Filling a small pool with iron well water

[newbiepool]

We just bought our first pool and filling it up tomorrow. Most likely we'll be filtering the well water to reduce orange water or using a fire dept to fill with city water. Either way...what is the best way to start treating the water.... Do we need to get rid of iron first with pool magnet or start with getting the PH and TA corrected first? Then should we use stabilizer / conditioner before we use chlorine tablets and shock and swim? Not really sure where to begin. Thx...

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

Using well water is going to create some big challenges for you with a new pool, until you get a handle on how to deal with your chemistry, so if at all possible, I would try for city water (assuming it doesn't contain metals). If you do have to use the well water, if there's any way possible to pre-filter it, do so...the more metal you can filter out before it gets into the pool, the easier this is going to be for you. You can use the Google search link in my sig to search through the forums for ideas that other people have used in the past (you may have to log out in order to read those threads, until your registration is completed by Pooldoc). If you use the well water, you'll need to use a metal sequestrant (they don't actually remove the metals--they just keep them suspended in your water so they don't fall out and stain your pool). Don't worry about the TA for now, and just make sure the pH is in the 7.0-7.6 range. You'll need to add enough chlorine to keep algae from growing, but you can't immediately shock the pool due to the metals, so you need to keep your chlorine in the 2-4 ppm range. In order to do this, you're going to need a test kit. WalMart sells a 6-way hth kit that is pretty good, but at the very least you're going to need an OTO kit that uses yellow and red drops to measure pH and chlorine. Until you have stabilizer in the water, you're going to need to add chlorine throughout the day, because the sun will consume it pretty quickly. Using trichlor tabs in a floater (assuming they are not the copper-containing kind) might be the best way to keep it chlorinated for now, but make sure to take the floater out while there are kids in the pool. You'll also need to keep an eye on your pH, because the trichlor will tend to push it downward. If your tabs contain copper, I would take them back and try a different supplier. Not all tabs contain it, but the ones from WalMart down here do.

If you use the city water, you still need a good test kit, but once you get the chlorine and pH in the right place, you can add your stabilizer and not have to worry so much about the water chemistry.

What size/volume is your pool, what size pump do you have, and what size/type of filter?

[newbiepool]

Thank you! I'm hoping we can get city water and have it delivered..it would be so much quicker! Our pool is 18x48 and about 6400 gallons. It's an Intex pool with the 1500 gallon filter pump and Intex filters (type A). Would you recommend the OTO kit with drops over the test strips?

[aylad]

Would you recommend the OTO kit with drops over the test strips?

Absolutely. "Guess strips", as we call them, can often tell you if there IS or IS not a level of something in the pool, but will not reliably tell you "how much". Drop-based testing is always more reliable, even if the tests the kit will run are limited. The 6-way hth would be even better....

[Watermom]

The 6-way hth would be even better....

Yes, and the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C would be even better! Ben has written in a few posts today that our main sellers on Amazon are currently out of stock, so you may want to wait a couple of days before checking. One of the sellers on Amazon that we really like is Amato Industries. So, check Amazon a little later in the week and see if they have restocked yet. (See the test kit link in Janet's signature above.)

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[newbiepool]

Thanks Watermom. We had gotten the 6 hth kit so when we need another I will see if they are available on Amazon. We had to filter well water so hopefully our chlorine tablets are copperfree and the filtering helped!