Sediment from well water/where to start?!

[Jbillings83]

We have a 24ft Intex Prism Frame pool. Our filter is an Index sand filter pump, model SF90110T.

Our well water is cloudy. Last year we had a truck bring water in, and the little pool was perfect all season. My husband winterized it, and when we took the cover off the water was crystal clear. We attached a filter to our hose, and topped the pool off. The water is cloudy.

My husband went to the pool store, they tested the water.

ph - 8.3
alk - 166
TCL - 0
FCL - 0
Hard - 62
CYA - 49
copper - 0
iron - 0
phos - 0

The sales dude sold him packages of shock, and a jug of flocc. He also sold him PH up and calcium down. He came home and put the flocc in, immediately. He turned off the filter. We waited twelve hours and re-applied the flock. It's not sinking, very little change in the water. Visibility went from none to maybe 2ft down. One day later, same story, and this morning I began to panic about algae forming. It has been in the 90's all week. So I shocked the pool and turned the filter back on.

What should my next step be? What have I already done wrong? Since I just applied the shock, how long do I wait to have the water tested again?

I've attached a 3-frame photo of the pool immediately after it was filled with hose water(bottom), the next day after the first flocc treatment(middle), and this morning after the extra flocc. You can see the gel-substance floating on the top of the water, and despite following the package instructions I'm afraid I did it wrong.

Thank you so much for reading, and for any direction you can give, and for being patient with first time pool owners like myself who just want to get their little kiddos in there so they can cool off and get worn out. (Don't worry NOBODY is getting in that water right now)

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Hi there , I'm so sorry you found us due to the problem you're having with your water.

Your first mistake is that you went to a pool store. Of course they'll sell you *something*.....but none of it was what you needed. Why add FLOC to clear water?!?!!

You *need* your *own* reliable test kit. No one is going to do or care about your water quality more than you, so it makes sense to put the tester in *your* hands. We here at TFP have found there are only two kits that contain all you need to test your water. The TF-100 or the K-2006C (the "C" is important) kits. Both use Taylor reagents (the gold standard reagents). You can find the K-2006C on Amazon, but tftestkits.net has both and you can compare them there. The TF-100 is a better buy.

You added FLOC which you have to vacuum to waste....if you are filtering it (running the pump) you're going to need to keep a close eye on your filter pressure and backwash when it rises 20-25% and refill as needed.

Can you drain and refill the pool? We can work with well water generally and this may be a faster route.

We like for folks to use liquid chlorine or plain unscented, un-thickened store bleach just like you buy for the laundry. Plain bleach is often much less costly than pool store chemicals. In fact, Alkalinity Increaser that the pool store sells is nothing more than baking soda, but at a much higher cost.

I'd also try to return for refund anything you haven't yet used. You do not want to be adding a granular shock product as that either has added CYA or calcium, neither of which you need more of. And the hardware store is a better source for muriatic acid to deal with high pH. Dry acid (which they sold you) is more costly and slower, and for cement pools or SWG pools it is just totally not recommended.

Please let us know what you want to do-

Maddie

 

[domct203]

Welcome to the forum!

Did you vacuum to waste all the floc that settled before you started running the filter? It’s not a good idea to run the floc through the filter, it will most likely gum up the sand and make matters worse.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! At this point the best solution may be to drain and have fresh water delivered. You will also need to deep clean your sand filter once the pool is drained.

 

[S1ngram]

At our house we fill our pool from a well not used for drinking. My pool looks and smells like a pond until my sand filter does it's job. It usually takes about 3 days after my first big fill of the season for the water to be clear again. I just follow TFP practices and before long we are swimming.

 

[Jbillings83]

The first year that we had the pool we filled it with well water, and ran the filter constantly. The water never cleared. So the second year, we ordered the water in, and it was perfect all year. This year we just topped it off with the hose. I don't know what is in our well water but it's just too fine for the sand to catch, apparently? Also I really don't know what I'm doing.

- - - Updated - - -

Fresh water isn't available until June 17th. Maybe even later now because I didn't order the delivery yesterday when I called. I will start looking at how to clean the sand filter.

 

[Jbillings83]

Hi there , I'm so sorry you found us due to the problem you're having with your water.

Your first mistake is that you went to a pool store. Of course they'll sell you *something*.....but none of it was what you needed. Why add FLOC to clear water?!?!!

