New to Forum could use a little help

[jkoch]

My first pool coming in two days, size is 21' by 52". I'm reading as much as possible but am freightened this is going to turn into a never ending battle.

I have Iron bacteria in my water (well) and anything I fill with water eventually turns brown. I am going to shock my well before filling the pool but not sure if it will help much.

Tested the water at a pool shop:

Tot Chlorine: .3
Free Chrlorine: .3
Hardness: 265
Total Alkalinity: 206
Iron : 2


Any suggestions on what to do during the first fill to help avoid the iron issues?
Any other Newbie Best Practices with my first fill would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[aylad]

What's the pH of your fill water? High TA and pH, along with high Cl levels, could cause a problem for you if you don't use metal sequestrant. Marie (Mbar) is our resident metals expert, and should be along shortly to give you some advice. IN the meantime, read as much of the "Metals" forum posts as you can--the better you understand the process, the easier handling your pool will be.

Welcome to the forum!!

Janet

[jkoch]

Thanks,
The PH says >7.3. I'll also check out the metals forum. I just shocked my well tonight and hoping it will bring down the iron but no guarentees.
Any additional help is appreciated.

[mbar]

I would add a metal sequestering agent to your pool water before you add the bleach. Add even a little more than the bottle says you need. Your ph is good, so I think you will be ok. Let us know how you do.

[jkoch]

Thanks a bunch. I shocked my well last night to knock down the iron. Will wait till next week, test then fill.

One Question: Should I add anything along with the sequestering agent when I fill?

[mbar]

No, don't add anything else while filling. Once the pool is filled you can stat to balance the water. Make sure you have a good test kit that tests for Chlorine, (free chlorine & combined chlorine) Ph, Alkalinity, Calcium and Cya.

[PoolDoc]

Hi Jkoch;

Have wrestled with pools filled with metal contaminated well water many times. There's no perfect solution.

First, with almost no exceptions, pool products for stains and metal control do NOT remove the metals from the water or the pool. They may temporarily make them disappear, but all the metal is still there.

Second, there are only three places metals in your pool water can go: (1) your filter, (2) your water, OR (3) your pool -- as stains. Obviously, #1 is to be preferred, since that's the only way you can get it OUT of your pool.

Third, if you put metals in your pool, you will have stain problems. Period. If it's only a little metal, especially iron, the problem can be small. Otherwise . . .

Fourth, the only way to really avoid problems with metals in your pool, is to not put them in your pool in the first place.

In a situation like yours there are a few things you can do that will help. For example with iron or manganese, shocking your well (how do you do that??) might leave some of the metals in the well.

But to keep metals out of the pool here's what I'd recommend:


Make sure your filter is big enough -- that means bigger than standard for AG pools.
Chlorinate with trichlor via the skimmer -- this will tend to oxidize the iron so it will be filtered out.
Using cal hypo tabs would be even better (not at the same time as trichlor!!), if you could find any, but . . .
Failing that, read this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showpost.php?p=63032&postcount=27


Let me know if any of this makes sense.

PoolDoc

[AnnaK]

In a situation like yours there are a few things you can do that will help. For example with iron or manganese, shocking your well (how do you do that??) might leave some of the metals in the well.
PoolDoc



I know! I know!

Cal-hypo pellets!

We have a well drilled into a "sulfur vein", common in this part of Pennsylvania. What that means, in practice, is that the well water contains sulfur producing bacteria which are harmless but exceedingly stinky. Think rotten eggs. We treat the raw well water with an apparatus which injects a chlorine mist into it and then filters that out via a carbon filter.

About once every other year when the equipment fails due to corrosion of parts from the chlorine we have to shock the well.You do that by dropping chlorine pellets directly into the well. The amount depends on the depth of water in the well; you're shooting for 5 ppm for shock level. People who use pellets to sanitize their wells on a daily basis maintain somewhere between 0.6 to 3 ppm.

The pellets are 3/8" in diameter x 5/16" long and weigh 1 g each. 70% cal-hypo.

Aren't you glad you asked?

[PoolDoc]

What do those pellets cost? How fast would they dissolve in a skimmer?

Pellets like those could help a LOT of people with metal problems.

PoolDoc

[jkoch]

Thanks for the input. I shocked my well yesterday with hopes of reducing the iron.

What about filling with my softened water?

It will take a few days but the softener dealer looked at the 14.5K gallons to fill an said it would work. My softeners utilizes fine mesh resin which has in the past taken out most if not all of my iron. Typically a fine mesh resin softener can take up to 3 ppm of iron out reasonably well.

So, Should I use softened water?

Thanks a bunch.

[PoolDoc]

If you've got a softener, they are very effective at removing metals, and the added sodium* shouldn't be a problem at all.

PoolDoc

* softeners add sodium, at least till they need to be regen'd

[jkoch]

For anyone looking to shock their well which does help reduce clear water iron (you know it is clear water iron when the water comes out of the tap clear but turns brown after a few minutes). Below is a nice instruction.

[PoolDoc]

Hi JKoch;

You can't post links yet -- I modded your post in without the link, and then checked. Seems OK and UGA.edu security should be OK.

But, there is a MAJOR insecurity in Adobe Reader and PDF files that is not fixed. So here's my caution to ALL readers. Before you read ANY PDF file off the Internet (even from here!), turn OFF JavaScript in Acrobat reader

Open Acrobat, and go to Edit | Preferences | Javascript \ UNCHECK "Enable Acrobat Javascript" and that's it. At least till you update Acrobat. But Adobe's profit plan for Acrobat depends on 'features' that Javascript makes possible, so they re-enable it behind your back with every update.

Anyhow here's the link for the PDF from UGA.edu:

http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/PDF/HACE-858-4.pdf


PoolDoc

[sturev]

Thanks for the input. I shocked my well yesterday with hopes of reducing the iron.

What about filling with my softened water?

It will take a few days but the softener dealer looked at the 14.5K gallons to fill an said it would work. My softeners utilizes fine mesh resin which has in the past taken out most if not all of my iron. Typically a fine mesh resin softener can take up to 3 ppm of iron out reasonably well.

So, Should I use softened water?

Thanks a bunch.


I'm on a well with lots of nasty things (Iron, sulfur, super high Alk and who knows what else... :)), and I filled my pool with the water from my treatment system and I've been totally happy! I have several filters and a salt softner, so if it's possible, I would sure consider it!

[AnnaK]

I'll give the plumbing shop a call tomorrow about the cost of the cal-hypo well shock pellets.

BTW, Adobe has come out with the new version of its Flash Player, v 10.1. The security issue reported a week ago no longer exists—so they say. PDF files with embedded .swf files should be safe again as should YouTube vids and other Flash content.

[AnnaK]

What do those pellets cost? How fast would they dissolve in a skimmer?

Pellets like those could help a LOT of people with metal problems.

PoolDoc



Okay, here are some more details:

Product name: Pro Chlor-Pel
Mfg: Pro Products LLC (http://www.proproducts.com), Ft. Wayne, IN
Active ingred. cal-hypo 70%
Inactive (not specified) 30%
Pellets wt.: 1 g (0.035 oz)
Contents: 2.27 kg (5 US pounds)

Cost ~ $32 at the plumbing supply store locally.

I do not know how quickly they dissolve in a skimmer basket. They're dang fast when they hit the well water, you can hear them hiss and fizzle.