Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Stains on the pool surfaces, pool equipment
or on the swimmers, or off-color swimming pool
water. Discolored but clear pool water.
judyfruity

Iron in Water

Postby judyfruity » Tue 26 Jun, 2012 15:02

TammyC wrote:Well, the Pool Magnet product did help some, but the water is now greenish yellow. Better than coffee brown, I've been letting my daughter swim in it, but of course, I aim for clear, sparkling water just like everyone else!
My filter has been running non-stop for a week now. Just like the replies I've rec'd, I hope someone can reply that actually KNOWS what to do!
Tammy


judyfruity

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby judyfruity » Tue 26 Jun, 2012 15:07

We also have a 16' above ground pool and we filled it with well water. Of course, it was dark brown and we spent more money on chemicals then we did on the pool. The filer/pump system that comes with these pools are junk, and if you look up the model number you will find that the system is not big enough for the number of gallons of water your pool holds. Here is what we did!! We got online and purchased a Pump/Sand Filter combination that works for up to a 15,000 gallon pool. (ours is 3,800). It was only 179.99 and it cleared it in one day. Quit wasting time and money on chemicals and go straight to the source. It will save you money every year. Hope this helps.
Clark

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Clark » Sat 07 Jul, 2012 11:37

I had this problem and found a cheap solution. We filled directly from the well and had coffee-colored water as a result. We have a 14' 42" Intex above-ground pool. The problem is the iron in the water is too small to be filtered out by the Intex filter system (I have a Type A filter). I had 16 inches visibility into the water when I starter, after I used the below following solution to the problem, I have clear blue water.

The solution ("benchmarked" i.e., stolen, from others around the net). Before spending lots of money on chemicals, try the following for under $15. Make a better filter with items around the house, and make the iron particles bigger.

Items you will need:
1) large 1-gallon plastic juice bottle
2) an old pillow with fiber-fill
3) some teflon tape ($1-4 depending on where you get it)
4) a $11 bottle of foculant from KMart/Walmart

Foculate the iron in the water:
Follow directions on the bottle for your pool size. Do this a few hours before running your new filter for best results.

Make the filter:
Drill some small holes in the juice bottle (I used a juice bottle rather than a 1-gal milk jug because the bottle neck is stiffer). Cut open the pillow and stuff the bottle with the fiber-fill from the pillow. Use a small rod or stick to really push it down inside so it isn't 'fluffy'; you want it packed in tight.

Connect filter to pool:
Find the hose returning water from the filter-pump to the pool. Remove the pool end (stopping the hole so water doesn't leak out). Connect the hose to your new filter with the existing clamp (using teflon tape around the mouth of the bottle if necessary to keep a tight fit). Instead of just draping the bottle over the side of the pool, set the it on the ladder so there isn't strain on the hose connection. Turn it on and let it run overnight.

The next morning, you should see a difference (I could see the pool bottom). Clean out your filter pump filter (not the bottle), add a new filter, keep going. Every few hours or so, change filters in the filter pump. You should be seeing some nice brown in the bottle filter, and some cleaner water in your pool. After 2 days (the water should be yellow-blue [green*] now), add another dose of foculant. Using this method, we had crystal clear water by day three. I hope you find this useful! I'd like to hear your results if you try this: cwlind (at) gmail dot com. I didn't take any pictures at the start, but can post some of the filter and clean pool somewhere if anyone is interested.

*it looked green because the yellowish iron against the blue pool liner... don't mistake this for algae.

No, I'm not a pool expert, just a new owner who decided to tackle a brown-water problem. Good luck!
Clark

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Clark » Sat 07 Jul, 2012 11:49

P.S., I got the main idea from here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KaHep4QJjg&feature=plcp. Mute the sound, and skip to around 40 seconds to see it working.
Clark

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Clark » Sat 07 Jul, 2012 11:51

P.P.S. (sorry for the spam), You will need to vacuum the pool bottom after day 2-3.
boops725

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby boops725 » Sun 08 Jul, 2012 14:17

