Added Salt turned water green

[x2rider]

New to the board, just discovered this BBB method, which I'm using this season, and it seems to be going fairly well so far. Water was nice & clear yesterday until I added salt.

I searched this board for salt and green and didn't turn up anything. I just added salt to our pool yesterday, and this morning, the deep end looks a weird green. My son said it looked that way last night. I put 3 quarts of bleach in after the kids got out.

A Google search turned up an answer on Yahoo saying it was probably due to a high metal content in the water.

I ordered a better test kit which should be here this week. I hope I can read the chlorine levels better with it because a lot of these test kits, new or old, the top 3 levels look about the same.

As it is now,
FC is somewhere between 3 and 5?
ph 7.8
TA 130
CYA 110
Salt 2080 ppm

 

[Bama Rambler]

Adding salt wouldn't have had anything to do with the pool turning green unless it wasn't pure salt. If it had additives or impurities that could have caused it.

Is the water clear green or is it cloudy?

 

[x2rider]

It's clear green.

I used 99.8% salt tablets for water conditioners without rust inhibiters.

Tractor supply had them for $4.49 for 40 pound bag.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/home-impro ... lt-2189761

 

[x2rider]

Not sure if you can tell much from this pic

 

[rcy]

Here is the MSDS for Sure Soft Pellets Plus http://www.nasalt.com/images/stories/PD ... update.pdf
It says sodium chloride 90-100%.

You CYA is high, and your PH a touch high. I don't think that has anything to do with the green though.

You also added bleach - maybe it was the bleach not the salt that caused the green?

I can definitely see the green in the deep end.

 

[x2rider]

Another

 

[x2rider]

On the bleach, it's the same brand/type I've been using for the last month.

On another note, in the past I've had problems with algae embedded in my ladder steps in the shallow end. The steps need replaced as they're getting old and the surface of them are rough which is causing the stuff to go deep into the surface of the step.

 

[JasonLion]

Try lowering the PH to around 7.5 and see if that has any effect.

 

[x2rider]

My K2006 came in today, so I finally got some meaningful readings. Since my CYA is so high, apparently I wasn't keeping the Chlorine level high enough. dumped in 12 3-quart bottles, and the FC is up to 29, the cya chart says shock level is 39, so I'm wondering if I should dump a few more in, esp since we're getting rain tonight, but I'll leave it at that for now and take another reading in the morning. I also added 1/2 gal of acid to try to bring the ph down, of course adding so much bleach has raised it up to 8, so if that doesn't come down soon, I'll put the other 1/2 gallon in.

FC: 29 (after bleach, 0.5 before)
pH: 8.0 (after bleach, 7.6 before)

readings before bleach
TA: 180
CH: 90
CYA: 100+ (110-120)
CSI: -0.28

 

[ROB N]

With high fc your ph readings are prone to be inaccurate.

 

[x2rider]

Chlorine reading this morning is 18, so it fell 11 points. (but we had some rain too) Slightly less green this morning.

Back to the calculator!

 

[Bama Rambler]

The fact that it fell that much overnight even with rain says that you need to shock. With a CYA of over 100 my suggestion would be to drain and get that down to a manageable level and then shock. It's going to take a lot of bleach to hold a FC of 39 ppm for any length of time at all.

What was your CC, just for grins?

 

[x2rider]

CC was .2 (before starting shock process)

After putting in 24 more quarts this morning, the green is 90% gone... progress.
Ya, the high CYA is making this project a little pricey. I told the lady at Aldis they were about out, and they needed to order more.
I also need to find a plastic recycling place. I have a LOT of jugs.

 

[x2rider]

Pool started looking much better a few days of bringing the CL level 3x than normal. Because my CYA was so high (was 110-120, now 90-100 range), I never brought my shock level to 40 (So many jugs!), so it probably took longer to bring the FC to zero, but it's finally there. I've attached my readings, it took almost a month to get it to completely stop. Water temp is hot, so I've had to put a sprinkler head on my return to try to cool it down, so I'll have to watch my Ph.

Since it's late in the season, I'll just deal with the high CYA for now, and having to put a large bottle of bleach in every day, and I'll exchange more water before opening next season.

Pump runs from 8pm to Midnight, and again from 6AM to 10AM.

The first night, I lost 11 points, then 8.5, 3.5, 2.5, 1.5 then I ran out of Titrant from doing 3 tests a day (after sundown, after bleaching, then morning after), ordered more Titrant, so had to add bleach without test kit, which caused me to lose some ground, but finally made it.

Water continues to look good, no CC's. (I mislabeled FC as TC on the chart)

Can't believe after 10 years of having pools, I just now am starting to learn how to treat them right.