I have a green pool, on the 4th of July!

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Fast411

Fast411

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Jul 4, 2009
21
I have a green pool, on the 4th of July!

This is my second time in two years doing the stain removal.
36,000 gallon SWG inground vinyl pool.
Last Saturday I turned off the chlorine generator

The pool store said the chlorine was at zero Monday so I added the Stain Free. Presto everything is beautiful white.
An hour later with pump running and after brushing, I added Metal Free.

They said wait 72 hours and use this sparkle-up type product to increase filter effectiveness.

On wednesday morning no water was moving but pump was running at 20psi. So I backwashed then added the filter agent again.

Thursday The pool was cloudy and stunk to high heaven. They tested the water fro metal and said it was all gone. Start the SWG on super-chlorinate. The smell and cloudiness was so bad by afternoon I couldn't see the steps of the ladder.
So they said add this shock , 3 bags, to bring the chlorine up to get rid of the algae.
I did. Friday morning it was 80% clear and chlorine was 2.0.

I asked them if it would be safe for Saturday. They said well chlorine is normal just shock it some more.
I SAID "Wait, won't it turn green" "No sir, there is no metal in your pool, we checked." I forgot I had added about an hour of city water, because of evaporation. My city water report says copper is at minimal testing level.
Added the shock, 3 bags, and now it is clear.

I mean literally as quick as I turned and turned back again a green shimmer started on the water, within 30 minutes the whole pool is green. I called and they said sorry(we just work here), add this metal free 1.5 bottles and it will go away when the chlorine drops.

Is there anything I can do to have the pool safe, and clear in 4 hours?

Absorbic acid? will it turn the metal back invisible again. Will it?

I had switched to this pool store because they were closer. oops. I was trying to avoid becoming my own pool chemist but I think if I really want a beautiful Saltwater pool with minimum chemicals I need to do as others have done and get a very good test kit and take care of it myself.
 
Re: stain removal

Don't use Metal Free, it is not an effective sequestering agent. Use a HEDP based one like Jacks Magic, Sequalsol, or Proteam Metal Magic.
Also, you probably have a blue liner and the water is yellow, which is why it looks green. Your problem is iron, not copper. Stain Free (which is just expensive ascorbic acid) doesn't work very well on copper stains.

NEVER shock after a stain removal, it will cause the stains to reappear or the water to color as you found out. You should have added Polyquat 60 when you did the treatment to help prevent the algae. I never recommend doing a stain removal in hot weather because the chance of an algae bloom is too great.

Sorry, no easy fix for this. You need to bring the FC up slowly over a few weeks after a stain treatment and then kill algae if you get a bloom. NO other way around it.
 
Re: stain removal

Okay, I agree on how I got here.

How do I fix this now. Just time and filtering?

I am willing to deal with re-staining and treat again in the fall.



By the way if the vitaminc C wasn't the right thing for the right metal why did it works so fast, the terrible "coffee/tea stained walls were instantly white? My liner is that white with blue speckle. So green I guess like you say was the yellow metal and the blue tint.

I just want the water back to safe and ungreen. Were you saying to use Jacks Magic, Sequalsol, or Proteam Metal Magic now?
 
Re: stain removal

Waterbear,

BTW I read your posts about the time of year and algae on the old poolboard? archives, I found through google, two days into the treatment. I was like SOB that makes sense. Funny that you were the first to reply to me here.

That was you right like a 2006 or 2005 posts. it looked like something happened to the server and all the data was lost.

Thanks for the quick answer
 
JasonLion said:
There are good directions on doing an ascorbic acid treatment, here. As waterbear already said, doing it in hot weather is difficult because you almost always get algae and can't shock for some while.
Click to expand...


Thanks for moving this Jason.

Update:
Well, the panic is over for now. The pool is no longer green and the chlorine is normal(it was only zero Saturday morning even though it was shocked). I haven't added anything but the filter media booster (fiber clear?). It seemed to backwash out very yellow.

I ordered the recommended test kit and I am going to just get everything balanced and then deal with the metal in the fall.
 
Re: stain removal

waterbear said:
Don't use Metal Free, it is not an effective sequestering agent. Use a HEDP based one like Jacks Magic, Sequalsol, or Proteam Metal Magic.
Click to expand...


Okay, which Jack's magic..the pink stuff? the SWG stuff? The magenta stuff? My guess was the pink stuff is the replacement for Metal Free. I found all of them at poolcenter.com through Google. Someone might tell me a better place to order.

Doug
 
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