Brownish Water - Need Help

[pra4sun]

I have an Intex 12 x 20 inflatable with their salt water chlorinating system. I used well water with a high metal content. At the beginning of the season, I used 32 OZ (double the amount recommended) of Metal Erace by Phoenix to clear up the water. After a week, the metals were gone and the water was clear.

The problem I'm having is that after the pool sees heavy use (lots of kids in for several hours), the water turn dark brown again - can't even see the bottom! I add half a bottle of Metal Erace and the water is normal in less than 24 hours. This is getting expensive.

Chlorine count seems low, so I increased the time that the chlorinator runs. I've also shocked the pool 3 days in a row with the amount recommended for the pool size. This morning, the water was brown again, without any activity!

The only other thing attached to the system are (2) 4 x 20 solar panels with a diverter valve. These are shut off during the chlorination phase to allow for enough flow.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[pra4sun]

Sorry, duplicate thread.

Please ignore this one.

[dymondgeezer]

I have an Intex 12 x 20 inflatable with their salt water chlorinating system. I used well water with a high metal content. At the beginning of the season, I used 32 OZ (double the amount recommended) of Metal Erace by Phoenix to clear up the water. After a week, the metals were gone and the water was clear.

The problem I'm having is that after the pool sees heavy use (lots of kids in for several hours), the water turn dark brown again - can't even see the bottom! I add half a bottle of Metal Erace and the water is normal in less than 24 hours. This is getting expensive.

Chlorine count seems low, so I increased the time that the chlorinator runs. I've also shocked the pool 3 days in a row with the amount recommended for the pool size. This morning, the water was brown again, without any activity!

The only other thing attached to the system are (2) 4 x 20 solar panels with a diverter valve. These are shut off during the chlorination phase to allow for enough flow.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I use a water softener on my well water and then fill the pool through a carbon filter.

One year I didn't set the softener to regenerate during the fill (takes 2 days) and filled the pool on day 2 with straight well water...add chlorine and bam, iced tea!

The remedy I found on some website or forum was this:

Take the return hose from the pump and attach it to the pool ladder so the water flows through a white bath towel draped over the rungs like a crude filter.

Add 2 cups chlorine bleach and let it run.

The chlorine actually releases the suspended iron from the water and it will quickly turn the bath towel brown.

Rinse the towel periodically and ring it out, and continue until the color in the pool goes away. Add chlorine bleach as you go.

It took several days and then it finally cleared. Then add some metal sequester.

Once the iron is removed it won't return, unless you top up the pool with more well water.

[pra4sun]

I have an Intex 12 x 20 inflatable with their salt water chlorinating system. I used well water with a high metal content. At the beginning of the season, I used 32 OZ (double the amount recommended) of Metal Erace by Phoenix to clear up the water. After a week, the metals were gone and the water was clear.

The problem I'm having is that after the pool sees heavy use (lots of kids in for several hours), the water turn dark brown again - can't even see the bottom! I add half a bottle of Metal Erace and the water is normal in less than 24 hours. This is getting expensive.

Chlorine count seems low, so I increased the time that the chlorinator runs. I've also shocked the pool 3 days in a row with the amount recommended for the pool size. This morning, the water was brown again, without any activity!

The only other thing attached to the system are (2) 4 x 20 solar panels with a diverter valve. These are shut off during the chlorination phase to allow for enough flow.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

I use a water softener on my well water and then fill the pool through a carbon filter.

One year I didn't set the softener to regenerate during the fill (takes 2 days) and filled the pool on day 2 with straight well water...add chlorine and bam, iced tea!

The remedy I found on some website or forum was this:

Take the return hose from the pump and attach it to the pool ladder so the water flows through a white bath towel draped over the rungs like a crude filter.

Add 2 cups chlorine bleach and let it run.

The chlorine actually releases the suspended iron from the water and it will quickly turn the bath towel brown.

Rinse the towel periodically and ring it out, and continue until the color in the pool goes away. Add chlorine bleach as you go.

It took several days and then it finally cleared. Then add some metal sequester.

Once the iron is removed it won't return, unless you top up the pool with more well water.

Thanks for the info.! I had planned on just buying pool water, but this gives me an option, if I want to try it. We have a water softener for the house, and the outside water spigots bypass it, so we aren't softening the water that we normally use to water the grass. I could run a hose from the inside to the outside, and get an inline hose filter (I saw them at the pool store last season). But, it was so frustrating dealing with this last season, that I might just spend the money for the water.

It's amazing that the metal is almost impossible to remove. Since this post from last July, I twice used another metal remover product that a different pool store had recommended, and the metal still came back, without adding any water. The pool guy suggested that it might be environmental (acid rain, something metal in the pool, etc), but I told him that he would not agree if he saw just how dark the water becomes in a short period of time.

