Refilling with well water (iron stains)

[blepore]

Thanks Ben. That brings the whole thing into focus. Basically, keep water from aerating (especially on walls) that will precipitate out the iron and sequester what does enter water with Mineral Magnet. Only concern i have is that its still in the water.

Remaining questions:

- Going to try CuLator 4PPM to remove this stuff compeletely. How does this factor into your step by step?
- How do i remove stains that may be COPPER (blue-green)? Probably from my formerly used Copper Ion/Ozone santizing system... NOW ON BBB for years!
- What shoudl my Calcium Hardness levels be for this? I've read here that high levels help with containing iron precipitation. Mines been about 200-250
- Will you share the design of your "pre-filter" for use in filling pool (and maybe as a pre-filter to my house softener if possible)?

A little more info to help with your understaning of my situation:

- I have a water softener that raises the PH to about 7.2 and removes most iron/manganese but, often is overloaded when filling pool so some iron bleeds through
- Raw water is aboutg 6PPM iron with some managnese and 6.7 PH. Water never gets really brown but, it may stain walls. I'd guess it woudl get up to 2-3PPM
- Fairly handy with plumbing/hardware but need to have the chemistry explained to grasp the total picture
- Signature info below shows more details

[PoolDoc]

Ok.

1. I wouldn't recommend using the CuLator till you have the pool up and running. What evidence we have suggests that it works VERY slowly -- possibly for the purely physical reason that it takes a LONG time to pass most of the pool water over a small 'tea-bag' of minerals sitting in the skimmer. Most of the water going through the skimmer never touches the 'tea-bag'. SO, you have to be managing the iron successfully the entire time the CuLator sits there.

2. I think Iron Out will do so. Get a small bottle from Walmart, and try on both kinds of stains. Estimate how much you need based on the results (maybe none, if it doesn't work well) Then buy the quantity you need either from Amazon, or directly from Summit Brands.

3. Don't worry about calcium yet. Besides, I doubt that there is significant calcium in your fill water; usually metal contaminated water is acidic and low in calcium. Use your K2006, and test raw well water for pH, total alkalinity, and calcium. Repeat the test AGAIN with water downstream of your softener.

4. I'll do the filter, but not tonight. Gonna go watch "Horatio Hornblower" with my family! Besides, the design couldn't be used upstream of your softener -- getting precipitated iron into a softener is a MESS. (Have you been told about using sodium hydrosulfite to maintain the zeolite in your softener? If not, you need to learn about it. Iron Out is a mixture of sodium hydro and sodium sulfite. Hydro is a bit hard to handle, and harder to get, now.)

5. If you've got manganese, I need to modify the filter design some, and you absolutely need to make sure that there is NO bleed through. Plan to regenerate as often as need (or even more often) to prevent that. You do NOT want manganese in your pool!

I'll post more links and stuff, hopefully tomorrow. Meanwhile, you need to test the Iron Out, and also make sure you're ready to regenerate. You do NOT want water with 2 - 3 ppm Fe hitting the plaster during clean up, so you'll need to re-gen just prior to starting the clean up with Iron Out. If you've never clean your zeolite, ask your softener people about that. (If you DIY the softener system, call the mfg of the zeolite used, and ask them. You may be able to use Iron Out for that purpose, in which case getting a 50# bucket direct from Summit might be a very good idea.)