So, I had the same problem with iron in my water and the water being a horrible yellow/brown color. I called a friend of mine who used to work at a pool store. His recommendation was that you could by and iron out product at any pol store, but that coke worked just as well if not better! I dumped a 12oz bottle of coke in the pool last night (and felt ridiculous doing so) and this morning our pool is crystal clear and the filter is nasty black/brown. We changed the filter and put in a new one and it looks great. Worth a shot right? Good luck
carolj

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby carolj » Sun 08 Jul, 2012 21:18

You're serious about using a can of coke? Where did you find this idea, and if it works, why aren't we all doing this?
Poolwiz

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Poolwiz » Wed 25 Jul, 2012 08:43

So I bought one of those intex 16' pools last year and spent the entire (and I do mean entire) summer trying to get the brown nasty color to go away. After hundreds of dollars, countless visits to my pool store and hours scouring the internet I found the solution. We have a horrible amount of iron in our well water and when we filled the pool last year it was a nasty brownish green right from the start, you couldn't even see the bottom. The pool store gave me all kinds of chemicals to add to try and get the brown out but nothing worked. Even the metal out that made all the iron clump together and sink to the bottom didn't help because those crappy vacuums you get with the intex pools are not able to get small debris that just flows through the mesh net. The intex filters are also not made for filtering iron out of the water and you want to make sure that while you're doing this method you clean your filter ( I just spray it out with the hose). What I did that finally worked (at the end of August, mind you, so no swimming all summer just battling the water) was take an empty milk jug stuff it with quilt batting (as much as I could get in there) poke a bunch of holes in the jug from about half way down to the bottom and attached it to the return hose to the pool. The top of the jug fits perfectly inside the hose and I just secured it with a metal zip tie that I can tighten with a screw driver. It took about three days and three milk jugs, and my pool was perfectly clear. You could see a difference after the first jug, I could actually see the bottom and the jug was full of rust colored stuffing and by the second jug my pool was swimmable. This year when we filled the pool I added the chlorine tabs to the filter and attached my milk jug right away (the jug justs float in the water in the pool and my son thinks it's a fountain because the water sprays out from the holes) and again three jugs later and just a few days I have crystal clear blue sparkling water. All I have needed to add since then is the chlorine tabs to the filter and my pool has stayed beautiful. It cost me three days and about ten bucks for the bag of quilt batting and metal tie. I recommend this to anyone who has been suffering from the cost and time of dumping chemicals into your pool.
thearaner

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby thearaner » Tue 31 Jul, 2012 16:15

I have been reading some of the suggestions for getting rid of that brown iron out of vinyl pools like the one I have which is an Intex 3700 gallon above ground pool. The very day I put water in it out of my well it turned an iron color. One of your guest suggestions was to take the pool outlet hose and hook it up to a plastic used plastic 1 gallon milk jug that you fill with quilting batting and let it run overnight. I decided to try it since nothing had worked since last years fiasco. It was amazing..........it worked. I changed the batting in the jug 3 nights in a row and the water is clear as a bell. Apparently the chlorine shock treatment will activate the iron out of the well water and bingo, it's brown. The myriad of chemicals are just a rip off and not necessary. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and quite frankly still can't believe the dang thing worked. I also saw where someone suggestion a 12oz can of COKE in the water. Just to be on the safe side I did this as well but am convinced that the milk jug was the winning trick. Give it a try and breathe a sigh of relief when you see it the next morning. Keep cleaning the lousy filter that accompanies the pool though as it does help a little.

TheAraner
Huskerdee

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Huskerdee » Wed 22 May, 2013 15:38

We have had a pool for 10 years and finally found the trick. I do not like all the metal free chemicals as it always seemed I still had yellow water when shocked. When you chlorinate or shock it oxidizes the metals and they fall out of suspension. Then they are large enough to filter out. It takes a while depending on gallons of water and filter used. We have 15000 gallons of water and with a cartridge filter it took 2 weeks and lots of money spent in filters. The sand filter worked better taking about one week and backwasking the metals out. This year we got a DE filter and it is all it is said to be! Only took a day and a half and we went from brown to crystal clear.
Chad2358

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Chad2358 » Sat 01 Jun, 2013 00:52

