Iron in water source

[BigDave]

...Not sure what to do right now.

Apply liberal doses of POPP (Pool Owner Patience and Persistence).
I'd keep the pump running until the FC works it way back to 5 or the flow is too slow to skim. Then backwash, replace DE, drop pH to 7.6, add cal-hypo to skimmer.

[stcohen]

Thanks
That POPP is hard to come by... apparently not available at Amazon but I will work on it.

[BigDave]

Look again, it's in the same category as the round tuits.

[PoolDoc]

Not sure where you are with the pool, but a couple of quick comments:

1. GREEN cloudy water is algae. ORANGE cloudy water is oxidized iron. GREEN clear water is dissolved iron. BUT . . . you can have green clear water (iron) with algae and all you will see is green CLOUDY water.

2. It's possible to have dissolved iron with FC=3 and pH=8, but not likely. It can only happen if the iron is bound with VERY strong chelation.

3. With a sand filter, you should NOT backwash unless you see at least a 3 - 5 psi increase in pressure, over the 'clean' pressure. When you are trying to filter fine particles, you may need to allow pressure to reach 10 psi more.

4. I'm a little suspicious of your filter sand. Quite a bit of sub-spec sand is placed in sand filters. If it's not too hard, I'd recommend buying a bag of LABELED filter sand from a pool store (not: Lowes or Home Depot). Then open your filter, and extract a cup of sand. Let it dry, and then spread several tablespoons of the real filter sand and the sand from your filter on a dark smooth cloth, and compare.

[BigDave]

@PoolDoc: Good to see you back. I've been concerned about the opacity stochen is seeing. I don't know if it's iron in solution + calcium cloud or iron in solution + algae or just algae. The filter was passing through orange iron sediment and possible calcium before OP started adding DE - enough to noticably reduce flow. It did produce calcium and orange sediment on backwash after adding DE. This pool has seen some periods of low chlorine. I've been reticent to advise shocking the pool for fear of staining - AFAIK there's only been one backwash that clearly produced iron.

[stcohen]

Attaching 2 pics. One was 1 week after new liner and filter sand, the other is now. Sand was from pool store run by man that installed liner. Saw the bag, said pool filter sand. Not sure I know how to get inside filter. Overcast today with reflections from trees.
Initial brown cleared in about a week. 3 inch rain, appeared to have algae. Shocked and precipitated what I thought was iron. More shock only made it worse. Thought between polyquat and high FC it must be metal. Without softener toilets, clothes etc in house all stain. Do not have softened water at the pool.
http://plus.google.com/photos/110081...KG3lr3WhteKmgE

[PoolDoc]

It's algae.

It *might* be algae PLUS iron. But it is algae.

1. Make sure your filter is working and your pump is on 24/7

2. Run a full set of K2006 tests (FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA) and post results.

3. Begin raising your chlorine level, 5% every 12 hours.

For example, if your CYA is 40 ppm and your FC is 2 ppm, you are currently at a 5% level. Take it up to 10% (4 ppm), then 12 hours later to 15% (6ppm), etc. Stop at 25% if you don't see a color change.

[stcohen]

Just tested
FC 4.0
CC 0.4
pH 7.4
TA 60
CH 170
CYA 30
Guess I need the specific order of things at this point. Shock? Use cal-hypo or Cl with CYA? Correct TA? Filter on 24/7 since opened

[stcohen]

will go with bleach until told otherwise

[BigDave]

I agree with PoolDoc. That's algae.
It seems like you can put a lot of chlorine in the water with those cal-hypo tabs. I'd use them and bleach to get the FC to 10-15 and keep it there until the green turns blue.