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!

[PaulR]

It sounds like the chlorine reacts with the iron to precipitate it out. The sequestrant puts the iron back into solution. As you found, the sequestrant is not a one-time thing, you have to keep adding it (I believe the chlorine will react with the sequestrant as well).

When the water turns brown, especially after extra chlorine, do you find that you are catching brown gunk in the filter? If so, then I suggest you lay off the sequestrant for a while and see how much of it can get filtered out. Otherwise I don't have anything to suggest.

--paulr

[pra4sun]

Thanks for the reply, PaulR.

Yes, the filter catches a lot of dark brown gunk. The water in the filter houding is also very dark, but if you take a glassful of water out of the pool, it isn't nearly as dark.

I will try just running the filter for a few days, and cleaning the cartridge twice a day.

Another thought I had was the possiblility that it is the type of metal remover I am using. This product, Super Erace by Phoenix http://www.phoenixproductsco.com/terracomm...d_Mineral-1.htm , actually turns the metal into a solid that is then filtered out. On the first application, I had to vacuum the rust colored gunk from the pool bottom.

Maybe trying a different product would help? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[PaulR]

Sorry, I've been away...

I think getting the iron into a form that can be filtered/vaccuumed out is what you want, because obviously that will permanently remove the iron from the water. It will make a mess while you're doing it, but at the end of the process you should have water that's easier to take care of.

I have no personal experience with any of these things (I just remember my dad going through something like this 40 years ago) so I can't offer any specific suggestions about products.

--paulr

[pra4sun]

Problem Solved!

I used a different metal remover product named Metal Free. http://www.lesliespool.com/browse/Home/Poo...:100060/I/14834 This product took almost a week to work completely, but the end result is clear water that doesn't get murky, or even cloudy, after several straight days of pool use.

I'm planning on adding a little bit of this product weekly as a maintenance plan.

I'm not sure why the original product didn't work for me, even though I followed the same procedure for both of them.

[chem geek]

The first product attempted to precipitate the metal to physically remove it from the water, but it obviously did not remove all of it. The Natural Chemistry Metal Free you are using is EDTA which is a metal sequestrant. It's OK, but will not hold the metals for as long and will break down faster from chlorine so you'll notice a higher chlorine demand and need to add more metal sequestrant. If you instead used an HEDP-based metal sequestrant such as Jack's Magic Pink Stuff, Proteam Metal Magic, GLB Sequasol then this is a stronger metal sequestrant that won't break down as readily from chlorine so requires less maintenance doses (it does increase phosphates in the water when HEDP breaks down, but that's not a problem if you maintain an appropriate FC/CYA ratio).

[pra4sun]

Thanks for the information.

I will try one of the products that you mention, but can I use it now as a maintainer?

[chem geek]

Yes you can. You can use either the EDTA product you already have or an HEDP product for maintenance. They are not incompatible.

[mrfixit]

Further to the above conversation, the chlorine generator may be adversly affected by some of the products mentioned above. You mentioned that the chlorine production was dropping, and it may be due to contamination of the sensor by the metal, or you may be adding phosphates to the water via these chemicals. Phoshates will render the cell useless at levels as little as 200ppm.

[Gunflint]

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]

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!!

Great news: This solution worked perfectly for me too!

I bought a Hayward S166T sand filter with 1.5 HP pump from Craigs List for $120. After backflushing years of crap out of the filter, I managed to get the setup to flow so well that it feels like a jet from a hot tub!

I decided not to use the salt water chlorinator, so I drained half of the water out of the pool to get rid of some of the salt. I refilled it with straight hose water, and it took about a day of constant running of the filter, and I now have crystal clear water! I backflushed the filter, and the color of the water was almost black, it was so rusty.

If I had my choice, I would probably choose a lower powered pump, probably 1 HP. This one seems a bit too strong for this pool. The advantage, though, is that the pump only needs to run 2 - 3 hours to circulate all of the water through the filter.

Thanks again for this tip. The entire family can now, finally, enjoy the pool!

[Lotta]

Hello, My English is not so good but I want to tell about an environmentally friendly product that removes brown precipitates of metals and minerals from the pool water, it is called AquaCure and invented in Sweden. Do you have Facebook so search for information there, or search for inventor Marica Richnau. Eco-friendly and affordable product!

Good luck!