I used a milk jug packed tight with quilt batting and poked some holes in the bottom. Connected the return hose from the filter to the jug and propped it up on the ladder. I bought a jug of iron out at Walmart and used about 1/2 a bottle and literally in about 3 or 4 hours the water was crystal clear. Amazing solution for under 20 bucks! Thanks for the suggestion.
Vhiers

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby Vhiers » Sun 23 Jun, 2013 16:37

I had know how to get rid of brown pool water finally and it is a cheep to go to a store a buy 1 bottle of The Works toilet cleaner and put half it in the water and run filter the next day go out it should be light brown make sure you clean the filter and add corline tablets in skimmer it will take about 3 days and it should be clear blue but make sure you clean filter at least 2 times a day and it works. My water was a dark brown after I shock it did the method above for three days and now it is clear blue
candybar
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 24 Jun, 2013 07:48
My Pool: intex 15x48 above ground
Location: Wisconsin

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby candybar » Mon 24 Jun, 2013 07:59

Hi Help Me! Brown Water from IRON~ I want to THANK YOU for your suggestion!! I basically did what you said and it worked. We use our well water to fill our pool and the same thing happened to me!! Last year was our first year with the pool and I never got the water crystal clear!!! VERY FRUSTRATING So after a lot of research I found your suggestion this year and it worked. The only thing different I did was I took pillow filler and wrapped the filter for the pump. I was able to put the filter with the filler wrapped around it, into the pump. It took 3 days and the water was crystal clear. Every time I took the pillow filler out of the pump it was filled with the iron. THANK YOU and my kids THANK YOU
RobinH

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby RobinH » Wed 03 Jul, 2013 18:44

The socks worked! Thank you for the great idea! I put 3 tube socks inside each other, tied them on the end of the hose, and put them on the top step of the ladder - the water went thru the socks, and down the step into the pool. The socks turned brown.
marac

Help ME! Brown Water from IRON~

Postby marac » Tue 30 Jul, 2013 18:45

I have well water that is very high in iron. To give you an idea of how bad it is when I filled my pool it was at 3.6%. Those of you with high counts know how difficult my job was and I can proudly say I am at 0% today. I wanted to share what I have learned along the way and what end the end worked for me. My pool is 15x 30, 15,000 gallons. I have had both a sand filter and a cartridge filter, sand does a better job at removing metals. Most metal removing products will only lower you by .5-1% per jug so if your count is over .5% might as well toss in 2 jugs and let filter run non stop. If you have a sand filter do not backwash, I know you will read over and over to backwash often but the sand filter does work more effectively if you don't until the pressure is built up because the stuff it is collecting is helping filter the smaller partials out. A cartridge filter clogs so yes it will need to be rinsed daily, me I did 2x a day and what a pain that was, still say the sand filter was my best investment. Keep in mind with a high count there is no overnight fix so it may take a couple of applications of chemicals to get it all out. Real important, do not add chlorine even if you start growing algae resist the urge. The chlorine reduces the effectiveness of the metal removing products. Do raise your ph level to 7.4%, it will make your pool turn color but the metal chemicals work better at that level. Shocking the pool will not make the metal drop to the bottom, that is a myth. I ran my filter 24-7 till it was out but 1/2 the time I put my pool vacuum in so that it filters from the bottom as well. I purchased a pleated filter cartridge that is designed for a whole house filtration system and wedged it in the skimmer, so the water has to pass that before it reaches the sand filter. http://www.walmart.com/ip/3M-Filtrete-P ... r/21609431 It does seem to me more effective than the ones made for pools. Now the 2nd part of the problem, replacing water during this process without putting more metal back into the pool. I purchased a filter made for camping to put on the end of my hose. Walmart carries a filter that goes between the water source and a camper. Do not attach the hose end that comes with it as the spring will rust and leach more metal back into the pool. I wedge that between the pleated filter and the skimmer so all the new water is being filtered as it goes into the pool. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-Water-F ... e/14504321 I put 2 inches of water in my pool today and got it tested, still at 0% iron and 0% copper.

Return to “Pool Surface Staining & Discolored Pool Water”

Who is online at the Pool Help Forum

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests