Pool keeps getting worse...after filling with rusty well water.

[Jenni]

This is our first year with a pool.

We have the intex 18x48 ultra frame. Filled it with our (rusty) well water. Everyone around us said to just keep filtering it and use shock and it will eventually clear up. Started filling Tuesday, finished Wednesday, and today (Saturday) it's the worst it has looked. It's been brown and turned greenish yesterday. My pH and chlorine levels are in normal ranges using the HTH drop test kit. Used the HTH green to blue last night at a friend high recommendation and now there is a darker brown with an orange-rusty film along the entire top of the pool.

I'm freaking frustrated and no idea what to do. Ready to throw in the towel!

Help please!

[PoolDoc]

Ok. If you're going to do this, you're going to have to put on your 'big girl pants', and suck it up: dealing with badly contaminated water, in a pool with marginal filtration (like an Intex) is HARD, especially for someone completely new to pools. Learning to do this will feel like going back to school to take a chemistry class, and it's going to cost you a couple hundred dollars. Next year, it won't seem nearly as hard, but next year is 11 months away!

If you're not up for this, you might as well drain the pool, wash it out, and sell it or give it away. We're buried alive trying to help people here on the Forum, and to be frank, I don't want to spend a bunch of time with you, only to have you bail out 1/2 way through. So please, for both my sake and yours, if you're not prepared to deal with this, give up now!

Albert Einstein apparently used to say that, when he was teaching, he "made things as simple as possible, but no simpler"! That's what I'll do: make it as easy as possible, but I won't try to sell you bogus simple solutions that don't work.

You'll need to start over . . . after you get ready to deal with the metals. Cleaning up well water like your is hard on an inground pool with good filtration and circulation; it's very difficult on Intex pools with marginal filtration and circulation. Adding in the Green to Blue (cal hypo + magnesium sulfate) just complicates things.

1. Plan to drain and refill.
2. Read the Super Simple Recipe which will get you started on understanding what's needed on a pool filled with good water: http://pool9.net/ssr/
3. *IF* you have cartridge filters, order Filbur or Intex replacement cartridges. You'll need 2 sets. If you have another form of filter, tell me EXACTLY which filter you have.
4. Do the metals bucket test on fresh water from the well, to see if the iron will 'drop' or settle to the bottom of the pool. That would be the best way to get it out, if it will. http://pool9.net/bucket-metal/
5. Tell me EXACTLY what sort of vacuuming or cleaning gear you have. You will need to be able to siphon-vacuum in order to remove the metal -- and you'll need the gear to do it with.

Best wishes

[Jenni]

Thank you! Yes I will do whatever you tell me. I will drain it right now. All the chemicals I have added this week.... Can I drain it all into my yard safely (we have 5 kids and 2 dogs.) I have 2 cartridge filters for our pump. I will also do the bucket test ( probably tomorrow) I have been trying all week to get the pool ready before this weekend as we will be gone almost all weekend. Will have more time to get serious about this on Monday. The only vacuum we have is the cheap (looks crappy) one that came with the pool. Our neighbors' parents have a good one that we may* be able to borrow.

[PoolDoc]

Thank you! Yes I will do whatever you tell me. I will drain it right now. All the chemicals I have added this week.... Can I drain it all into my yard safely?

Almost certainly. The only thing that might be a problem would be if you'd added a copper algaecide.

To vacuum, what you need is a vac head, a pole, and a hose that's long enough to reach from the center of your pool to the ground outside your pool.

Go ahead and read the pages I linked; that will help you get ready for the stuff that will have to be done. When doing the bucket test, don't disturb the water after adding the chlorine. I want to see if the iron will settle densely -- sometimes it settles as a fluffy later that's almost impossible to vacuum.