Rust Colored Water/Film

[onlyblondinusa]

Our pool was filled with well water. We shocked it and put a chlorine tablet in the floater today and now it has a rust color to the water.. There is also a film in some place that when you touch it leaves a rust color stain on your hand. I have never seen this before we usually use city water this is our first summer with well water.

[aylad]

Sounds like you have iron in your water, which is common in wells. Your choices are pretty much going to be either using a metal sequestrant, which actually just keeps the iron in suspension so it doesn't drop out and stain your pool, hands, and anything else, or you can filter out the iron that is causing your film and rust color in the water. It is likely that the high levels of chlorine (and I'll bet your pH is on the high side, too) caused the iron to drop out of suspension, and become visible to you. There are threads in the metals forum where people talk about making homemade filters, then running the well water past a high chlorine source, like a trichlor puck, before the water goes through the filter, causing the iron to be filtered out before it gets to the pool.

The choice is yours--but if you go the sequestrant route, keep in mind that it's not a one-time thing--you'll have to continually use it to keep the water from being rust colored.

Janet