Hi Bridget;
You've got iron in your fill water. It's in a soluble form, till air gets to it, or till you mix it with chlorine. You can solve the problem, but it will take some work and effort on your part. The worst of it is learning how; once you have the routine down it will be much easier. You'll want to make sure you have everything ready, BEFORE you refill and start over. (You can clean the water you have, but it will be easier if you start over.)
But do this:
1. Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol red test it, or (much better & available at some Walmarts) get a HTH 6-way DROPS testkit. Also, get 3 gallons of plain store brand 6% household bleach.
2. Go to Lowes, Home Depot, etc. and buy a gallon of muriatic acid. But before you use it, read the muriatic acid page linked in my signature.
3. While you are at Walmart and Lowes, see if you can buy a quart of polyquat. Read this page FIRST (www.poolsolutions.com/polyquat.html) so you know what to get. If you cannot find it there, I've put it with some Amazon links at the bottom of this post.
4. Fill out the pool info chart -- as members of the PF Support Team walk you through the process, having the chart makes it MUCH easier to give you good answers.Pool History Entry Form5. Order a bottle of HEDP -- link below. You can find this locally, but it's very tricky to buy, since stores will try to sell you something that's 'just as good' but is NOT the same. If you print the picture from the Amazon link and get EXACTLY that product, you can buy it locally.
Pool History Logsheet
6. Purchase some dichlor -- this is an easy way to raise your stabilizer level. Again, link below. You *may* already have some, but much what's sold is blended and diluted. If you have some, include the EXACT manufacturer and product name, so we can see if you can use it. But, if you have access the best source for this is "PoolBrand" 24 x 1lb bagged shock at Sams Wholesale. It's about $2.50/pound, in sealed bags, so it's not only an excellent price, but you can store what you don't use for next year.
7. Unless you have a sand filter, order 2x the Unicel replacement cartridge for your filter. This are better than OEM cartridges, which will filter better, and will last all summer if you clean them properly.
8. Once you start testing your pool, use this chart to keep up with the results:Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results
I know this is a lot of stuff, but you will not use all of it up this year. OK, links:
KitHTH 6-way at Walmart (check availability)
PolyquatKem-Tek 60% polyquat @ Amazon
Nava 60% polyquat @ Amazon
HEDPJacks Magic The Pink Stuff 1qt (60% HEDP) @ Amazon
20% KemTek HEDP @ Amazon -- watch out for the ship date!!
Dichlor (if you can't get it at Sams)Kem-Tek Dichlor 22 lbs
Unicel replacement cartridges -- only if you have a cartridge filter; you'll need TWOUnicel C-4607 Replacement Filter Cartridge (Easy Set Size A or C) @ Amazon
Unicel C-5315 Replacement Filter Cartridge for 15 Square Foot Intex B Filter @ Amazon
Filter cleaning package (ALL of this is available locally! TSP is sold in the paint section of hardware stores; any 5 - 10 durable plastic container with a lid is OK for cartridge cleaning)Rubbermaid BRUTE Gray 10 Gal Container w/o Lid @ Amazon
Round Brute Lid For 10-Gallon Waste Containers, 16" Diameter, Gray
1lb Savogran 10621 Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) @ Amazon
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