Bright green pool, metal?

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algaspar

0
Jul 20, 2013
63
St. Louis County, MO
I've been having trouble keeping my chlorine up, and I treated with ascorbic acid earlier this week because of a stain on the liner (my liner is blue and it looked green; so I'm guessing iron, but I don't know where it comes from. I'm not on well water; I first got the stain last year...). My CYA has remained very low, though I've added five or six gallons of liquid stabilizer since opening the pool about four weeks ago. The I'd been trying to take care of it with my SWG and chlorine, but I finally had the company that put in my new pump take a look. They added chlorine, and I noticed the water was cloudy. Last night the Ph was inching up to 7.7 or 7.8; so I added acid and got it back to around 7.4. Today I tested, and the chlorine was still low (about 1). This afternoon I shocked the pool to about 16 as my CYA was around 37 according to the pool company's electronic gadget, and within an hour it was clear but green. I'm guessing I need a metal sequestrant. What would be a good one, how much do I need, and do I need to retreat with ascorbic acid first?

Thanks--

Al
 
Thanks! I'll go see whether local Leslie's has a good sequestrant. I presume follow the label for the amount. How long does it take to work?

I'm still concerned about my low chlorine. I put in the amount of chlorine last night for my CYA of 40. This morning it was showing 2, but the cloudiness is gone:

CL 2
Ph 7.4
CYA 40
Salt 3200
TA 100

I'm a bit concerned about the salt also. The SWG is not complaining, but the pool company's electronic tester showed 3400 Friday. He added one bag when he dumped in the 5 gallons of chlorine. I added four bags last night. How long should it take for that extra salt to register?

Thanks--

Al
 
Leslie's sells something called Natural Chemistry 14834. Will that do what I need?

Also I read on the forum that I should have zero Chlorine when I do this, or I risk oxidizing the iron and turning the water chocolate.

And the slam article implies I likely need to add more chlorine and slam/shock again with my chlorine still being so low. Am I understanding that correctly?

Thanks--

Al
 
Hi algaspar. The two meal sequestrants recommended n TFP are Metal Magic and Jack's Magic. Frankly, I'd avoid using anything else. The product you mention does not have the recommended agent in it -- it's just more citric acd, which is already causing you problems getting FC back ;)

Getting FC to hold after AA is a bit tricky. First off, if you just did an AA treatment, you need to bring the chlorine back up to normal slowly -- not shock/slam it. Excess AA will fight chlorine -- meaning it neutralizes it...which is why it takes several additions of chlorine to bring the FC back up -- you just don't want to overshoot ;).

However, since you slammed it so soon after the treatment, there's a chance that the green is oxidized metal if you didn't use sequestrant during the AA treatment.

In your shoes I'd try the Metal Magic fist to see if the green tint clears, then SLOWLY but steadily add liquid chlorine until your up to your normal level. Do not slam if possible for at least a week after using the sequestrant - or at all if possible, since slamming oxidizes metals ;) For now, I'd skip another AA treatment -- the MM may take care of any stains that reform.

Sequestrants, btw, can make water cloudy for a few days, depending on your filter. Follow instructions on bottle.

So, to recap...get sequestrant in, get FC to normal. Once normal is holding, maybe do the OCLT at 10 ppm to see if you have any organic issue, OR (more likely) your issues are related to the post-stain-treatment phenom ;)
 
Thank you very much. On closer inspection I had a stain on the pool liner. I went to Leslie's and bought ascorbic acid. I had them test the water while I was there and it showed 0 metal; so I held off on the sequestrant.

The ascorbic acid cleared the stain right up. I'll have the water tested for metal again and see if I need sequestrant (which I suspect I will).

A couple of odd things came out in the testing. The salt test was particularly odd. I'm using the Taylor salt test. I tested several times and consistently got 2400. The pool guy that I had last week was getting 3400, which I also got last week. Since then though I have tested at least three times and consistently got 2400. I had added 4 bags (40 lb) of salt because of that, but still rated low. Leslie's test showed 4100.

The CYA test was odd too. I've been seeing about 30 on my CYA test. Last week the pool guy I had out showed 37. Leslie's test today showed 80.

They also got a high reading for 'phosphates' which I don't have a test for.

Should I be concerned with my testing? 2400 vs. 4100 is huge, but my SWG isn't indicating high salt...

Thanks--

Al




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Hi Al.

First off, pool store testing is generally unreliable. To accurately treat for metals or o slam, you will need your own FAS-DPD test kit, either the TFT100 or Taylor k2006, each availalabe at TFTestkits.net. - So yes, please be concerned with testing ;)

Much if not all of what's taught here at TFP relies on your ability to test your own water, and having a reliable CYA number is critical to the TFP method...for example, please click on the chlorine:cya link in my signature.

