strange results while I shock a crystal sparkling green pool

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goodkodiak

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Jun 18, 2010
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Hello everyone. First post. A little background first:
I have been directed to this forum from a very knowledgeable member of TFP. Shout out to chem geek.

Ok, so here we go, I just bought a new house and it came with a anthony sylvan pool with spa, and waterfall from spa to pool. The pool is oval but not a mirror image so it's hard to get a solid volume. I'm guessing around 25000 when using the pool calculator. I have a diving board and the deep end is 8ft. rounded sides. When I first opened the pool there were a lot of problems. First it wasn't opened correctly and I didn't know enough to get the valves and everything in order. Anyway, old news.

I now have a new problem. The water is crystal clear but tinted green the morning after shocking. This week I was gone for 2 days. Each day my gf put in a gallon of 10% chlorinator. When I came back last night the water was still really clear but instead of a hint of green it was emerald.

So I shocked last night....went through 26 182oz 6% bleach jugs. Today I bought another 31. I put 6 jugs in and a half hour later checked the FC level. It was over 5ppm with my Taylor 2005 kit, the highest it reads, I tried the distilled water dilution method 1 part water 2 parts distilled water but the color was at the 1ppm mark meaning 3ppm???

I asked the pool store for a 2006 and they asked why I wanted that one. I said I wanted to read FC readings over 5ppm. They laughed at me and said no one should ever do that, HA! Anyway, since then I've ordered the TF-100 but it's not here yet. My pool is absolutely covered in shade by 2pm, so I started this test at 3pm. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I've been reading all types of threads in this forum for the past 3 weeks.

I have the two skimmers, pool main drain at bottom of deepend, and the Rayvac automatic pool cleaner running. Just did a fresh DE backwash and added it 6-7 more lbs of DE last night.

My levels are (30mins after dumping 6% 182oz jugs):
FC: >5ppm
CC: >5ppm
TA : 150
Total Hardness: N/A on my test kit. I drop the 5 drops of indicator in and it's already the color it should be when I'm supposed the count the drops of the titrant. Pool store measured it at 350.
PH : 7.2
CYA : 40-50. Pool store measured it at 80.

Pool is super clear, no signs of algae or spots in pool, but green.

Also, I had a nature2 cartridge left from the previous owners for 45k gallons installed but about a week ago I bypassed it thinking it was making the color green because of metals.

Sorry for the burst of information but thought I would let it all out before anyone asked.

Main question is why the dilution method doesn't show me over 15ppm. According to the pool calculator I should have > 20ppm in the pool right now.

Thanks a lot!
 
First, Welcome to TFP. I'm not sure you can come here with a better reference than Chem Geek (no offense to the other contributors, I just like his in depth knowledge.)

I don't have any advice on the dilution method other than to say that with dilution, you lose precision. Regarding you color, it sound to me like you have metals (specifically copper, probably from the Nature2 system) in the water. At high FC level, they'll show up green. I think you're going to want a metal sequestrant in there.

Can you get a test for metals from a pool store (maybe even a different one that you got the advice on the K-2006 from.) :) The TF-100 doesn't test for metals, but I think there's a good chance that that is responsible for your green color.
 
Welcome to TFP. :wave: Richard is a gem ain't he?

Emerald green and perfectly clear points to metals. The fact that adding lots of chlorine and even shocking made it deeper green also points to metals. Have you happened to have the water tested for copper and iron? If you haven't I suggest you do that.

I'd let the FC come back down to where you can measure it and see if the color lightened some.
 
Thank you for your quick responses. Yes Richard is a great man. The pool store right down the street doesn't test for metals. I have tried about 4 bottles of metal sequestrant so far, 2 last friday and then 2 last sunday but I didn't see any difference in color. I have a leslies pool store a few miles away from me as well. I can call them and see if they test for metals.

Also, do metals "eat" chlorine? I put 26 bottles of 6% 182oz bleach in last night (15 initially at 6pm, then 1-2 every 40mins until I went to bed) and this morning had a FC reading of 0.5. TC was 2.

Thanks!!
 
I forgot to add that after adding those 26 bottles last night my PH didn't change a bit and the water went from emerald(darker green) to a hint of green again this morning. No idea what this means but thought I would add it for you pros!!!
 
