Dark Brown water - NOT IRON!!!!

[madwil]

one big key- look in your toilet tank; if it is black or orange, you definitely have metals in your well water, regardless of other tests!

[Watermom]

I bet this is the one that Carl was thinking of:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...Removing-Iron&

[CarlD]

Yup! That's it, Lisa!

Also madwil's idea about the toilet cistern's a good one, although on a 20 year old commode even very low amounts of metal in the water will have accumulated, even with city water.

Carl

[cans25]

Thank you everyone! I tend to agree with the assessment that we have metal in the water. I know we have hard water but have never had it analysed (we've only been here since the fall and have a filter on our drinking water, but the brand new toilets to get a dirty tinge pretty quick. And am a little annoyed that the pool store is telling me we don't have a metal problem and selling us other products that are not working. I am going to try the sock and batting and see if that helps just because I don't have a sump pump on hand. I'll keep you posted!

Cheryl