We installed a pool last fall. We have a well and not knowing that the hose bibs were not tied into our salt filtering system, filled the pool directly from the well. The pool company was aware but did not tell us not to fill the pool with our hose. Our well water has roughly 9.4 parts/liter before it goes through the filtering system where potable water should have a reading of .3 parts/liter. Prior to closing the pool we informed our pool company that we wanted to drain the pool and have it acid washed them fill it with tanker trucks before closing. The pool company who installed it said to close it as it is and empty and clean it when it opens in the spring. As a result the iron in the water has stained the pool so badly that a restoration person said it can’t be saved because calcium id coming out of the plaster. We have never used our pool. What are your thoughts?
Calcium coming out of the surface of the plaster would be a separate issue from iron staining.
Iron will deposit on the surface of a pool when the parameters of the water are “scale” forming. The Langelier Saturation Index has calculations to help identify when this will occur. You can lift iron stains off of a surface by adding ascorbic acid, and then treating the water with a metal removing product that will bind the iron molecules together large enough that a filter could remove them (our recommendation is FerriTabs that remove iron from pool water and work best with sand or glass media filters).
Calcium coming out of pool plaster would be the result of an “aggressive/corrosive” water chemistry situation where the water is absorbing minerals from the plaster if the water doesn’t have enough of those minerals (calcium hardness) and a lower alkalinity and pH. Once a pool etches there is nothing that can be done to “re-add” the calcium short of a re-plaster. If you catch it quickly though, by getting your water in balance you can prevent both the scaling/iron deposits and the corrosion/etching.
Get a good water test kit, bring a water sample to a pool place once a month and make your water balance adjustments on a regular schedule (weekly).