I also plan on dumping the salt water chlorinating system and going with traditional chemicals this season, just to eliminate that from causing any sort of issue.

[Lotta]

The help and solution for brown wather in your pool comes from Sweden. My friend Marica Richnau had this problem a few years ago and invented a new produkt. You can find her on Facebook if you want to know more. This is her story: " In the summer of 2008 we bought a family pool. We filled the pool with crystal clear water from own well, then add chlorine as directed. The day after the pool water turned from crystal clear to brown. The explanation for this is that our well water contains iron and manganese. We got a tip pool of vendors to shock chlorinate the water, which neither worked well or was appropriate in terms of allergy risk. Then I came up with the idea to produce an additive filter to the outside of the timber filter cartridge. I changed the filter since the addition AquaCure in five days and the water was crystal clear"

[pra4sun]

The help and solution for brown wather in your pool comes from Sweden. My friend Marica Richnau had this problem a few years ago and invented a new produkt. You can find her on Facebook if you want to know more. This is her story: " In the summer of 2008 we bought a family pool. We filled the pool with crystal clear water from own well, then add chlorine as directed. The day after the pool water turned from crystal clear to brown. The explanation for this is that our well water contains iron and manganese. We got a tip pool of vendors to shock chlorinate the water, which neither worked well or was appropriate in terms of allergy risk. Then I came up with the idea to produce an additive filter to the outside of the timber filter cartridge. I changed the filter since the addition AquaCure in five days and the water was crystal clear"

Thanks for the timely advice. I am getting ready to set up the pool and have decided to go the well water route to save money by not buying water. I will look into this product.

[Gunflint]

The help and solution for brown wather in your pool comes from Sweden. My friend Marica Richnau had this problem a few years ago and invented a new produkt. You can find her on Facebook if you want to know more. This is her story: " In the summer of 2008 we bought a family pool. We filled the pool with crystal clear water from own well, then add chlorine as directed. The day after the pool water turned from crystal clear to brown. The explanation for this is that our well water contains iron and manganese. We got a tip pool of vendors to shock chlorinate the water, which neither worked well or was appropriate in terms of allergy risk. Then I came up with the idea to produce an additive filter to the outside of the timber filter cartridge. I changed the filter since the addition AquaCure in five days and the water was crystal clear"

Thanks for the timely advice. I am getting ready to set up the pool and have decided to go the well water route to save money by not buying water. I will look into this product.

Just to let others know I have finally solved my Intex brown water problem, and I wanted to share my experience with you all. I bought this Intex pool as a "first pool" with the idea of using it for a year just to make sure we enjoyed it before investing a few thousand on a permanent one.

It took us a couple days to get the ground level, and another day and a half to fill the pool. We were so excited to watch the water level rise and once it was full we were ready to swim! So that night I threw the Shock in and went to sleep having dreams of diving in the pool and relaxing with a beer in my crystal clear pool.

Well what a shock I had in the morning to find my water Brown as the Illinois River, and to be honest the river looks better then our pool did. I checked the filter and yes it was working and the filter was Chocolate color, so I took it out and rinsed it clean and put it back in.

I called the local pool company and he explained that it was the iron reacting to the chlorine, and he sold me a bottle of StainBan. Once I got the StainBan in I had to babysit this pool every two hours so I could clean the filter off. I even took the discharge hose off the pool and placed an old t-shirt old it, and that to was stained red within an hour. I fought with this pool for 2 weeks and the best I could get it was light brown, and that was not good enough for me. Once I realized that the filter was doing very little I knew I had two choices:

1. Take the pool back.

2. Or keep the pool but buy a better filter.

I did some looking and a lot of calling and decided a sand filter is what I needed for well water. I checked around and found out that a sand filter new is more then the whole pool, but used is a completely different story. I ended up getting a Pentair 1.5hp 200lbs sand filter for $150.00 off of Craigslist, and it connected right to my Intex hoses all I needed was two hose clamps. It took me 5 minutes to get the Pentair Sand Filter hooked up, and with 10 hours my water was better then it has been in two weeks of constantly running my Intex pump. I am now of my 15th hour of the sand filter and my water is 95% crystal clear, and I would imagine by tomorrow it will be 100%.

So long story short, this Intex pool filter is not made for well water, and it can be totally frustrating dealing with all the hassles of brown water but there is hope out there. I have even posted a video on youtube to show the progress of my pool. Please forgive me for the quality of the video but you will be able to see the difference. I hope this post gives you some hope if you are dealing with the problem I had. Here is the link to the 1st video of my pool

and I will be taking video until it is crystal clear. Thanks!!

