New Pool Owner With High Iron Manually Removing Iron

[labdi01]

Marie - it's working!!!

We could definitely see bottom at our last round of rinsing the batting from the homemade filter. We saw some 'pools' of debris at the bottom of the pool, so we ran the vac for a little while - and clearly saw a path everywhere the vac went - so there was some level of settling. We're so excited (silly, I know - but we felt truly defeated on Thu and Fri).

We still have a greenish-hued pool - but it's faded since this am (the hue). There are no visible signs of brown in the pool, but the homemade filter batting keeps coming out brown!

So, I think the green (turquoise) a lot of us see when clearing metals is actually lesser-levels of iron. I won't stand by that statement for sure until the hue is gone and the batting comes out clear. I continue to add bleach - esp since we had a crazy T-storm today and it added about 1/4" of water to our pool (better than coming from our well!!!).

I'm so excited to see the pool tomorrow morning.

Oh, and we changed the homemade filter material to 'traditional quilt' poly fil from Walmart (a rolled 'blanket' of batting), rather than the loose fiber poly fil we were using- because too much of that stuff was escaping and getting into places it shouldn't be - but it DID work. The other downside of the loose fiber was, the second you lifted it from the pool (whether in the bucket or loose in the skimmer), it would immediately drain the iron right back into the pool. With the quilt poly, you still have to lift your bucket out and away from the pool fast - you don't have to be AS quick as you do with the loose poly.

Eager to see the pool tomorrow am - and I'm going to bring another sample to the store tomorrow to find out how much the iron level fell (and hopefully the pH, too). Cross your fingers for me.

I'll keep everyone posted. It's so much cheaper than sequestrants - and takes about the same amount of time!

[Watermom]

You know what they say --- necessity is the mother of invention!

[labdi01]

Good point!!

Here's hoping I don't humiliate myself on the forum with this! But, you know what? If it saves someone else the time, money and frustration of trying it - well then, I saved someone time, money and frustration!

But how cool would it be for this to actually work???

Gotta say - it's looking good! I can't imagine I have anything left in suspension after almost a week of not using sequestrants and adding as much bleach/cal hypo that I have since Thu.

My husband is calling me "Pool Macgyver" HA!

[CarlD]

Wow! That's exciting! What I like about this idea is it has very little downside--cost of a bucket and batting, and maybe a little lint in the pool. It's not actually capable of harming your pool.

I have an idea: If the bucket with the holes and batting are small enough, before you pull it out of the water, immerse it in a bigger bucket or small plastic garbage pail, then pull them both out. That way the brown iron impregnated water will flow into the outer bucket and not back into the pool.

[mbar]

I love this forum

[labdi01]

Another update!

Woke up this am to a clear pool! No exaggeration! It's clear!!! The quilt batting was FILTHY from running about 12 hrs. We have sediment on the bottom of the pool - some of the loose poly fil we started with in the homemade filter, a few rocks and brown sediment, which must be iron.

Took a water sample to the pool store:

CL/FC - 5
TA - 140
pH - 7.8
CYA - 0
CA - 70
and... drum roll please...
Iron - 0

We still have the homemade filter in the pool and there is still some staining on the batting - so we're going to run it all day again.

I think I am going to stick to a statement I made yesterday that the green/turquoise color some of us metal-heads are seeing when things start to clear is low-level iron. Because I have no green today and my CL level wasn't at shock level to kill any potential algae (does that make sense to the experts?).

Oh pool store said to try 4 more lbs of cya - because the 3 I added last Thu still aren't showing up (made sense to me - and I don't think I've seen a natural alternative (please advise if there is) - I also bought calcium (well, Balance) because of the same reason and mine is low (?) Again, please advise. And I'll add Muratic Acid for the pH and baking soda for the TA.

This is so crazy, guys - I can't believe it worked!!!

[mbar]

Yes, I agree that the greenish tint to the water is metals - think of it this way, when the metals are yellowish brown and the pool water is blue, yellow and blue make green I see this in my pool all the time, that's how I know to add more sequestering agent. When my pool is clear but not quite blue blue it is because something is going on As for the cya - sometime when using a lot of sequestering agent it uses up cya. I am not a chemist, and I don't know the reason, but I do know this from experience. It can also use up a lot of calcium too. Just as I said, every time you add something to the water it changes something else Once the water is balanced (and metal free) it is easy to keep it up, but sometimes getting there is a big pain. Everyone's water reacts differently, because what is in the water is different than anyone else. This is why when you learn to care for your own pool it makes it easier - because the pool store is giving out information on a all encompassing situation, as well as selling chemicals. Keep up the good work, and keep us informed - I love your idea!

[labdi01]

Marie -

I have a question for you...

Now that we've removed all the iron from the pool using the makeshift filter, we were left with some liner/skimmer staining. I read the ascorbic/citric acid treatment sticky - but you suggest immediately following up with a sequestrant. Do you think I could run my sump pump/batting filter during the ascorbic acid treatment in order to trap and remove the metals rather than having to sequester them?

[CarlD]

Hi,

I just noticed something I've been wondering about: You said you were adding calcium and you said you have stains on your liner.

So..if you have a vinyl liner are you aware that you do NOT need calcium in your water? Calcium's only for concrete/gunite/plaster pools.

[newpoolgirl]

did you try a metal out before using your shock or chlorine? if so did it still turn brown, b/c i just dumped my pool in hopes to refill w/ homemade hose filter. (coffee filters, fish tank filter and socks). then to apply metal out. Wait a couple days then start from scratch with chemicals?