If I do have high amounts of copper and iron. Which I think I might. I have a well and I'm not sure how many of the gallons in the pool were filled by the previous owner with the well water. Which has very high iron content. Toilets turn orange if not used after a week or so. I just wanted to know what products I should look for in case the pool store tries to sell me a metal sequestrant I've already used that doesn't work. I read that Jacks is a good brand? I know the pool store sells it but I never bought it, I always got the cheap stuff. Which might be why it never worked. If Jacks is good, which is the best to get that will rid this metal from the pool?

This is just in case I do test high in metal!!! Leslies will test my water tonight for metals. They will see a very high FC level, ha!
 
Just trying to make sure I have this right...

Last night, you put in 4732 oz of 6% bleach into a 25,000 gallon pool?

And this morning you have FC: .5?

Something is wrong.

You either have a herd of dead buffalos in your pool... or there is a testing problem... or something.
 
Goodkodiak, metals don't eat chlorine. If you put in 26 bottles of 6% bleach in your 25000 gal pool, that's enough to raise the FC by about 91. If I'm reading this correctly, you lost 90.5 ppm FC overnight! Something is not right. How are you testing?

haha, waskydiver beat me to it. Any dead buffalo?
 
Don't put anymore bleach in your pool until you get your TF-100. Your FC problem is the test. The DPD test will bleach out under very high FC levels.

With that high of FC your sequestrant is probably being oxidized away.

Do you have an OTO chlorine test kit?
 
Haha, herd of buffalo.... Yes, I have an OTO test kit as well, though I haven't used it since I bought the Taylor 2005. The TF100 should be here any day too. I should put up a couple shelves in a room in my house to hold all these test kits once I get the TF100. The bleach wasn't put in all at once but over a 7 hour period last night. I see your point. Whats the difference between OTO and DPD test kits? Also, I wasn't shocking the pool when I used the metal sequestrants last week. They were around $5 a bottle of the discount shelf. Thanks everyone!
 

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Take the OTO test kit and run the test with it. We're not looking for a color match so much as we're looking to see that it changes color. The OTO test won't bleach out no matter how high the FC is. Let us know color you see.
 
OTO is dark yellow. According to the OTO chart chlorine is >= 5 and Br >= 10. I'll check it out throughout the night and tomorrow morning and post. Thank you so much.I won't add anymore bleach for now.
 
Thanks for the support bama rambler! It may come easy to you guys but I'm just learning. As I said before we bought the house with the pool in this shape and our pool opener screwed us on other things. What an experience. This forum is definitely what I needed. I'll check the levels later tonight and tomorrow morning with the OTO until I receive the TF100. They will probably be over 5 but that is what I want to see instead of weird results.Thanks again
 
And just to reinforce, don't by ANYTHING from the pool store until you post your results and discuss here. If you take water in for a metal test and they want to sell you something to help fix it, just tell them you already have a bottle of that at home or something. Come back with results and you'll get the help you need.
 
Ok, I got my TF100 test kit.

At 644pm my results were:
I added a heaping tiny blue spoon full, haha and it was clear so..
FC : 0
CC : 1.5
CYA : 50

At this point I added two 182oz jugs of 6% bleach which should bring my pool to 7ppm.

One hour later at 744pm my results were:
FC : 2
CC : 2

Also, here is a picture of my pool. I have added the width/lengths/depths to the picture.
http://www.meshoxford.com/bowe/Pool_dimensions.jpg


I'll check again at 844pm.

Thanks everyone.
 
With CYA of 50, you should be targeting 16 (per poolcalculator.com) for shock level. Since you have 1.5 ppm CC, you definitely need to shock. Add enough chlorine to hit 16 and check every hour if you can and add enough to get back to 16 until it starts staying close to that, then you can back off to twice a day and eventually just nightly testing.

Read and re-read How to Shock Your Pool in Pool School. Sometimes you'll see something you didn't notice on the first couple of reads. It's a lot of information.

Keep posting, someone is always here to help.
 
OK, I'll get back to shocking it in a couple days. I won't be around tomorrow so it will have to wait until Wed night.

At 844pm levels were :
FC : 1
CC : 3

but you can probably see where this is going until I shock again. I'll buy chlorinator on my way home Wed and start shocking and post back times and levels.

Thank you!!
 
If you can't be with it tomorrow, I'd suggest shocking to mustard algae level or 29 ppm tonight. If you can, test and bring it up to 29 ppm in the morning also. After you get back and can deal with it on a regular basis, go back to targeting 16 ppm as your shock level until you are finished shocking (see How to Shock Your Pool in Pool School to know when you're done.)
 

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