[pra4sun]

The help and solution for brown wather in your pool comes from Sweden. My friend Marica Richnau had this problem a few years ago and invented a new produkt. You can find her on Facebook if you want to know more. This is her story: " In the summer of 2008 we bought a family pool. We filled the pool with crystal clear water from own well, then add chlorine as directed. The day after the pool water turned from crystal clear to brown. The explanation for this is that our well water contains iron and manganese. We got a tip pool of vendors to shock chlorinate the water, which neither worked well or was appropriate in terms of allergy risk. Then I came up with the idea to produce an additive filter to the outside of the timber filter cartridge. I changed the filter since the addition AquaCure in five days and the water was crystal clear"

Thanks for the timely advice. I am getting ready to set up the pool and have decided to go the well water route to save money by not buying water. I will look into this product.

Just to let others know I have finally solved my Intex brown water problem, and I wanted to share my experience with you all. I bought this Intex pool as a "first pool" with the idea of using it for a year just to make sure we enjoyed it before investing a few thousand on a permanent one.

It took us a couple days to get the ground level, and another day and a half to fill the pool. We were so excited to watch the water level rise and once it was full we were ready to swim! So that night I threw the Shock in and went to sleep having dreams of diving in the pool and relaxing with a beer in my crystal clear pool.

Well what a shock I had in the morning to find my water Brown as the Illinois River, and to be honest the river looks better then our pool did. I checked the filter and yes it was working and the filter was Chocolate color, so I took it out and rinsed it clean and put it back in.

I called the local pool company and he explained that it was the iron reacting to the chlorine, and he sold me a bottle of StainBan. Once I got the StainBan in I had to babysit this pool every two hours so I could clean the filter off. I even took the discharge hose off the pool and placed an old t-shirt old it, and that to was stained red within an hour. I fought with this pool for 2 weeks and the best I could get it was light brown, and that was not good enough for me. Once I realized that the filter was doing very little I knew I had two choices:

1. Take the pool back.

2. Or keep the pool but buy a better filter.

I did some looking and a lot of calling and decided a sand filter is what I needed for well water. I checked around and found out that a sand filter new is more then the whole pool, but used is a completely different story. I ended up getting a Pentair 1.5hp 200lbs sand filter for $150.00 off of Craigslist, and it connected right to my Intex hoses all I needed was two hose clamps. It took me 5 minutes to get the Pentair Sand Filter hooked up, and with 10 hours my water was better then it has been in two weeks of constantly running my Intex pump. I am now of my 15th hour of the sand filter and my water is 95% crystal clear, and I would imagine by tomorrow it will be 100%.

So long story short, this Intex pool filter is not made for well water, and it can be totally frustrating dealing with all the hassles of brown water but there is hope out there. I have even posted a video on youtube to show the progress of my pool. Please forgive me for the quality of the video but you will be able to see the difference. I hope this post gives you some hope if you are dealing with the problem I had. Here is the link to the 1st video of my pool

and I will be taking video until it is crystal clear. Thanks!!

Thanks for your post. I am getting ready to set me pool up this coming weekend.

This is what I have decided to do:

Instead of buying pool water, I am going to attach a hose to a sink inside our house. We have a water conditioner, which we quickly found out was a necessity because we could not drink the well water, and it stained all of the toilets and water based appliances. I will also buy an in-hose filter from the local pool guy and attach that. Hopefully, this will start me out with some much cleaner water this year.

I have been thinking of buying a REAL filter pump for this pool. I was having the same problem as you, though: they are big bucks. My brother has been on the lookout for any that are sitting by the side of the road, but I would have my doubts about those even still working. Plus, I really need a better pump. I am using the Intex salt water chlorinator and a couple of the plastic solar heaters. When water is running through both of these units, the flow rate is ridiculously slow, and not effective at all.

Great video. I will have to post a picture from last year when all of the kids were swimming in the murkiness. They didn't care, but it made for a funny picture.

[pra4sun]

Great info and great videos - thanks!

You replied to a post I made on a forum, under the name pra4sun. I had the same exact problem last season.

We also live in the sticks here in NH, very similar to you, with the same heavy metal well water. This year, I ran a hose from our kitchen sink and used our in-home water softener to fill the pool. I'm not sure how smart that was to do and hope I didn't damage the unit. A week later, the water is still clear, but it has a greenish hue, so it is not a perfect solution.

I have been looking for sand filter/pump on craigslist for about a week, and every time I get a reply, they are sold. I do have one person that is supposed to get back to me, so I hope it pans out.

After being where you were, I can't wait to get my hands on one.

I also run the Intex salt water chlorinator and some solar panels, and the flow is reduced to a trickle. Most of the time, the chlorinator won't even work unless the filter is crystal clear.

So, thanks again for all the info!