Refilling with well water (iron stains)

[blepore]

Accidently drained my pool this year. Now looking at refililng 35K gallon gunite pool with well water. Water runs through softener but, still allows some iron to bleed through.

I have some old iron stains on the sides and floor that i want to get rid of. Should I hold off on refilling and attack them while it's empty? Is that easier?

Also, what do i do to ensure that the stains don't come back with the new well water I'm adding?

I have algicide, 5lbs of vitamin C, plus 4 quarts of mineral magnet that i saved from last year when i was going to try and remove the stains.

Thanks for the guidance

[aylad]

Hi blepore, and welcome!!

I'm not a stain expert by any means, so I'll let Pooldoc or one of the others with stain experience answer your stain questions. If you can remove most, if not all of the iron before filling your pool, that's obviously the best answer. You might want to use the Google search feature in my sig to look for metal filtering--we've had other folks in the past who have handmade filters to run the water past a high chlorine source and into cotton batting, cheesecloth, or other material, before allowing the water in the pool, creating a situation where the metal drops out on to the filter material and never makes it to the pool. That obviously would make things much easier for you in the long run, if it's feasible for you to do. If you have no other choice than to use the water with iron in it, then you'll minimize your staining by keeping your chlorine and pH levels low.

What type of algaecide do you have? If it's not Polyquat, I wouldn't use it at all....

[blepore]

i have something called Blue Shield Mustard Algae Eliminator which is 60% Poly.... Ethylene Dichloride. is this the same as PolyQuat? Have BlueSheild Mineral Magnet for the sequestering agent.

What shoudl i use to clean the bare walls? Muric Acid? Diluted? Scrub brush? how long do i let it sit on the walls? Do i need to pump out the remaining water once it's got all that acid in it?

Also, wanted to mention my filter is a StaRite cartridge type witn one brand new set and one old set of filters. I was going too start with the old set and after the initial filtering, move to the newer set.

Also, that "metal filtering" sounds interesting. I tried your search suggestion but, it came up with too many non-related topics when i typed metal filtering (got everything with filter and/or metal in it). i tried "metal filtering" and nothing came up. What is the proper search strings to use? It seems Google's normal search pattern doesn't seem to work here?

[aylad]

Here's a couple of them....I'll see if I can find the others..pay attention to any of the posts by mbar--she's got more stain experience than anybody on the forum except for Pooldoc.

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

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...igh-Iron/page2

[PoolDoc]

Hi Blepore;

You don't want to acid wash a pool yourself. It's to be avoided anyhow, since it works by ripping off the top layer of your pool's finish, leaving it nice and white, but also rough, porous, and more easily stained.

Go to Walmart or where ever and get a small container of Iron Out (detergent / stain section). Make a slurry of it, wet a stained area of your pool (no standing water) brush or sponge the slurry over as much of the stain as you can, and see if it lifts it. If it does, see how much area you can cover, and then estimate how many times that area you need to clean.

You can get a larger quantity (65 oz) from Amazon:

Super Iron Out IO65N Rust Stain Remover

but if you are going to need a LOT, call Summit Brands and ask them for a delivered price on a 50lb container. They will sell direct.

One caution: if you have asthma, do NOT do this. Iron Out contains sodium hydrosulfite which can trigger severe acute attacks in asthmatics.

But, using Iron Out will NOT damage your pool, and will not leave you with 1,000's of gallons of acid and water to dispose of. It's not damaging to small pumps, so you can hook up a little sump in the pool, with a long hose, and run the water into the nearest toilet and the sewer. (It won't hurt sewers, but it's not good for grass!)

[blepore]

Thanks Pool Doc. Interesting you recomend NOT using acid wash. Good news is I use Iron out in my well softener brine tank and love it's results. So if i understnad you correnctly, i shoudl still pump out all reamaining water once i'm finished and fill from scratch? No way to save it?

Most importantly, when i'm refilling from my well, iron will leach through again. How do i avoid restaining all over again?!?!?

Should i try a make shift iron removal system as i'm filling?

I've also read about Culator and found that to be an interesting solution. Maybe i just direct add those to the auto fill or put a hose directly on a bag as i'm filling?

Still have teh AA and sequestering agents ready to go if that makes sense.

Thanks again. Hope to have a white pool again finally!