I have hard water (well water) and I filled up a pool and it turned orange. Can anyone tell me how to keep the water clear? My daughter thinks it's to dirty to swim in.
Do you have a pool store you can take a sample of your water too? They can tell you what is wrong. I've never had it turn orange before, but it could be a type of algea.
Do you have a water softener? If you do, try adding more water softener salt, Morton's has one specifically designed to remove the rust. My parents had the same problem; my mom's hair turned orange. Good luck!
do you have a water softener for the water inside the house? You'll probably have to fill it up with water from your inside sink or tub (may take quite a few trips with the bucket unless you can hook your hose up somehow from inside and run it out to the pool). We have well water too that is very hard, but if we keep our softener filled and filter changed every month or so it does pretty well (I can always tell when we're dropping the ball because our tubs and sink turn orange too!) If all else fails put a couple drops of blue food coloring in it and tell her it is magically clean :) it won't stain her or be bad for anything :)
The color is probably due to the iron in the water - if you were to check all the ph, akalinity and chlorine levels they are probably ok. I think the only way to get the water clear is to us a metal remover -- with a kiddie pool it's probably more trouble than it's worth. I might be wrong though but I think it's the same probably my friend who lived in the country used to deal with every summer with her kids -- they finally decided that swimming was more fun than worrying about the color of the water.
It's probably due to the high mineral content. Check with your local pool store and see what they recommend.
well i believe you still need chemicals in it just as we that dont have hard well water. u still need chlorine too. Call your pool store.
You need to shock it. When we fill ours and then put chemicals in it it is a reaction of the chemicals with the iron in the water. Put some shock in it and it will clear up quickly.
We have well water and had the same problem the first time we filled up the pool. It looked nasty. We do have a water softener that we use with rust inhibitor salt but it wasn't hooked up to the outside spouts. We refilled it with water from our kitchen sink and it was fine. Our neighbors had a pool and had to truck their water in due to the same reason.
We had this same problem, and it was due to iron in the water. Our local pool company had us bring in a water sample from the pool. They tested the water and told us what chemicals to use. After adding the chemicals our pool was crystal clear.
Hi T.:
Where ever you purchased your pool from they should have pool chemicals, what you need is a water prep like Pristine Check or a form of Metal Gon. These are liquid chemicals that you put into the water and let filter the metals into your filter, rinse your filter often during this process. You can also purchase a hose attachment that will filter the water as you fill the pool from your garden hose. Hope this helps. Good Luck :)
It's probably iron. If this is an Easy Set pool, it isn't a good match with well water. The filter's are too small to be effective once you have a big problem such as yours, I speak from experience. You have two choices; drain it and order pool water from a reputable pool water delivery service, or drain it and slowly fill the pool running the hose through large chlorine tablets which will help oxidize iron and other minerals. I can tell you from experience that it's much easier to deal with a pool that has good water to start with rather than back pedaling trying to correct chemistry problems. Everything you do to a pool has consequences, it's chemistry class 101 all over again. Finding a good pool store is very helpful. If you only have a kiddie pool, the chlorine tablets are your best bet. You want all the water that goes in the pool to be exposed to the chlorine. I don't know if putting liquid chlorine afterwards will work, it isn't a stablized form unlike the tablets. You can also look for an iron filter that you attach to the hose, not a lot of them will deal with iron but there are some out there. Good luck!
How long was the water sitting? I lived at the coast and had hard water. Showers and tubs would get an orange colored mold on their surfaces. If the water is clean to start and then becomes orange I'd guess that it's a mold or that the container it's in needs to be thoroughly cleaned. It could be a reaction to something on the surface of the container.
If you think it's the minerals in the water you could put water softener into the pool once you fill it with water.
