Funky green water!

Hi Everyone! I'm new to this site, been lurking for days, trying to figure out how to clear up my poor pool. It seems like you guys are very knowledgable, and I'm hoping some one could lend some advice. Here goes...

I had my pool installed the third week in June. Above ground 21' by 52" (10,000 (ish) gal). I filled my pool with unfiltered well water, didn't realize how bad the water truly was until after! My bad! Then the pool installer realized i had a broken/missing piece for my pump so the water sat unfiltered for about 10 days. The pool pretty much looked like a nasty pond after a good rain storm.

I put some metal magnet in as good measure, so I thought, because iron levels in the area are very high! Then when the filter was finally turned on I let it circulate for about 24 hours then brought my sample to the pool store.
They told me that I'd need to shock it and up the PH according to their "start-up program." I knew from my last pool that shock and iron don't mix well, but I thought they knew what they were talking about. Apparently not!

Now, I've gone through 3 bottles of iron out, 4 bottles of super minquest and the pool has gone from brown opaque to a slightly clearer green. The last test I had done said the levels of iron were at 3ppm. This is better than the day before when they were at 4ppm....

I guess my question is, do I continue with the iron out/metal magnet stuff until it clears up?! I don't want to add any clorine until I have the metal under control, right?

The kids are dying to swim, and we've had a heat wave here in New England for the past week! I feel so bad I can't even let them in it!!!

Sorry for the length, I know you're probably going to ask for my #'s and I'm going to try and get them done tonight. I'm also looking at buying one of the kits on this site.....

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Dalrene

Welcome to the forum! I highly recommend the test kit from this site - it is great to test your own water. Second, I would keep my ph low - at 7.2, add more sequestering agent - metal magnet is what you are using. Make sure you put in a lot of it. You can add some polyquat, and take your chlorine level up really slowly. Use regular household bleach. I think powdered shocks add to the staining. Add enough bleach to take your chlorine up 1ppm at a time, just keep your ph low - high chlorine with high ph cause metals to precipitate. You can use muriatic acid to bring down the ph. You will notice that some of the green will go away with the acid and the sequestering agent. While raisning the chlorine, if you see the water start to turn more green, add more sequestering agent - once all the metal is bonded to the sequesterer, you will be fine to take the chlorine up to shock. If you have a sand or DE filter, you can add a trichlor puck to the skimmer. This will help to let any metal that is ready to fall out, to fall out onto the filter. DO NOT add puck if you have a cartridge filter. DO NOT add bleach to the skimmer if there is a puck in there - add it to the stream from the return.

Thank you so much for the help. I've ordered the test kit from here! I added a triclor puck to the skimmer last night based on your previous posts. Can I bring the ph up now with the puck still in the skimmer? And excuse my ingornace, but what is polyquat?
Thanks again, I can't tell you how much this is appreciated!

You will be so happy to have the test kit, and to take control over your own pool. I wouldn't raise the ph up past 7.2 till you get your chlorine up where you want it. PH at 7 is neutral - so 7.2 is fine and won't hurt your liner. You want to keep your ph low when dealing with any metals and adding chlorine. Polyquat is an algaecide. You want an aglaecide that says 60 on the bottle. It helps to prevent algae, nothing but chlorine will kill algae once it takes hold of the pool - so polyquat is used as a preventative. You can buy it anywhrere that sells pool chemicals. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.