Re: CYA -- did you use liquid bleach to "shock" or did you used powdered shock like dichlor? Puck and powders all have CYA (dichlor adds 9 ppm for every 10 ppm FC, for example). This is why TFP advocates using only liquid bleach or an swg.

Alternately, adding cya (stabilizer) may mean that your additions are still showing up, which you would "see" if you had your own test kit. Either way, the higher cya is needed/recommended when running SWG, (refer to pool school) so in your case its not a huge problem as long as it doesn't go any higher ;) So don't add any more stabilized products now!

Regarding sequestrant, there is no question in my mind that you need it, so I wouldn't waste any more time on that going back to the pool store. If you've done the AA test and it worked, you HAD metal staining. The AA released that metal back into the water. Now you report that the water has tinted. You never should have been sold AA without sequestrant to accompany it, in other words...one of many reasons most of us have come to distrust the advice/ignorance of pool store employees ;)

The simplest rule is if you use AA, you must use sequestrant following the treatment.
 
Thanks again. I will pick up the sequestrant. The AA got rid of the stain and the water is crystal clear; so I'll add sequestrant. All I have access too is the Leslie's Metal Free :(...

I do have my own test kits--TFT 100 and the additional K-1766 salt test kit. I got the pool store test because I had been concerned about my salt test. Because I had thought I might have a problem with my new pump, I had the.company that sold it come out and check. Both the tech and I tested last week at 3400, but now I'm testing (consistently) at 2400 despite adding 5 bags of salt. My SWG is not complaining of either too low or too high salt. So I thought I'd get another reading; hence having Leslie's test. Their getting 4100 got me very confused. Other parts of their testing seemed ok except for CYA (it was off as badly as the salt--I got 30, and they got 80). They got 3 on FC; I got 2. They got 110 on TA; I got 100. They did get a pH of 7.8, when I had read it at 7.4, but I suppose it could be my eyes. I won't have a chance to test again until tonight...

While, I ignore Leslie's suggestions, I was hoping to be able to resolve the discrepancies I'm getting in my readings. I checked to make sure I waan't losing water; so I didn't' understand my salt readings, and I had thought my stabilizer readings would be at 70 or 80 as I added what the PoolMath calculator asked for to get it there (using liquid), but I kept getting 30.

I appreciate the help.

Best--

Al
 

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Testing concerns

I have a TFT 100 test kit as well as the L-1766 salt test kit (new kit this Summer). I am getting concerned particularly with my salt readings. Almost two weeks ago a tech that came out to check my pump and I got 3400 for a salt reading. The tech added a bag of salt. A couple of days later I was getting a lower reading so I added another four bags. I consistently got readings of 2400 until today when I got 2600.

At the suggestion of the company that installed my new pump, I took a water sample to Leslie's. They got a reading of 4100 on salt. My SWG is not indicating a high or low amount of salt. My current readings are:

FC .5
CYA 40
pH 7.6
TA 100
Salt 2600

The Leslie's test gave FC of 3, CYA of 80, pH of 7.8, TA of 110, and salt of 4100. What gives, and what do I trust? Is my SWG going bad? At either 4100 or 2600 I would think it would indicate that the salt level was either too high or too low. I'm holding off on slamming the pool with liquid chlorine until I get a sequestrant added to resolve an iron problem (acorbic acid removed the stain, but I don't want it coming back. I started a slam over last weekend, which immediately gave me the stain on my pool liner...). I'm guessing that my consistently low FC readings are due to algae or the like...unless, of course, my SWG is bad.

Thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks--

Al
 
Re: Testing concerns

In general we never trust pool store testing, too many cases of inconsistency I bet you would get just as much variation if you took the sample to 3 other pool stores, and none would agree
 
Re: Testing concerns

SWG's detect salt level by measuring the electro-conductivity of the water, I assume you are using the Taylor Salt test which measures salt levels chemically, the problem is there are things other than salt can alter (raise) the electroconductivity of the water and therefore fool the SWG into being happy. Of course these same things can fool the SWG into thinking the salt level is too high. So there is not necessarily a discrepancy here, just different testing methods giving different results that may make sense when you look at the big picture. In general I feel that as long as the SWG thinks it is happy and you are not getting other signs that the SWG cell by be having problems I would not worry about it too much.
 
Well I did move it to "Testing concerns" :-(. I guess I could cut and paste it back together. Let me know.

The one reply said not to worry about my SWG not complaining about the low salt levels. Unless there were "other signs that the SWG may be having problems". Could my low FC be a sign? The water is cloudy this morning (it was clear yesterday afternoon)The quick test shows no FC, and I ran the SWG all night at 5. Should I just assume that I need to go back to slamming? Can I wait until I get the sequestrant added? My pH seems to be 7.4 or 7.6; I can't decide whether the color is lighter or darker than 7.5. I probably need new eyes :)

Thanks--

Al

Sorry--

Al


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