Waterfall runs green when switching from sweep to skimmer

Jump to latest Follow Reply
A

AzLuckee

0
Mar 23, 2012
3
Surprise, AZ
Good morning all. I moved into my new house Jan 27, 2012 and it included my pool which was sparkling and clear at the time. I've been watching and exploring this forum since then and have learned so much about chemical care and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. Thanks so much!

Here is my issue: I have my suction pool cleaner run overnight and this morning went for a swim and decided there were quite a few "floaties" on the top that the cleaner wasn't going to be able to get and should go through the skimmer. So I shut the pump off, turned the handle from "sweep" to "skimmer" and started the pump back up again. When I did this, green water came out of my waterfall into the pool for about 30 seconds to a minute and then the water started running clear.

I backwashed my pump about 2 weeks ago for the first time since I moved in -and it did have quite a bit of stuff in it and the whole system seemed to run much more efficiently after that. I also replaced the pressure gauge on top of the pump about a month ago.

Should I not be switching back and forth between the skimmer and the sweep like that? Could it possibly need to be backwashed again already? Is it natural for some green water to come out when switching from sweep to skimmer?

Thanks so much for any information you can give me on this.

Joni
 
Re: Waterfall runs green when switching from sweep to skimme

Green water in no way, in any pool or pool apparatus... is normal or good. Green is indicative of all of two things almost every time. Either algae, or copper. So, in your case there is apparently a reservoir of water left in the equipment when you turn the skimmer off. It got algae from not being exposed to chlorine.

Sounds like it dumped that algae water into your pool and there's likely some left in the lines as well. I'd test the water and see if you've got combined chlorine and watch FC levels today. Keep running the skimmer system for a day or two, and test the water to make sure nothing is getting wonked. You might use more chlorine today than normal but it'll likely go back to normal in a day or so. Then make sure to run your skimmer once a day at least, so that treated water will enter the system.
 
Re: Waterfall runs green when switching from sweep to skimme

Frogabog has a point, but it could also be copper in much the same way, water gets trapped from circulating, you have a high level of copper in the water and it is right at the tipping point on saturation, the pH shifts in this trapped water due to contact with minerals, etc. just enough to let it turn green. Copper typically gets in pool water one of three ways: Fill water has high levels of copper, through the use of copper based algaecides, or copper pipes in equipment, like a pool heater with copper heat exchanger (most modern pool heaters don't use copper for this, but many older ones did)

Ike
 
Re: Waterfall runs green when switching from sweep to skimme

Thanks so much for the input. I had let the pump run on the sweep for several days without switching to the skimmer, so it might have been the water sitting there for too long. I've developed a new routine where I run the skimmer at night and sweep in the morning when I'm home (because it sometimes gets stuck on the steps and I need to give it a push). Another couple mental notes: The chlorine levels all look good (FC=4, TC=4, CC=0). I add the chlorine at night and test around 6 am every morning. They've been consistently good for the last month. My test kit only measures ph up to 8.2 and I can tell it's higher than that and my Alkalinity is high - 170. (I'll be ordering a TFPS school shortly so I can get more accurate measures.) I'm working on bringing that down. It was originally 220. Not sure why it's so high. I checked the city water levels online and that shows alkalinity at 120. Just checked the copper level as well and it's at: MCLG=1.3, Action Level=1.3, 90th percentile=.18.
 
Re: Waterfall runs green when switching from sweep to skimme

AzLuckee said:
I had let the pump run on the sweep for several days without switching to the skimmer, so it might have been the water sitting there for too long.
Click to expand...

Not sure of your setup but can you leave some of the flow through the skimmer while the cleaner is running?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply