Blue stuff on DE filter?

[mysticjane]

HI Everyone - and happy pool season!
I have a "what is it, and what was the cause" question please!

The pool company opened the pool on Thursday at my weekend house. They left at 3pm and the pump pressure was at 15%. We take over pool management from there, and immediately start cleaning the pool and setting Wally off to work. (I'll have to add him to my signature...I forget what kind of pool robot he is, but I love him).

At 7am the next morning, my husband called (he was onsite, I am not) to say the pump pressure was at 25%. Not normal. We didn't want to backflush into the lawn, so my husband decided to remove the filter and see what was happening. I will hopefully attach a picture - but the DE filter was covered in Blue. Any idea what this is?
DH thinks they put copper sulfide in the pool - could this be the result of that?? Wally doesn't have anything on his filters resembling this - so we have no idea what it could be....
DH hosed off the filter and refilled with DE and the pressure is down to 12.
Also, he noticed the DE was only on the top half of the filter, does that indicate not enough was put into the system? or does it continue to filter down as the system runs?
FYI - last summer we had to back flush once mid summer after being open for 3 months...

Thanks all!

 

[Donldson]

DH thinks they put copper sulfide in the pool - could this be the result of that??

Almost certainly yes, this is copper. The question is, why did it do that? Can you post up a set of test readings? That will give us an idea if there are any immediate issues you need to deal with.

I would also consider getting someone new to open your pool. The last thing you need to start the season is a bunch of copper in the water.

 

[mysticjane]

OK - will get some official test results up when I get down there....(I did run out of DPD powder, so hope it arrives in the mail soon so I can do some complete testing...)

As for the pool people - yeah...they weren't supposed to put that stuff in....