red/rust muddy water on backwash and filter

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lisa

red/rust muddy water on backwash and filter

Postby lisa » Mon 20 Mar, 2006 16:46

Please I hope someone can help!!!!!! I am at my wits end. Last winter we left our pool open for the first time in the spring we cleaned out the leaves balanced the water and BAM everything in the pool turned red ( minus the water) everything white or pale was terracotta color. Of course 5 pool companies a new filter, sand, chlorinator 900.00 worth of chemicals. stain remover etc. the problem is still here. No we don't have a heater, no there is no copper, magnesium or any unusal metals in the water. We backwash and 10secs into backwash the water coming out turns red muddy water or rusty. We rinse it and it rinses clear... turn it back to filter and about 10 seconds into the cycle every outlet pumps out a puff of red smoke for about 8 secs then its nice clean water. It does enough damage to stain everything in the pool. When ever we shock the pool the results seem to be worse. When the chlorine level is low or none the problem is not quite as bad. We are on our 6th pool company and they are the same as the rest trying to find the obvious and that is not it. Someone else has had to of had this happen. Any suggestion???????


Pool Help

Red pool problem

Postby Pool Help » Tue 21 Mar, 2006 03:20

Hi Lisa

I can appreciate your frustration. You mentioned that
there is no copper, magnesium or any unusal metals in the water

The problem sounds like it could be iron. Iron is typically red or brown, reacts with chlorine to create colored water and stains, and is almost invisible when there is no chlorine in the water. Have you had iron tested?

Are you using well water? This could explain the source of the contamination.

Backwashing - if you keep the rinse cycle to at least 30-45 seconds, you shouldn't have the issue of "red clouds" coming back into the pool.

I assume the sand filter has quartz/silica sand. If all else fails, you could try replacing the sand with zeolite. Zeolite has the ability to attract ions and is able to filter far better than regular filter sand. I know this is depressing as your sand is still new, but if it is the final solution .....

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