Ready to SLAM and I have some questions

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Hi Marty,
I am now in full panic mode with my brown water. It is really brown...i can hardly see the bottom in the shallow end. Will I end up with a stained pool? I need to triage...my CYA, my SLAM, my algae, my pumps, my iron staining

The CYA water swap is leading me into bigger problems. And it appears the only way to get rid of iron is....a water swap. My head is spinning

I searched the forum on iron and saw several articles, from filtering with polyfill to sequestering. Texas Splash (Iron in water) said nothing removes the iron and Richard (same post) said "and if you're lucky it will precipitate out". The water coming into the pool from the hose looks very clear. I used a 5-gal bucket when calibrating the inlet and outlet flows for the water swap and it is clear so mechanical filtering on the inlet likely won't do much. Other posts say to use ascorbic acid and use polyfill in the skimmer to catch iron that precipitates out. And other articles (Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading) say to use Jack's Magic purple.

I switched my fill to the soft water bibb that normally fills the pool. I don't know if that gets all the iron out or not, but I have not seen the brown pool reaction before.

My pool pumps are not on. Should I pump through my filter to clear the iron?

My filter is depleted. I backwashed it prior to starting this process and have not replenished the DE yet. I was planning to open it up and clean the filter grids when the water was under control but i can do it sooner.

I am in the middle of a SLAM turning into a nightmare. What do I worry about first?
- continue to swap the water (I have swapped about 4000 gal out of 27000 gal)
- deal with the iron reaction before anything else. Should I mess with ascorbic acid/polyfill now or later?
- when should I resume the SLAM? Now? Later?
- should I run my pool filter pump?
- my pool chemistry is going from not-so-bad with high CYA to disaster. My FC was 27 this morning from the shock last night. It will likely fall today with the sunlight. Where should it be?

thanks
 
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If the water is brown, you have rust in the water. That is the time to filter it.

I did not realize you had all these extenuating circumstances. I would probably be best to abandon the water exchange and start filtering out the iron.

To me, you are going to need to replace this water. If it means draining quick and replacing with trucked in water, so be it. Do you really have a high water table right now?

Or, you will just live with the water you have. We would call that pool store water. You can limp by with potions and horrible looking water that I know I would not swim in, and then deal with this in the fall.
 
OK. This is really blowing up on me. I mentioned in earlier posts i was on a well and it didn't occur to me this could happen

We didn't get a lot of rain over the winter, 18-19in vs 36in. I really don't know how deep the water table is right now...

I stopped filling the pool and i turned on the filter with some new DE. Have I damaged the pool? My wife is asking me questions I can't answer

I can take a chance and continue pumping it out and re-fill it with trucked-in city water. Or i can wait until the fall when I know the water table is lower. It will probably take a couple days to pump it all out unless I put more pumps in there

Can I do anything now to get rid of the iron in the water before i replace it? Or just pump it out and call the water truck in?

thanks
 
No damage. Just need to filter out the iron. It is in the form of rust right now and can be filtered. Your DE filter will capture it plus get some polyfill for the skimmer or at least put some paper towels in the skimmer to capture it.
 
If you decide to replace the water, you can rent sump pumps from Home Depot that pump 3000-4000 gallons per hour. Just need a place to put that much water. I pump mine to the sewer cleanout when I exchange the water in my pool.
 
Hi NorcalX, it will cost me about $1500 to fill with city water from the hydrant.

Marty, I have my DE filter on. I will pump out and the water truck is not available until Friday morning. Should I power wash teh pebble-tec prior to refilling?


thanks

Bob
 
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Do not power wash. Iron right now is not staining, it is in the form of rust in your water. It should start to clear the brown color with filtering.

If you have iron staining, which I doubt you will, you use AA to remove it. Then you have to sequester it. But you have not had issues with this in the past, so I doubt your iron levels are that high.
 
Ok, water truck can come Friday. Local HD pump pulls 3600gal/hr at 5 ft head...a bit less as the water goes down.

I can't find anybody local that does kieserite blasting. I was hoping to get it all out of the way at once. I may have to figure out a DIY solution.

Once the new water is in, where do I start? What do I balance first? I didn't see an article in Pool School about starting with new water. Do I shock it with liquid chlorine/bleach and start the SLAM process? Get the pH, CH, and TA dialed in? Test initial levels, use Pool Math, then shock? I assume I dial the salt level in later. I have the salt kit from TFTest
 
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Once full run your tests. If you fully drained it, your CYA will be low. If you leave a couple feet of water in the deep end, then test CYA.
Start with chlorine, adjust pH, and add CYA, if necessary.
 
As I get ready to pump and re-fill, my attention turns to the calcium ring around the pool. My wife called somebody a couple years ago who said he couldn't blast it without damaging the tiles. You mentioned the keiserite blasting but I can't find anybody within 2 hrs to do it...and they charge $6/ft plus a premium to travel out here. Is acid washing a viable alternative? Calcium Scaling - Trouble Free Pool. If so, this may be the time to do it. Any thoughts on getting rid of the ring around the tile...after that I will manage the CSI better
 
Anyone do soda blasting? That will work, just more of an issue with water chemistry but since you are draining ----

I think you will find using acid will be very tough to get much done. The evaporite is not pure calcium scale, so it makes for a difficult time in getting it off. But you can try.
 
OK, things are looking better. I still have a water truck scheduled for Friday, but a lot of the iron came out in the filter.

If the iron is in solution and requires a water-change to get it out, why is it coming out of solution and filtering out like this?

Yesterday afternoon I could hardly see the bottom on the shallow end and I could not see the vacuum or drain in the deep end, even in bright sun. I didn't take a photo then, but after running the filter for several hours I saw a significant improvement, back-washed the DE , and took the 7pm photo last night. This morning the pool was much, much clearer and I back-washed the DE again (photo) and took the 6am photo.

I took some measurements. CYA is coming down but still very high

Is the water swap still the recommended course of action?

pH: 7.8
FC: 32 (i have not added anything since i shocked it Sunday. I am surprised it is still so high)
CC: 0.5
CH: 300
TA: 80
 

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The iron was not in solution, it was in the form of rust. That is why I said it would filter out. The water exchange is to remove your CYA.
 
CYA is still too high but up to you. If you want to fight a pool with high CYA this summer, cancel the water truck.
 
What makes the iron appear as rust in the presence of chlorine? The pool water was clear until I elevated the chlorine level during shock then added new water. The new water in the 5-gal bucket was clear. As I added water, the pool turned green then nearly opaque rust brown
 

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