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Thread: Brown water in pool- from Iron

  1. #21
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    Default Re: Brown water in pool- from Iron

    I hate to tell you this again, but you can either follow HTH's advice and the pool store's advice, or you can follow our advice. You cannot "cherry pick" because they will tell you to do stuff we will tell you not to do.

    I said in my last post:

    You will find that their advice differs from ours. You cannot split the difference or you WILL get a mess.
    Carl

  2. #22
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    Default Re: Brown water in pool- from Iron

    Hi NewPoolGirl;

    I'm going to answer several of your questions, with slightly different answers than what you've received. I'll try to explain why.
    1. If your pool is green, and it's not algae, you can safely swim if your chlorine is OK. BUT, it may stain suits and such. (Unlike copper, iron does not, as far as I know, ever stain hair.)
    2. Sequestrants and chelants NEVER, EVER remove metals from your pool.
    3. The ONLY way to actually remove metals from your pool is to remove them physically, usually by filtration.

    Lemme go through these each a bit.

    Safety: As long as you can maintain a stable chlorine residual AND are sure the green is iron, not algae, the water is chemically safe to swim in. Remember, iron in the water doesn't hurt people: if it did, they couldn't drink it. It it's too cloudy to see the bottom, that's another kind of hazard of course, but it has nothing to do with sanitation.

    Sequestration and chelation are chemical terms for processes that keep metals dissolved in water. In some cases, they can help RE-dissolve metals that have formed fresh stains. But, they NEVER remove anything. Chelated iron is STILL in your pool. *Sometimes*, chelation can 'hold' the iron in the pool, so it can be gradually filtered out (as the chelant breaks down) and filtered out.

    Again, chelation and sequestration are always and only a band-aid. Sometimes it's good to have a band-aid, though, while the injury heals.

    The ONLY way to remove metals from water is to do so physically, which means the metal has be converted to a form that will no longer dissolve in the water. So . . . when you stain your pool, you ARE removing metals from your pool water (though not from your pool!). When you stain your pipes, same deal.

    But, when you stain your DE or the debris in your sand filter, or when you collect iron 'fluff' (precipitate) and then backwash it or clean it way . . . you have actually removed the metal from your water.

    Filtration is ALWAYS part of any iron removal process. Unfortunately, the filters on Intex pools are seriously undersized and not well suited for this purpose. The 'pool pillow' idea is a good work around -- but see CAUTIONS below -- but all that's really being done is supplementing an inadequate filter. If you had an adequate DE filter, you could do the same job or better, with the pool filter. Unfortunately, "aboveground" filters are always undersized, and filters packaged with mini-pools like the Intex are the worst.

    ************* CAUTION!!****************
    IT is NEVER safe to swim in a pool if a plugged in submersible pump is present!
    ************* CAUTION!!***
    *************

    Given the money you're spending on sequestrants, you may want to think about a different idea.

    If you have the room, you might want to purchase a SECOND Intex pool (it can be smaller than the first) and use it to pre-treat your fill water. You can dump well water in it, circulate it, add chlorine (cal hypo OR bleach + baking soda) and raise the pH, wait, and then turn it off. If you keep the chlorine high (or dose it at night) you'll almost always force the iron into an insoluble form. If you turn the pump off, the iron will almost always settle out. Then, you can pump -- carefully -- the clear and metal free water into your swimming pool, while being careful not to disturb the mess on the bottom.

    But, till you have that the pool pillow idea may help a lot. Just don't swim with a submerged pump.

    PoolDoc

  3. #23
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    Default Re: Brown water in pool- from Iron

    I did follow HTH's advice. Their final advice was to take my water to pool place to make sure I was adding enough Metal Control. Pool Doc, the pool place told me to upgrade to a sand filter. The 2 women working at the time said that they actually have intex pools(bought from walmart), but use sand filters for the same reasons you stated in previous post. None of them have iron in their water though.They sold me a product called Metal Treat. it contains: Tricurboxylic acid/Phophonbutane. My question is that if i actually add the correct amount will my water turn brown after I add my chlorine. I got my intex pool for free, so if I can't get it right soon, it's coming down. My other question is, if i start using a sand filter, will that take the brown that's in my water now out? If the filter is the trick, I'll go that route. For some odd reason, most of the pool places around me don't have a clue about what to tell me. I do come to this site for tips, then i was asking HtH about them. But, like I said, they didn't have any more advice for me.

  4. #24
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    Default Re: Brown water in pool- from Iron

    NewPoolGirl;

    I realize that it's confusing when you first get a pool, to try to work out what to do. As is the case in other areas of life, the people who are genuinely trustworthy and knowledgeable don't walk around with a special halo that lets other folks distinguish them from the not so knowledgeable or trustworthy.

    But, even so, you have to choose.

    If you go to a two different doctors, with an small critter bite, and one says take doxycycline for a week and the other says to take aspirin for a week, you can't help yourself out by alternating with doxycycline one day and aspirin the next. You'll just end up with an untreated infection (if you have one) and intermittent analgesic relief from the aspirin.

    But, that's sorta what you are doing here -- you are trying split the difference between HTH's advice and ours, even though they are not compatible. I'm sure it *feels* like doing this way gives you a better chance of success, but unfortunately that's not true.

    It sounds like you've mostly followed HTH's advice, so, I would encourage you to stick that . . . and I would ask posters here including the mods to help her do so by not posting more advice in this thread, unless its directed to the ORIGINAL poster, "NewGuyJosh".

    Sincerely,

    PoolDoc

  5. #25
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    Default Re: Brown water in pool- from Iron

    I had the same problem that Newguyjosh and Newpoolgirl had: cesspool brown water, as we have terrible well water. . We have an 18'x54" that holds approx 9,000gals. I have been reading everything in this forum, and it all worked! The water was brown right from the start, so I got busy filtering. Made up some filters out of old cotton towels and placed them in the skimmer. Used an iron and stain remover to isolate the iron. Kept changing the homemade filters and cleaning the cartridge on the Hayward filter. Did this for 24 hours and then shocked it with pool shock that came with the pool. Got a chlorine level of 15ppm. Added pH UP (Use Borax now), and Baking soda to get the pH and alkalinity in the ballpark. Hung a sock full of CYA next to the skimmer, and now my levels are awesome and the pool is crystal clear. Couldn't have done it with these folks.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you.....

    Bob

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