You *need* your *own* reliable test kit. No one is going to do or care about your water quality more than you, so it makes sense to put the tester in *your* hands. We here at TFP have found there are only two kits that contain all you need to test your water. The TF-100 or the K-2006C (the "C" is important) kits. Both use Taylor reagents (the gold standard reagents). You can find the K-2006C on Amazon, but tftestkits.net has both and you can compare them there. The TF-100 is a better buy.

You added FLOC which you have to vacuum to waste....if you are filtering it (running the pump) you're going to need to keep a close eye on your filter pressure and backwash when it rises 20-25% and refill as needed.

Can you drain and refill the pool? We can work with well water generally and this may be a faster route.

We like for folks to use liquid chlorine or plain unscented, un-thickened store bleach just like you buy for the laundry. Plain bleach is often much less costly than pool store chemicals. In fact, Alkalinity Increaser that the pool store sells is nothing more than baking soda, but at a much higher cost.

I'd also try to return for refund anything you haven't yet used. You do not want to be adding a granular shock product as that either has added CYA or calcium, neither of which you need more of. And the hardware store is a better source for muriatic acid to deal with high pH. Dry acid (which they sold you) is more costly and slower, and for cement pools or SWG pools it is just totally not recommended.

Please let us know what you want to do-

Maddie

This morning when I checked the pool, I can see the bottom again. I was feeling really optimistic. So because I added the flocc the water and filter are probably junk? Good grief why would the packaging say to run the filter to circulate the stuff if it wrecks sand filters....? They sell a kind you can put directly into the sand too, right? I'm going to turn the filter on and let it keep running. Water delivery isn't available until June 17th and last year the water was too cold to really enjoy until mid-July. I watched the pressure on the pump all day yesterday and it never rose, we backwashed and it was very brown. So if the gel gets into the filter it will prevent the water from passing through, build up pressure, and break? It will also take a few days to get the water test kit, as well. I don't know what else I can really do aside from run the filter and wait. Thank you, Maddie. I'm gonna go for a bike ride and think things over. AUGH what have I done?!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Keep filtering and backwash as necessary or turn it off and see if it settles enough to allow you to vacuum or siphon the floc out.

Keep your chlorine up, mixing it in by hand if necessary if you want to keep the filter off.

If you can siphon or vacuum that floc out, and do a deep clean to the filter, you might dodge a bullet.

Maddie

 

[zea3]

Since the well sediment is very fine, you may want to invest in a slime bag. The slime bag attaches to the return outlet and will catch most debris that passes through the sand filter. You can see more about it here: Slime Bag Adaptor Fitting | The Slime Bag

 

[Jbillings83]

Keep filtering and backwash as necessary or turn it off and see if it settles enough to allow you to vacuum or siphon the floc out.

Keep your chlorine up, mixing it in by hand if necessary if you want to keep the filter off.

If you can siphon or vacuum that floc out, and do a deep clean to the filter, you might dodge a bullet.

Maddie

It's hard being patient, but this morning I can see the floc settled on the bottom of the pool!! I'm going to wait a bit longer and we will vacuum it out, and we may be able to salvage the water. woooooo. haha. Thank you for going on this wild ride with me.

 

[Jbillings83]

I wanted to reply so that in future anyone searching for the same problem will know how I resolved the issue! The floc took nearly a full week to settle because our water was so bad. Once it did, I got desperate and used our shop vac to suck up the waste! It was a great idea, because it turned into a handy siphon with a vacuum attachment. Once you get the water flowing, the hose doesn't even have to be attached to the bucket and you can move freely around the perimeter of the pool. I also bought a hose filter off Amazon that is for use with RV's to purify drinking water. Running our well 1/2 an hour at a time, through this drinking water filter, is replacing the murky mess with crystal clear water.


The shop vac hose doesn't quite reach to the middle of the pool, but I have been able to vacuum the bottom of the pool like a rug.





Isn't that crazy? I'm hoping I can get some help later tonight and get that last little bit from the center. Then I'll move on to balancing the water. Thanks again for all your help!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

wow!That's a lot of improvement.....but you'll still need to start a SLAM to get it entirely clear. With your pool the water needs to be so clear that when you take a pic and post it here we can actually see the print pattern on the liner in the bottom.

But that will probably go pretty fast since it looks so much improved and you can filter it now.

Take that evil floater device outta there friend! Its bleach time for you!

Did you order your test kit yet?? Its time for some serious water fixin'

Maddie