Well Water: Why you DON'T shock BEFORE using Sequestering Agent

[NWMNMom]

Lesson Learned - why you should be sure to properly use sequestering agent BEFORE you shock you pool when freshly filling.




Ugly, isn't it? Yes, we did get it straightened out, but it required a couple of pump/filter setups running 24/7 AND several bottles of sequestering agent.

Some people cannot have water trucked in and have to use a well, but you really need to be sure you take care of the metal issues!

[crackerjack]

I have staining problem from well water also when I have to fill from evaporation. The fiberglass steps stain slightly, but the vinyl liner does not show stain.
The Metal Free and Stain Free solution is getting to be expensive.
Did not seem to have that problem last year and the only thing I am doing different is instead of filling straight from well, I am feeding off of water softner and neutalizer (Rain Soft system) from house.
I have not done an iron test but I do know citric acid is the only thing that removes the stain from the steps.

Anyone think the Rain Soft system is the problem?

(Forgot to add that I do feed the water thru the skimmer)

Thanks
cj

[mbar]

What are all of the numbers for your pool? cl, cc, ph, alk, cal. Sometimes it is when you have high ph, or high alk with high calcium and high chlorine that you get stains. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) will also take the stain off.

[crackerjack]

Have a wallyworld test kit so I cannot do some test.
Hardness test seems to not be working correctly.
5.0 CL (seems to be around 6-7 kit only checks to 5)
7.8 PH
130 TA
45 CYA

I think my problem was shocking the night before I added water in the early am. Need to try to add fill water when chlorine is on the low side.
And of course keep using metal free.

Thanks
cj

[mbar]

A ph of 7.8 with an alkalinity of 130 plus high chlorine is what will make the metals fall out of solution. A water softener will make the water more alkaline, but should also help to take metals out of the water, but it is not getting all of it out. You will have to keep sequestering agent in the water to keep the metals that are getting in tied up. I add water from a well also. I like to keep my ph no higher than 7.6, and my alk around 100. When I add water I drop my ph down to 7.2, and put a trichlor puck in the skimmer. You can do this with a sand or DE filter - NOT a cartridge filter. This way if there isn't enough sequesterant in the water, the stain should fall on the filter first. Sometimes lowering the ph and adding sequesterant will take the stains off the pool, if they are not to embedded. Since the stains are on the steps only, you can also try putting some ph down in a sock and rubbing it on the stains. Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions you may have.

[crackerjack]

Thank you for the help!
Will make a note of this!

cj

[ChuckD]

Lesson Learned - why you should be sure to properly use sequestering agent BEFORE you shock you pool when freshly filling.




Ugly, isn't it? Yes, we did get it straightened out, but it required a couple of pump/filter setups running 24/7 AND several bottles of sequestering agent.

Some people cannot have water trucked in and have to use a well, but you really need to be sure you take care of the metal issues!

yup, saw my pool do that a couple times last summer (first year blues...or greens). Even after many, many hours spent on this forum I somehow missed the warnings of spectacular reactions you can get shocking well water with iron content. I thought then that I was adding untreated water that was sparking an algae bloom. So I'd shock and filter and brush.

Now I know better and run the hose directly into the skimmer and my DE filter seems to clean it pretty well, without adding too much to the DE load.

C.

[MsSmiley]

That's exactly what ours looked like. Yesterday we emptied it, scrubbed it down then refilled it. Right now there is A LOT of rust settling on the bottom & the top & we keep scrubbing the bottom to get it to come up then we get as much out as we can with the net b/c it's so thick or else the filter gets nasty too quickly. The water right now is actually green - big improvement from nasty brown but we are still working on clearing it up completely for blue water. So what can we do now to get it blue & get the rust out besides what we are doing? The chlorine is high - off the chart & the ph is around 7.2 - 7.3. I don't have other measurements b/c this is all the kit measures.
This is what it looked like before we emptied it


What it looks like now

[mbar]

MsSmiley,
Read through all of the posts, you will need a sequestering agent. Add this to the water, and bring your ph down to 7 - 7.2. Keep your filter running 24/7. It will take some time, but it should clear up. Happy swimming!