Newbie with hard well water

I just bought my first pool and I wish I had found this site prior to setting it up.

We bought a round shaped Pro Series pool that is 16 feet x 48 inches deep. Our well water was recently tested to make sure it is safe for drinking. It was tested by the Central District Health Dept--not by a pool supply place--so results should be accurate. The pH was 7.35 and hardness was a whopping 103 grains (grains=17.1 ppm). We are hoping to hook up to town water soon, but for now we're dealing with this terrible hard water.

It took us about 3 days to fill the pool because we only ran the well a couple hours at a time so as to avoid over-working it. The water was cloudy right away. You cannot see the bottom of the pool. I have had a difficult time getting enough chlorine in the water for it to register on the testing kit--the HTH 6-way drop kit. I have used bleach with 8.25% sodium hypochlorite and then I did add a pound and a half of HTH Super Shock n Swim (that I purchased prior to finding this site and realizing that I don't need it).

We have been dealing with bad storms and heavy rains in Nebraska, so the rain water may have been hindering my progress. I am running the pump 12-24 hrs a day. (SkimmerPlus 1500 filter pump.) The highest I got the Chlorine to was 1 ppm. Then I bought some HTH Stabilizer and Conditioner (96% CYA). (I have ordered the Kem-Tek All-in-One Chlorinating Granules that you recommend however it will not be here for a few days.) I put a pound and a half of the Stabilizer in on 6/5. Did not test water on 6/6 due to work schedule. Today (6/7) Chlorine is 5, but could be higher because that's as high as the test goes. PH is between 7.5 and 7.8 on color chart. CYA is 30. Alkalinity is 210. I did not get a hardness reading because it is off the charts. After counting out 100 drops, the water color had not changed from red to blue one bit, so I gave up. My question is why did the chlorine not show up on the test kit until I added the CYA?

Also, after I get the chlorine, CYA and pH levels stable, what (if anything) can be done about the cloudy water? Do you think it's a result of the high alkalinity, and if so, will muriatic acid help?

Q & A

Q: Why no chlorine with out stabilizer?
A: I don't know, but possibly because you didn't test immediately, and the sun had stripped all of it before you did test. Under full sun, chlorine is removed from unstabilized water VERY rapidly.

Q. What can be done about the cloudy water?

A: 3 possible solutions:

1. New Unicel or Filbur replacement cartridges *might* be able to filter it out; they will definitely work better for you over time. If you buy polyquat at the same time, and use SMALL doses every 2 - 3 days, it may help. Polyquat is both an algaecide and an effective clarifier, but I'm not sure if it will work on calcium particles. Don't use it up, and you'll have some to use if you go on vacation.

2. Lowering the TA -- a LOT -- may be sufficient to resolve the problem. To do so, add muriatic acid to lower the pH just below 7.0, and then maintain a low pH. To do this adjust the pH to 7.0 - 7.2, and then add another *small* dose of acid. Let the pH rise to 7.0 - 7.2 again, and then repeat. The more the pool is aerated (= small kids splashing around, big kid water fight, etc) the faster the TA will be stripped AND the pH will rise. Low pH (<6.0) will damage your pool, so you want to get as low as you can, but not too low.

3. If chlorinate, then turn the pump off for 24 hours, the calcium carbonate MAY settle to the bottom. If it does, and you have the equipment, you can carefully vacuum the dust to waste, using a vac-head, a hose, and a pool pole to siphon it on to the ground.

You'll need to read all these pages:

Using muriatic acid safely => http://pool9.net/ma/
Lowering alkalinity => http://pool9.net/alk-step/
Polyquat => http://pool9.net/polyquat/

The Super Simple Recipe page will help in a variety of ways, and has links on the filter cartridges: http://pool9.net/ssr/

Thanks! I will try these suggestions (one at a time) and see if anything helps.

Actually, you can do #2 immediately -- just get some muriatic acid -- and #1 once the the filter cartridges arrive.

(Good grief, that sounds bad, when I re-read it. :p )

Anyhow, save #3 to try if the first 2 don't work.

It looks like I might not need to go to great lengths to "fix" the cloudy water. Last night when I went to test it, I found that the particles had stuck together and settled to the bottom. We can finally see the bottom of the pool--the water is clear! Now I just have to attempt to vacuum to waste to remove the gunk that has settled on the bottom. I'm hoping I can do this correctly, without stirring the stuff back into the water. I haven't used the vacuum yet, so I hope I have the option of vacuuming to waste. If not, are there other ways to remove the gunk from the bottom? I still plan to purchase the better quality filters because the one the pool came with is already falling apart. We've been cleaning it out daily.

Great!

But be careful -- most Intex type pools come with a hose pressure driven venturi type back that drives large debris and leaves into a mesh sack. This type of tool will NOT help.

Go to Walmart, etc. and get a vac head, a pool and a hose long enough to reach from the middle of your pool to 6 - 8' OUTSIDE your pool. Overfill your pool, let everything settle, and then start a siphon in the vac hose that will drain water OUT of the pool, via the vac head. Then move the vac head over the powder (slowly enough to not stir things up) and pull the powder out.

It will probably take some practice to get this right, and not drain too much water.

So far we have been unsuccessful in getting the gunk out of the pool. We tried the siphon method however it didn't create enough suction, and mainly just stirred up the stuff making the water cloudy again. Then we tried to hook the vacuum up to the pump, but pumped the water out of the pool rather than through the filter cartridge and back into the pool. That removed some of the gunk, but again, it stirred stuff up so that the water became cloudy and we couldn't see what we were doing. I think that it would take several rounds of vacuuming to remove the amount of gunk that is on the bottom. It is tedious work and does not seem to be very effective. At this point, I'm wondering if it would be easier to stir the stuff back up and run it through the pump (after the better quality filter cartridges arrive) in the hopes that the filter will remove the cloudiness. I also considered trying to use the shop vac with some sort of modified attachment on it so that it doesn't suck up quite so much water so quickly. There are some You Tube videos of people doing that.

Nothing wrong with that.

If you do, it will be MUCH easier if you get the Unicel cartridges, but buy a couple of extra, so you can rotate them. As long as you clean and dry them before putting them up, you can store them indefinitely, to re-use later.

There are some tips out there (maybe even on the forum) about using DE filter powder with cartridges: don't do that. Unicel tells me that it damages the fibers in the filter material.

I've been using the Unicel cartridges for about 1 week now, and cleaning them out every evening. You wouldn't believe the difference it has made! Nearly all of the gunk has been filtered out and the water is clear. I just have to stir it up once or twice a day because the gunk that's left keeps settling to the bottom. It's almost completely out of the water though. I would highly recommend the Unicel cartridges to others with similar problems.

Thanks for the feed back.