Brown Pool Water...please help

[AndyGuthridge]

Hi!
I'm a fairly new pool owner, so this may sound dumb, but here goes....
I recently drained my pool and refilled with well water since I cannot have water trucked in. It was fine the first day and I let it fill overnight. When I checked the water was a murky brown...I can't even see to the bottom. I took a sample to my pool dealer and they said to add a stabilzer, then a PH Balancer, then 3lbs of Burn Out shock and let it filter for 24 hours. Its been 2 days and the water is the same murky brown. There is no staining...my water just looks like chocolate milk. Friends that have pools suggested floccing the pool using a flocculant from the pool store or alum, but I'm real skeptical of putting too many chemicals in since I'v already shocked it (too many horror stories). My chlorine level is way high and PH is barely registering. I am hoping someone can help me figure out what's causing the murky brown and suggest a fix.
Thanks a bunch
PS-Last year we filled with the same well water and had crystal clear water all summer long except for rains where shock cleared it up...that was my first year with the pool. Now I have a mess and have no idea what to do.

[rmeden]

We'll need to see all your numbers.. either from the pool store or a drop kit.

What type of filter do you have? Are you monitoring pressure?

When you say your CL is "way high".. how high is that?

Robert

[aylad]

Running to the pool store to get chemicals and dumping them in the pool is NOT the way to go....so you're smart in being cautious. What you need to do is either use a drop-based kit or get a pool store to test (using drops, not strips) for Cl, pH, TA, and CYA (stabilizer). Also, if it's anything other than a vinyl pool, we need Calcium, too. Come back and post those test numbers here, and we'll be glad to see if we can help you from there. I feel sure that we can.

Welcome to the forum!!

Janet

[CarlD]

Yes, welcome!

We frequently get newbies who've been "pool stored". You now know exactly what that means. They recommend all kinds of stuff for all kinds of money and nothing helps. They see you as a pigeon. Sorry for that.

But as Janet says, you are wise to now be really, really skeptical. So I will add that when you get them to test your water, have them test for iron and copper. You are using well water and they frequently have a lot of metal in them.

My hypothesis is that you are rich in iron--that's the only way I know of for clean well water to turn a pool brown so quickly. But it's just a hypothesis and needs to be tested.

Meanwhile, don't let chlorine levels fall or you WILL have an algae outbreak. I KNOW people say solve the metal problem first, but we don't know that it's a metal problem, and we DO know algae will grow.

BTW, if you have metals, a flocculant isn't the right additive, neither is a clarifier. A sequestrant is, at that time, appropriate. But not till tests show metals.

[AndyGuthridge]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
Ok...I have a drop test kit that only tests CL & PH and todays numbers are:

CL - 3.0+
PH - 6.8

I have noticed that the since I shocked it the water has changed from brown to gray/green but I still cant see to the bottom. I have a Hayward sand filter and the pressure is right where it should be. Again, friends suggested to just keep shocking since the brown changed to green and thats great if that's all it is. Plus I've added a scum sock to the skimmer to catch all the stuff that may be making its way back through the filter. Since the CL is high I'm pretty sure I'm safe for now as far as algae goes. If I need a sequestering agent, can I add it since I've already shocked the pool...I've heard that can make things worse. I plan to have my water tested tomorrow for metals. Thanks again for the help and walking this "newbie" through this mess.
Andy

[aylad]

The brown may have turned to green because the high chlorine levels caused the metals in your water to drop out and stain your pool. You can tell if that's happened by lowering your pool just a bit and see if the walls appear yellowish. I would go to the metal stains forum and read everything you can there, especially anything posted by Marie (mbar, who is our resident expert on metals, second only to Ben!). She's got lots of first hand experience in metal control.

Janet