Brown Pool Water - What's Causing it and How to Get it Under Control

Many pool owners will have to fight with brown pool water from time to time, and the best way to understand how to get rid of it is to understand what's causing it.

Chances are pretty good that if you have brown pool water you're using well based water to fill your swimming pool. This water usually contains a high level of metals, which is what is probably causing the water discoloration.

In this case, brown either represents too much iron corrosion, or maganese. After some time the water may turn green if metals begin to oxidize which might confuse you for an algae problem, which isn't the case. Keep your sanitizer levels normal, however, so that you don't have an algae problem in addition to a metal one.

Before you begin to fix the problem, you're going to need to buy a sequestering agent. Sequestering agents are chemicals that bind to metals and allow them to stay in solution. This makes it easier for your filter to get the metals out of the pool as well preventing staining if the metals become oxidized.

Here are some steps you can take to remove brown pool water:

1. Be sure that your alkalinity and pH levels are at their optimal ranges.

2. Next you will you need to add the sequestering agent and run your filter for 12 hours. I recommend doing this over night.

3. After the 12 hours is up, shock treat the pool.

Be sure to retest your pH and alkalinity levels and make sure that they're all back in normal range after a typical shock treatment.