Hi, Waterbear,
That's a very informative post. So, for new pool owners who insist on filling with high iron content water, would it be economically feasible to then circulate the pool through a water softener with the special salt pellet?
That's a common issue on this forum and hard to find an inexpensive answer.
Dave S.
When we first bought the house, there was no water softener. Our water comes from a well. The toilets had a reddish-brown stain which would start to appear after several days. We had the water tested which showed the iron and manganese content and got a quote for a water softener. I was going to wait to install one but when we hooked up our new washing machine, I ran it empty to make sure everything was OK. The wash tub was white and as the water was filling up I could start to see the reddish brown tint and see stuff floating in the water. I got the softener installed soon after.
Since having the water softener, there are no more issues with the reddish brown toilet staining and no more stuff floating in the water (it's been about 10 years now).
I checked the Culligan site and they say they can usually remove soluable iron and particulate iron if the particles are large enough.
I believe that the filter media is supposed to trap calcium and magnesium ions (iron too?) then when you backwash the filter, it exchanges the trapped ions for sodium from the salt in the brine tank.
I've seen concerns about using softened water but have not seen specifically what the potential problem is with using it.
I am not an expert, just an informed consumer who had some water problems at my new (2 years ago) house in a new town. I suggest contacting your local water utility and perhaps a water treatment company or three(beware, there are a lot of rip offs in that industry that want to sell you everything you don't need but there are honest folk also! Sort of like pool store industry!). There is a lot of info on the 'net also. The main caution I will give you is to DO YOUR HOMEWORK and get several opinions. It would not hurt to pretest your water with your pool test kit first so you can see if the pH, Hardness, and Alkalinity readings are similar to the ones you get from the water softener and treatment companies you call. Be aware that the hardness test that many of them do are for Total (calcium and magnesium) hardness and therefore might be a much higher reading than the one the pool test kit (calcium hardness) will give you but it is a starting point. If you have access to any metal tests (copper, iron, etc.) it would not hurt to do them also. Final thing, if the water treatment company is using test strips instead of drop based and titration tests same cautions apply as to testing your pool with them. I lucked out on the third guy that came to test my water. He had drop based test kits, was very knowlegeable, did extensive testing on my water both before the units were installed and several times after, and gave me a few options on the best ways to deal with the problems. He also suggested that I start with the least expensive way and add to it if there was a need. Guess who got my business? I have to say he was completely right in his recommendation (he talked me out of reverse osmosis for drinking water and put a whole house carbon prefiler on). He even tested for bacteria in the water! The water coming out of my taps is even safe to use in my salt water reef aquariums and that is amazing! Needless to say I fill my pool and spa with this water also. I just add a bit of calcium to bring it up to about 140 ppm for my heated fiberglass pool which gives me a near perfect saturation index and Hamilton index.
Last edited by waterbear; 03-30-2006 at 12:44 PM.
Water Softener
I would disagree about a softener removing metals. I have tested my water both before and after softening as I'm on a south texas well. The water has significantly less metals after being softened. The ingredient in the Iron Removing Salt pellets is citric acid. You can also use citric acid to remove metal stains from any pool. Additional reduction in metals occur when I prefilter the water before it goes into the softener.The 2 micron whole house filter I use becomes red with iron after just a few hours of filling the pool.
But is is not the softener that is removing the metals. It is your prefilter. Same type of setup that I have now (micron and carbon--tanks is as big as the softner resin tank!) If you are using plain salt pellets in the softener like I am it will not have any effect on the iron content.Originally Posted by gwrace1
Looking around on the web, I am finding that soluable iron will get trapped in the filter resin and the normal filter backwash doesn't wash it out. There are several products such as Iron Out and Rust Out that are supposed to remove the iron and other debris from the filter resin.
I have noticed lately that my water softener (10 years old) has been using a lot less salt lately and water useage has not decreased (it has probably increased). I do not have a prefilter on the unit, water comes directly from the well tank.
I just picked up some Super Iron Out today so I will try it out.
When the PS234 kit ships out I should be able to analyze the water going in and coming out of the filter. That should tell the story.
Actually, it looks like it won't tell the story as the PS234 doesn't look like it tests for iron.
prh129, just be aware that you will only be testing calcium harness, not total (calcium and magnesium) hardness. Total hardness is a different test. Taylor makes a few and most of the pool test strips I have seen test total and not calcium hardness although they do not have much accuracy. As for testing for Iron, once again you will need a separate test for that since it is not in Ben's kit.
Also, my understanding is that when Iron gets trapped in the resin it reduces the efficiency of the resin at removing hardness. When my system was installed I did not have an iron problem and my installer told me I was lucky because he said my resin would last much longer.
Last edited by waterbear; 03-31-2006 at 02:18 PM.
Water Softener
The softener plays a major role in removing iron. I've tested if both ways with and without the prefilter. I installed the pre-filter mainly to reduce the work of the softener and prolong the softener resin life.
Before the pool forum data was lost, Ben had an extensive post on using a water softener to remove metals that included Iron and Maganese.
For my pool it worked wonders. I did go thru a lot of regeneration cycles and salt for a 26000 gallon pool. I'm using an SWG so some salt in the pool was not a concern but an aid in getting to the level the SWG required.
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