Pump is turning my pool green.....

[LXT]

Hello, we have an Intex krystal clear saltwater pump. We had been having a few problems with the low flow sensor going off with error code 90 and gave up trying to get it to work 5 days ago. After another go today we have managed to get it going with no beeping or error messages. It has now been going for several hours and is running fine. The problem is that the pool looked almost picture perfect (it was a tiny bit cloudy) before running the pump and now the pool is a greeny yellowy brown colour that is getting darker the longer the pump runs for. Does anyone know what is causing this please, and how can we fix it? Thanks

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi LXT,
The green color of the pool is due to algae growning in it. When the problem with your salt water system happened, and you turned the pump off, then no more chlorine was going into the pool. Saltwater systems produce chlorine, thats the whole purpose of having a salt pool.
Now that its going again, there is no way the saltwater generator can keep up. It will not produce enough chlorine to kill the algae. So its not your pump thats turning the water green, it's the algae multiplying really fast.

What you need to do is SLAM the pool. Here are instructions on how to do it.
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

 

[Jezza]

Welcome to TFP!

And with a SLAM of your pool your going to need the right test kit. Unfortunately for you in NZ and like us Aussies, sourcing the recommended test kit can be a little tedious and expensive especially from a postage point of view- you'll probably be looking at around $150-$200 AUD all up. But it will be the best investment you can make to get your pool under control.

There have been plenty of threads recently on this forum from Australians and these should give you an idea of what you might need. Just search 'Aussie test kits' on the top right hand side. Feel free to ask any other questions but it it going to be extremely difficult to sort your green pool without it.

 

[LXT]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question however I must not have been very clear in my description. The pool was looking almost perfect this morning, then we got the pump going and then the water changed colour while going through the pump, and the longer the pump ran the darker the colour of the water became. So it started out looking almost perfect and changed to looking like a swamp within a few hours because of the pump. My daughter had a look around the internet and found that it could be caused by iron. Apparently the iron reacts with the chlorine generated in the pump which changes the colour of the water.

 

[Patrick_B]

That does sound like a metals problem, and unfortunately if it is, there isn't much you can do about it aside from getting a new water source, or adding a metal sequestration chemical. Do you find staining of any kind in your home fixtures like sinks and toilets? This is usually present when you have high metal concentrations in your water, especially Iron. You'll find lots of threads about metals in pool water here in the forum, but I'm not sure what products you have at your disposal down there.

 

[Richard320]

The Chlorine generator also tends to drive the pH up, which can cause dissolved metals to precipitate out. Lowering the pH could dissolve things back into solution. However, the problem remains.

The ideal thing is to filter the precipitate out. I'm not sure how you'll do that with an intrex, as you probably don't have a skimmer basket to load with pillow stuffing or paper towels. You could try making your own Iron filter, like the third link shows.

A Tale of Two Filters... and Ugly, Rusty Water.

Help! BROWN IRON in pool water

Just got Taylor-2006 Test Kit. Want to verify what I should add.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to the forum LXT

 

[LXT]

That does sound like a metals problem, and unfortunately if it is, there isn't much you can do about it aside from getting a new water source, or adding a metal sequestration chemical. Do you find staining of any kind in your home fixtures like sinks and toilets? This is usually present when you have high metal concentrations in your water, especially Iron. You'll find lots of threads about metals in pool water here in the forum, but I'm not sure what products you have at your disposal down there.

We live rural so there is no town main water pipe. We collect rain water off our roof and get a water truck in when our water tank runs low. When the pool water got low we topped it up with water from our dam. I don't know if the iron came from the dam water or if it could be from our rusty pool ladder? We took the ladder out of the pool yesterday. I have pulled out the last pool water test results from the pool shop 6 days ago and the iron reading was .4, it doesn't say what unit it is in but I guess it is ppm?

 

[pooldv]

Metal in the water can turn the water green but it will still be clear and you will be able to see the bottom. If it is green and murky then it is more likely an algae bloom. You can raise the FC up to around 10ppm and perform and OCLT to see if it is algae, Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

Here is a page from Poolschool on metals, Pool School - Metals in the Water and Metal Stains

 

[LXT]

The Chlorine generator also tends to drive the pH up, which can cause dissolved metals to precipitate out. Lowering the pH could dissolve things back into solution. However, the problem remains.

The ideal thing is to filter the precipitate out. I'm not sure how you'll do that with an intrex, as you probably don't have a skimmer basket to load with pillow stuffing or paper towels. You could try making your own Iron filter, like the third link shows.

A Tale of Two Filters... and Ugly, Rusty Water.

Help! BROWN IRON in pool water

Just got Taylor-2006 Test Kit. Want to verify what I should add.

Ah yes the ph is at 7.9 so we will need to rectify it. Thanks for the links, they are very helpful It does have a basket so I will try stuffing that with an old duvet we have (same material as pillow stuffing).