For a pool with high iron content in the source water, FerriTabs are a great solution – their success and use will depend on the type of filter you have on your swimming pool.

If you do need to fill your pool with well water, I would invest in a pre-filter, one of the attachments you can add to the end of the hose that will trap some of the iron before it is added to the pool. The next step if you run a sand filter will be to begin filling the pool, and as soon as it is possible to run the pool filter, add your FerriTabs and start to run the filter, backwashing according to the instructions, which are every 24 hours – you know the FerriTabs are working when the discharge water is discolored. Add more tablets as needed to treat the volume of water you are adding to the pool. The filter can’t do the entire body of water at once, so doing the doses in several to many tablets a day, and repeating over a few days would be perfect.

FerriTabs are safe to use in a cartridge filter, however, the way the tablets cause the iron to bind together to be trapped in the filter is not the same as with sand. In some cases we have seen some success with cartridge filters, and in other cases they haven’t really helped.

The caution with a de Filter is that the de filter will trap down to a smaller micron than a sand filter, and the filter will become clogged much more quickly – sometimes in as short as a few hours, making the maintenance needed to bump and clean the filter, recharge the de, and then once treated, perform a grid cleaning process, a much more intense process. We have used FerriTabs in a de filter, with monitoring of the filter system every couple of hours to make sure it is able to operate properly.

The other option is to bring in water trucks, which often fill from municipal water sources and would help eliminate the iron in either some or most of the water used to fill the pool.