I added copper. Now what?

[Ryan-Cal]

Oh no. I just got back from a business trip and made the mistake of adding copper ethylenadimine complex to my plaster pool. What can I do to mitigate the damage?

After I got home, I found my algae had not disappeared despite raising FC/TC to 5 and Ph to 7.5. I shocked the pool w 1.5 lbs of Dichlor and then found some old All-clear algaecide in the garage from a pool guy I fired years ago, and out of haste decided to added 6 oz to my 18,000 gallon plaster pool.

After reading the forums against copper, I brushed the bottom, and I’m running my pentair clean and clear cartridge filter at 2,850.

What should I do now?

18,000 gallons
Plaster pool
Pentair clean and clear cartridge filter
Pentair variable speed pump
Pentair intellichlor IC 40 salt cell

PoolMath Logs

 

[mknauss]

Not much you can do. Hopefully that amount will not rise to the level of staining.

Only way to remove copper is to drain the water in the pool.

 

[Ryan-Cal]

Not much you can do. Hopefully that amount will not rise to the level of staining.

Only way to remove copper is to drain the water in the pool.

Thanks. Is staining the main problem with adding copper? If the pool looks okay when the sun comes out tomorrow, do you think I dodged the bullet or could it stain down the road from what I added tonight?

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum! Should have said that above!
Why is your CYA bouncing around? Are you doing your own testing?
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.

 

[mknauss]

Copper stains show up as green to black stains. I doubt what you added will rise to that level. Unless a lot has been added in the past. If any blonde hair individuals swim in the pool they normally get green hair before you see staining.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Hey there Ryan, welcome to TFP

That wasn't so much compared to the size of your pool....lets hope it never rears its stained head! You'll know if and when it does and we can help you fix it
.

Your bigger problem is you say you have algae, right? Your use of dichlor and your limited FC is not going to do much to kill off that algae.

I'd say you first need to switch to using liquid chlorine (or even plain household bleach... no Clorox products, no thickened stuff or goofy smelling stuff) and obtain a *good* test kit to determine your CYA level and other test levels. You'll want to know these results so you can kill the algae with a * SLAM Process *.
We need to know:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

All of these tests are important to protect your pool investment (pool surface, equipment, etc) as well as making the pool most comfortable and safe for swimming.

Test kits we trust are TF-100 or the K-2006C. The TF-100 was built with us in mind and is a better buy. You can get it at www.tftestkits.net or www.poolsupplyworld.com

Please feel free to ask any questions you have

Maddie

 

[Ryan-Cal]

Welcome to the forum! Should have said that above!
Why is your CYA bouncing around? Are you doing your own testing?
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook.

Thanks for all of the great tips. I am also surprised by the CYA bouncing around.

I test my own, and go to Leslie's occasionally. I have some trouble with seeing the variations in the colors on standard test kits unfortunately (little bit of a color blindness - I can't read color-coded Power Point line graphs to save my life), so I bought a LaMotte ColorQ7 that tests FC, TC, Ph, CH, Alk, and CYA (and Br). I have had some trouble with my automatic pool filler, so my water level has been up and down, so I'm guessing dilution caused some of my cya variation, and also caused my salt level to drop, resulting in salt cell issues, and finally, algae.

When my salt cell is working right, it's great, but I've been through 3 Pentair IC40s in 4 years. I think this one is still working (warranty replacement last year), but I need to get my salt level up to know for sure.

 

[mknauss]

Wow, bad luck on the IC40. Mine is 5 years old, no issues.

Water chemistry can effect SWCG. Be sure to keep your CSI between -0.3 and 0

 

[Ryan-Cal]

Wow, bad luck on the IC40. Mine is 5 years old, no issues.

Water chemistry can effect SWCG. Be sure to keep your CSI between -0.3 and 0

Another good tip. I added CSI to my PoolMath app. It's been all over the place, too. Part could be my testing.

With limitations in the gradations of color I see (esp in red and green), other than monitoring with my LaMotte ColorQ and testing at the pool store, any recommendations?

Thanks again for all your helpful tips. And yes, in the LA burbs, we have very hard water.

 

[jblizzle]

Well, you need to follow the SLAM process to eradicate any algae left. The biggest (of many) problems with the Color Q is that it will not register a high enough chlorine level.

In the test kits that we recommend, the only color matching test is the pH test. The rest of the tests require you to count drops until there is a distinct color change. Oh and the cya test is a turbidity test where you look for a dot to disappear.

 

[justinc]

I have tried the ColorQ7 and the Pool Lab 1.0 photometers and I honestly would not suggest their continued use. I was not impressed with the accuracy when comparing to drop based testing.

If you have trouble differentiating the shades on the pH test block, I would buy a digital pH meter and make sure it's calibrated.