How do I remove the tannins from my pool?

[WendyO911]

I have a brand new ag pool... 27x52. Cartidge filter, and 1.5 hp pump. My well water has tannin in it, making my pool a light green blue color. I put a sock over the stainer basket to trap the issue... seems to be working... but slowly. Any ideas? HELP! All other levels are great.

[PoolDoc]

It would be extraordinarily unlikely to find tannins in well water; are you sure it's not iron?

+ If you have a pool store in your area, get some polyquat algaecide (info: www.poolsolutions.com/gd/polyquat.html ) and begin using that as quickly as possible. If you can't get that, get some cheap foamy algaecide AND some clarifier, and use those till you can get better materials by ordering online.
+ Do NOT add chlorine -- if it's iron, it will drop it all out.
+ If the store has Jacks Magic Pink Stuff or Metal Magnet, use that as well. If they have other liquid metal control agents, make sure you can return it unopened, buy it, and then let us see what it is BEFORE you use it.
+ Run your filter 24/7
+ Get a cheap OTO / phenol red testkit, and tell us what your pH is.
+ Do NOT add any of the stuff the pool store will want you to add: no alkalinity, no calcium, no pH up, no optimizer, -- you can add some stabilizer.
+ Order a K2006 or K2006C testkit so you can test and control your own pool water.

What I'm trying avoid is having the iron drop out, and make a mess of your pool. Instead the goal is to have it come out gradually, on your FILTER. You can't use chlorine yet, because it will drop the iron, but if you don't use something, your pool will turn green from algae, which is a whole other mess.

We don't really know what you are dealing with, so I'm trying to give you some first steps that will most likely work for a few days, no matter what you have.