taylor Complete FAS-dpd chlorine kit:
FC 0.3,
CC 0.6,
pH very bright pink that did not register on the kit, acid demand 1 drop gave no change, 2 drops showed 7.0, this rapid change confuses me...thought it would be more gradual but I did it with two different kits and received the same result
TA-none
Ca Hardness 60, Water showed purple indicating copper or iron. I used in date laMotte strips for both metals showed and got negative results. I'm not buying this with the history we have of 20+ years having a pool with either iron or copper or some years both. I added 5 drops then proceeded with the test. It turned red indicating calcium hardness but only took one drop to turn from red to blue so Ca Hardness is 60.
Thank you in advance,
Mary
M
 
We tried this last year and it did indeed work but I had to put the polyfill in a pillowcase because the return kept blowing the top of the bucket, it seemed to work but I totally forgot this until you mentioned. Thanks for the wake up call. I'm thinking I will adjust the pH first to prevent precipitation and then use the pillow and also filter the water going in. We aren't really going out right now so have to make do with what we have around.
 
We have a testing error I think. TA - "0" and pH in any shade of red/pink can't happen. With low/no TA the pH has to be very low also, into the yellow range.

Baking soda brings the TA up. Let's get TA to 50 before you worry about pH
 
We have a testing error I think. TA - "0" and pH in any shade of red/pink can't happen. With low/no TA the pH has to be very low also, into the yellow range.

Baking soda brings the TA up. Let's get TA to 50 before you worry about pH
You are exactly right! Thank you for picking up on that. I got distracted by a husband wanting dinner and recorded the data incorrectly, the TA is 50. Also we have already added about 2500 gallons with the hose thinking that the CU-later 4 would take out the iron so it's too late to filter the water as it's going in. My bad, I should have thought of this but it slipped my mind. So with the water already in the pool, I guess the best we can do is filter the rest of the water going in, remove some with the CU-later and add sequestrant for the remainder. It's cool here(40-50F) for the next fews so I'm hoping algae won't bloom without chlorine. What order would you recommend putting chemicals into the pool?
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim5055
You are exactly right! Thank you for picking up on that. I got distracted by a husband wanting dinner and recorded the data incorrectly, the TA is 50. What order would you recommend putting chemicals into the pool?
Leave the TA where it is, adjust pH to 7.3 and start bringing the FC up if you have the water circulating.
 
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.