Green hued water...2 day old Intex pool

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

Joscelyn

0
Jul 21, 2013
10
Hi! My husband and I are totally new to owning a pool. We decided to start out small and simple and bought this Intex pool with the Saltwater Ozone system thinking and hoping it'd be easy/fool proof. It's been SO hot so we set it up on 7/19 (morning) and swam in it on 7/20 (evening) with about 6 other people.

When we first set it up, we followed the directions provided. We filled it with water, added the salt (we used solar @ 99.8% pure and instead of the 160lbs, we added approximately 130lbs because we read on here and elsewhere that 160lbs could actually be overkill), and added 1.7lbs of cynauric acid (hung it in a sock).

Next, we let the pump fun for 24 hours and then turned the Saltwater Ozone system on for a total of 6 hours in conjunction with running the pump after the salt was dissolved and the 24 hours was up. The water looked great last night and there weren't any warning LED lights on the Saltwater Ozone System (low/high salt)...so foolishly (we blame it on the heat!), we didn't test the water and just invited our friends over and hopped in! It was great!

This morning, the water has a green hue to it:( I even noticed a few water bugs?! We went and bought a basic test kit because our local pool store is closed...and this is what we saw:

Total hardness: 100
Free chlorine: 0
Ph: 6.8
Total alkalinity: 40
CYA: 0

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!!!!!! We have the pump and SWG running now...has been for 3 hours. We think we need to add more salt?

Thank you!!
Joscelyn

Intex Ultra Frame 18' X 48", 6,423 gallons
Intex Krystal Clear Model # 635T (1,500 gallons per hour)
Installed 7/19/13 (Bought on 7/17/13)
Intex Krystal Clear Ozone and Saltwater System Model # ZS8110[/color]
 
Well you need to get some chlorine in there, plain bleach is best (probably about a quart or so right away and go from there after circulating and testing), the Green can either be algae starting to grow due to the low chlorine or could be metals in your fill water. Also I think the Intext SWG has copper bars that add copper to the water which can be disconnected, did you disconnect them? We feel very strongly around here that metals in water is ALWAYS bad. You also need to raise your pH, as most tests only read down to 6.8, yours may be much lower. poolcalculator can give you an idea how much of each you need, also you should read the pool school link in the upper right. If the pool turns more green quickly upon adding bleach and raising the pH (within minutes) chances are it is metals in the water causing the color.

Ike
 
Thank you all very much! I had it filled by a pool company? So I would hope the water would be metal free? I'm thinking about going to get some liquid chlorine to put in there.

The chart that came with this SWG says ideal FC is 0.5-3ppm...do I need it to get up to 20 because of the green (which I'm thinking is algae)? I'm wondering how long it will take for it to be safe for us to swim again. We have an 8 month old- with the water all of out sorts, I don't want him in there. I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge! The pool school was very helpful and I had looked at it on 7/19 to make sure I understood what each term meant. However, I didn't intend to have green water within the first 48 hours.
 
A clear green color happening so soon usually indicates the presence of iron in the water. Did you have the SWG turned on as soon as you got salt into the pool?

What is your current FC reading?
 
That's correct, no chlorine yet. Just followed the directions from the Krystal Clear Ozone and Saltwater System...except we didn't add the full amount of salt for fear it would have been too much.
 
Chlorine level will depend on the amount of CYA in the water, If 1.7 pounds was the total CYA that has been added your CYA level should be around 30 ppm, which means your target FC should be 3.5 ppm.

Ike

p.s. note we suggest a CYA target of 70 ppm when using an SWG, at 70 ppm CYA your FC target (running your SWG) should be 5 ppm, (manually dosed it at a CYA level of 70 the FC should be 8)
 
No we did not have the SWG turned on as soon as the salt was put in. The directions said not to and to wait until it was dissolved/24 hours before turning it on?

Just checked again and our FC is .5

Everything else is the same....

Again, thank you for helping!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I don't think for sure we can determine if it's algae or iron just yet but, regardless, you need more chlorine in the pool.

Get enough clorox to bring your pool up to about 12 ppm today if you can and then report the change in color tomorrow AM.

We'll help you get it figured out. A picture would probably help.

btw - it will be safe to swim in the pool as long as it's not murky after you add the Clorox.....it's not enough to cause a problem because you wisely added the CYA.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's iron precipitation. It'll go away in a few days....just keep filtering, cleaning the filter and running your pump 24/7

I'm going to change the FC recommendation from 12 ppm down to about 4 ppm. The SWG won't do it. Use Clorox.

Check the FC level more often than you have been and keep it around 2-5 ppm but NEVER lower than 2

Disregard the rain. It'll have little effect on your pool. If you get a real frog strangler, don't let your pool overflow.

Summary - I think your water did have some iron in it and the chlorine from the SWG has precipitated it out. It doesn't look like too much and, if you keep your pump running, I think it will filter out over the next few days.

Vacuuming slowly would also be a good idea to pick up any solids that have settled to the bottom.

Keep your SWG running and go swimming. :lol:
 
Thank you! I really appreciate it! I will keep you posted! I wonder if it'll get worse before it gets better since it seems to be getting greener. We will add the clorox asap! Also, my husband just went out and looked at the return/outflow and saw some brownish buildup around the outer rim...

Praying these storms aren't frog stranglers!
 
Joscelyn said:
Thank you! I really appreciate it! I will keep you posted! I wonder if it'll get worse before it gets better since it seems to be getting greener. We will add the clorox asap! Also, my husband just went out and looked at the return/outflow and saw some brownish buildup around the outer rim...

Praying these storms aren't frog stranglers!
Click to expand...
But rainwater won't have iron in it! Grab it.

It won't have salt, either, but you take what you get.

Now you can see in hindsight why we advise getting the water balanced and chlorinated properly as a bleach pool before adding salt and firing off the SWG.
 
saw some brownish buildup around the outer rim
Click to expand...
Likely the iron. Wipe it off as soon as you see it. There will probably be more for a while.

If you still have a greenish pool in a day or so with no change, we'll suggest a sequestrant but I have a feeling you won't need it.
 
Good morning! So the pool definitely doesn't look any worse but it doesn't really look any better? The SWG and pump ran all night and I still have them running. Following the pool calculator recommendations, we added 41oz of Clorox to get our FC up to 4. To my surprise, here are the current readings:
FC: 7
Total hardness: 100
pH: 7.2 (maybe lower...)
Total Alk: Looks like it's between 40-80
CYA:0 still?

I told my husband the readings because I thought the FC was high and he confessed he added 20 more lbs. of salt before programming the pumps to run all night?! He didn't think it would hurt!? I'm sorry, obviously we are COMPLETE amateurs!! I feel like a student failing chemistry class!

Happy Monday, hope everyone has a good day!

Intex Ultra Frame 18' X 48", 6,423 gallons
Intex Krystal Clear Model # 635T (1,500 gallons per hour)
Installed 7/19/13 (Bought on 7/17/13)
Intex Krystal Clear Ozone and Saltwater System Model # ZS8110
 
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