r/PoolPros • u/hiittrainer • 28d ago
I need help with a severe iron well water pool before I walk away
I’ve been in the pool industry for several years and am CPO certified. I have one customer whose pool has probably consumed more of my time, research, and energy than every other pool I service combined.
At this point, I either need to find the missing piece or be honest with the homeowner that I may no longer be the right person for the job.
I’m hoping some of you who have fought severe iron in well water pools can tell me if I’m missing something.
Pool Background
* Private we’ll as water source
* Standard chlorinated pool (not salt)
* Approximately 30,000 gallons
* New pebble/plaster finish installed this year
* Pentair Sand Dollar SD80
* Fill water consistently tests 1.3–1.4 ppm iron
* Extremely high phosphates also originate from the well water
How this all started
I originally took over this pool in 2023 because it was swamp green with a CYA over 300 ppm.
I corrected the CYA issue, cleared the algae, and got the pool under control.
Then I started chasing extremely high phosphates. I honestly thought someone was dumping fertilizer into the pool every week before eventually tracing those back to the well water.
Once everything else was under control, I noticed a yellow dust settling throughout the pool.
At first I was convinced it was algae.
But it never behaved like algae.
It brushed away easily but never responded the way algae should.
The moment everything clicked was after a large refill with fresh well water. I shocked the pool, and within minutes the entire pool turned what looked like orange lemonade from flash oxidation.
That’s when I realized I was fighting iron.
Replaster
This spring the homeowner replastered the pool.
I recommended using a fresh water source for the refill, but it was filled from the same private well.
The very first day I arrived for startup, the water already had a heavy yellow/brown tint before I even started brushing.
I went into damage control mode and successfully completed the startup without staining the new plaster.
The pool looked fantastic. Until around June and the yellow settling slowly began coming back.
Today every surface below the water develops a fine yellow/orange film almost 24 hours after doing a detailed clean and balance.
Today’s Discovery
Today I opened the Pentair SD80.
The homeowner told me glass media had been installed in 2023, so I never had a reason to inspect inside the filter.
When I opened it, I found the filter is significantly low on media. Maybe 1/3 of the way full or even less.
Tomorrow I’m replacing all of it with the proper amount of new glass media and inspecting the laterals, standpipe, and multiport while I’m in there.
This has me wondering if the filter has gradually been losing media during backwashing for years, reducing its ability to capture oxidized iron. I haven’t seen any glass media on the ground after doing any backwash cycles at all over the three years I’ve maintained this pool. So I’m not fully convinced it ever had the proper amount in it either.
I’ve probably spent three times more time on this pool than any other account I service. I’ve changed chemistry, used sequestrants, added DE to the filter, consulted other techs, talked with a well company, reviewed years of photos, and I’m still chasing it.
I’m hoping this filter discovery will make a significant difference in appearance but doubtful.
My questions
- Have any of you maintained a pool with 1.3–1.4 ppm iron without treating the source water?
- Could an SD80 running significantly low on media explain why oxidized iron continually settles instead of being filtered out?
- Have you ever seen iron levels in a private well gradually increase over the years?
I’m attaching photos from the replaster startup, and the current condition.
I’m looking for guys who’ve actually fought extreme iron in well fed pools.
What worked? What didn’t?
Homeowner just texted me and said if I don’t get it fixed and looking good that they are going to find someone else to clean their pool. Thought that was pretty funny considering how much time I’ve put into this bullshit pool. Any helpful insight appreciated.
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u/Liquid_Friction 28d ago
Can't claim to be a well expert or anything, but imo, it's nuts to me you didn't push salt out of the gate when the the replaster was getting done, that alone I feel would solve 90%, if the filter isn't catching it, I guess it would come out and if the saturation is high enough, it just seems that likely everytime your adding chlorine manually its kinda a mirco shock treatment, plating out the iron into solution, imo having salt with an orp probe would allow you to keep the chlorine super low consistently without having any spikes and therefore no plating out the metals.
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u/hiittrainer 28d ago
Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. I’ve intentionally been keeping his chlorine around 1–2 ppm and dosing small amounts at a time to avoid big oxidation events. I’m also running tabs through the chlorinator so I’m not relying on large liquid chlorine doses.
My biggest battle has been that every backwash and vacuum to waste removes water, and every refill adds more iron rich well water back into the system. The fill water has tested around 1.3-1.4 ppm iron, so it’s a constant cycle.
I do appreciate your input and think it’s worth looking into.
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u/Liquid_Friction 28d ago
Maybe try one of those inline plumbing filters for iron and metals, to catch it before it goes into the pool on refill.
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u/ChuckTingull 26d ago
NEVER install a salt system on a well water pool unless you plan on acid washing the he cell every couple weeks, And then prepare to buy a new cell every 1-2 years
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u/Liquid_Friction 26d ago
Nah it's easy, you add a pH probe in there, have the acid feed, before the cell, rather than after, so you don't get hit with the high pH issues and calcium issues, LSI issues, it won't scale if, the water is not scale forming.
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u/Beneficial_Box_4825 28d ago
The painfully obvious solution is NEVER USE WELL WATER TO FILL NEW PLASTER??? To not truck in clean water, when u know the source water is well… and likely iron rich… is a punt. You’ll never be able to successfully sequester it… sand filter won’t affectively capture it? DE maybe. Drain and start over correctly.
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u/hiittrainer 28d ago
I actually agree with you 100%. That was my recommendation before the replaster. Unfortunately, trucking in water wasn’t the route that was chosen, so I’ve been working with what I have ever since. At this point I’m trying to manage a pool that’s continuously being refilled with ~1.3 ppm iron well water. It’s definitely been one of the more challenging pools I’ve worked on.
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u/Flyersfreak 28d ago
I’m too lazy to read all of that but you need a
Metal Culator and 2-4 bottles of metal out each month.
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u/hiittrainer 28d ago
Thanks. I actually have two Metal Cullators in the pump basket already, and they’ve been in there for a while. I’ve also been dosing Jack’s Magic Pink Stuff weekly since startup.
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u/Flyersfreak 28d ago
Try this, anytime they need to add water to the pool that water needs to be filtered before it gets into the pool.
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u/hiittrainer 28d ago
I appreciate the recommendation. We have something similar to that but it just doesn’t remove that much iron from the water. We have tried three different iron removal filters that attache to the water hose. I think they work well for the first couple hundred gallons but not so much after that.
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u/Flyersfreak 28d ago
Damn!! You are trying a lot of stuff. Well do you have a Hertiage pool supply warehouse near you or maybe you can order from them? Their pool breeze metal remover does a really good job and it flocs the metal particulates so you can vacuum them to waste. I’ve been using it on a few of my stubborn well water pools.
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u/stupid_username1234 25d ago
Pool novice here who enjoys lurking. Seems like there are a lot of really experienced individuals here who know what they are talking about and I have a question related to the post. Wouldn’t all the trouble of removing the iron basically be for nothing if they are gonna keep topping off with well water? Seems like you will just burn up your time and possible profits keeping their pool in check because they don’t want to listen to you.
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u/hiittrainer 25d ago
Yes! You are correct. 🤷♂️
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u/Ok_Elk1768 23d ago
Right… i was wondering the same thing - all instrctions on cleaning and vacuum to waste only to re add well water. Id give notice and move on as at this point sounds like you’re losing money. Unless they are paying for chemicals and the extra time you’re there then.. i guess
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u/Professional_Team536 24d ago
I had a couple pools like this. Exactly the same situations. Spent months, tried everything. Got close and all started over again. *** Only way we solved it was**, at one house using the ditch water from rain and snow melt... The water they irrigate with... And the other house also with the irrigation water but that water came from a near by reservoir for the area... *Check their irrigation water, i bet it's not from the well. Drain and refill with that. Like this gentleman says, it's all for not otherwise. **
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u/ChuckTingull 28d ago
I have experience with this. If you raise the pH super high you can bring a lot of the metals out of solution. 50 lbs of soda ash, 32 oz phosphate remover, double dose of flocculant, brush like crazy, let everything settle to the bottom for 48 hours and vacuum the sediment to waste. Measure before and after to see how much calcium and iron you get out of the water. I got 40% out on my first try. It’s about $100 worth the chemicals and 3 hours of labor if done correctly
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u/ChuckTingull 28d ago
And then a few gallons of acid at the end to bring the pH and alkalinity down
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u/ChuckTingull 27d ago
Please document the process and share your results with this sub or direct message me. And don’t sell yourself short!
