Quickset pool water turned brown overnight

[Khufford]

Got a new 14ft 2500 ga quickset pool. Filled it yesterday from our well put recommended amount of chlorine in it plus a floater. This morning the water was brownish green. I shocked it this morning thinking it was an allege issue. Went and put algaecide in it as well.
pH is 8-9 and I keep putting dry acid in to bring it down. I already had to rinse the filter once and probably will again. I’m thinking this has to do with our well water and it’s the metals in the water. Our water has very little iron in it so I thought I would be ok. Bottom and sides of the pool are also turning brown. Probably sediment.
What am I doing wrong or what can I go to get the water clear?

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Yes this is iron in your well water. Some well users have to fill their pool slowly as the well can't keep up with the rate the water is pumped out. Your well may have gotten low and pumped up some iron sediment into the pool, if you normally have low iron. Good news is this can be filtered out. Watch this video to see how to build an iron filter for your pool.

 

[Khufford]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Yes this is iron in your well water. Some well users have to fill their pool slowly as the well can't keep up with the rate the water is pumped out. Your well may have gotten low and pumped up some iron sediment into the pool, if you normally have low iron. Good news is this can be filtered out. Watch this video to see how to build an iron filter for your pool.

Thanks for the video. And yes it took me two days in two different 4hr stints to fill it. When it was done the water was perfectly clear and looked great but when I woke up it was brown. That seems really fast to turn like that. Is that normal. Thanks for the video.

 

[mknauss]

That seems really fast to turn like that. Is that normal.

When you added the chlorine, and raised the pH initially, the soluble iron in the water turned to rust, which turned the water brown.

Get your pH in the 7's and use a filter Zea showed.

 

[Khufford]

When you added the chlorine, and raised the pH initially, the soluble iron in the water turned to rust, which turned the water brown.

Get your pH in the 7's and use a filter Zea showed.

Yeah. That is what I was afraid of. I keep putting the recommended dry acid in to lower the pH but it is still reading 9 on my test strips. Do I keep dumping more in? Thanks for all of the help.

 

[mknauss]

I would not rely on test strips. You need a proper test kit. Even a cheap TC/pH drop test from Home Depot or Walmart is better.
Also, dry acid is not the best product to use, muriatic acid is better for your pool.

It is not possible to have a pH of 9 with water unless you have added caustic. So assume the pH is 8.2, and add acid to lower the pH to 7.4. Keep doing that until you get a pH in the 7's.

 

[zea3]

I would brush the pool and make sure the dry acid is dissolving. If you can find an inexpensive 6 way test kit that will help you get more accurate test results. I would also switch to muriatic acid instead of dry acid and brush the pool to mix it in after adding it to the pool.

 

[Khufford]

I would brush the pool and make sure the dry acid is dissolving. If you can find an inexpensive 6 way test kit that will help you get more accurate test results. I would also switch to muriatic acid instead of dry acid and brush the pool to mix it in after adding it to the pool.

Thanks for that tip. Actually a correction to my post above. I am using sodium bisulfate (alkaminus ph minus powder). I will get some muriatic acid.

 

[mknauss]

sodium bisulfate

AKA Dry Acid

 

[Khufford]

Crossing fingers this works. Thanks for all of the tips.

 

[zea3]

You might want to put some boards across the ladder steps to make a platform to put the iron filter on so it can rest on its side. Having the filter inverted may allow some of the iron sediment back into the pool. Good news is I can see the bottom of your pool!