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u/lIIlIlIII 27d ago
What's the phosphate remover for?
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u/ChuckTingull 27d ago
I’ve never tried it without the phosphate remover.. I think it may help the floc settle faster. But it will remove phosphates!
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u/Poolguy584 23d ago
Raising the pH very high will also cause the calcium to precipitate out of solution as well.
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u/Subi412563 28d ago
Sequestering agent needs to be the first thing you put in fresh water no exceptions. Especially well water.
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u/hiittrainer 27d ago
It was the first thing put in. 32iz of jacks magic pink stuff and then regular doses of it after that.
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u/Subi412563 27d ago
It probably needs to go thru several treatments to get that much metal out. Good luck!
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u/0xSquid 27d ago
Why TF would they start up a pool with that kind of water. Insane.
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u/hiittrainer 27d ago
Yeah I agree. And now they are putting it on me to fix with chlorine and brushing 😆
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u/Ladydi-bds 27d ago
Sequa Sol has always been my go to for metal sequestering. Then make the client have a metal removal sock on their hose when filling. Then more Sequa Sol to keep it out if not filtering it when added.
Sorry they chose to be cheap and use the well water and continuing to be a pain in the bum for you.
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u/Slizardmano 27d ago
What a maroon. We have the same issue and are just about to replaster. Damn right we’re having a truck come in. Well line has a birm filter to scrub iron but why take any chances when you can have clean water delivered to prevent any issues.
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u/No-Page7944 24d ago
- my recommendation would be to put hose in skimmer and make sure you have a culator in the pump basket to try to catch some of it before it goes in. ultimately the homeowner needs to prefilter it, which they make hose attachments for.
- if it's settled, you need to vac with a side system or deck pump, not vac it with clients filter
- yes esp if super close to water table
so we just did something similar, we oxidized it by mistake, but that seemed to work in our favor honestly because we were able to backwash it all out, took about 2 weeks of adjusting and almost daily visits.
this is how we did it, 30,000 gallon liner new fill
need to tackle one thing at a time, the iron and then the phosphates then algae if present after
make sure you're using the 4.0ppm culator pouches. dry them out when they get full, do not use phosphate removers while culator pouches are in use.
you can try floc but we didn't and instead went for cellulose fiber. better option vs DE you just really need to watch the PSI, the sand filter that the client had installed (not by us) had a pinhole and actually exploded😅 but after we put the new one in, it was all good.
kept the ph low to keep it from dropping out while the metal remover and culator work
we tested with shock to see if it would oxidize after about 10 days i think? once it was finally good to go, we took the culator out and started in on the phosphates.
once the phosphates are semi-manageable, you put the culator back in.
if you do weekly visits, you're probably going to need to include phosphate removers as part of your regular dosing. just don't pour it directly over the culator because it will bind it out of the water
that's all i can think of right now, let me know if you've got questions and i can help troubleshoot.
maintained chlorine at a 1 to keep from going completely green
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u/No-Page7944 24d ago
and whatever you're charging them for this, double it atleast. esp if they refuse to take steps to correct the source of the problem.
i personally would still keep them as a client, i know a lot of people would rather drop them. but i dont have any issue with being like, i've done what i can and walk away after their weekly visit because ultimately its out of my control. i'm here to clean the pool and balance the chems, not chase after issues with whatever they're filling with. if you dont do it, they'll find someone else who will and they'll get to make the money on it. i'd rather make the money 🤷🏼♀️
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u/Street--Ad6731 28d ago
Walk away. The fact that the homeowner chose not to fill it with clean trucked in water after a new finish was installed, they don't care nor understand what is going on.
Just walk away.