Water smells fishy

[texaspool2013]

I have an inground concrete pool approx 15,000 gallons. Today's Test Results are:
TC 0.00
PH 7.6
TA 120
TH 180
CYA 43
(I took my CL down to zero so that I could use ascorbic acid to remove stains. I did this treatment 4 days ago. Treatment worked well. Also used Metal Out)

My water smells like fish, is cloudy and has bubbles (not air). After the above readings today, I turned the inline chlorinator on 3 and will continue to run the pump. Also put new filters in.

History: CYA was 150 and I had brown stains. I drained pool until CYA came down and CL went to zero. Then balanced PH, TA & TH. Pool has gone 8 days without Chlorine.

Question: Is this why my pool has this overwhelming fishy smell? It has not been hot and it has rained once.

Question: Does this fishy smell mean that I have algae?

 

[JohnN]

Where did you get these numbers from? They look like pool store numbers, which are never very accurate. If they are correct, you are going to want to get some Cl in there. I am not sure about the fishy smell, but I assume you will probably need to follow the shock process outlined in Pool School (upper right). In order to do that properly, you will need the K-2006 or TF-100 from tftestkits.net.

 

[linen]

Question: Does this fishy smell mean that I have algae?

Well it is not a good sign (smell)

Did you use an Algaecide?

Follow JohnN's suggestion and get the chlorine up but not much higher than 3 ppm FC, and before you do, make sure you review the Ascorbic Treatment guidelines for increasing chlorine. It stresses keeping the ph down at 7.2. If you shock the pool now you metals my redeposit...the recommendation is to wait 2 weeks to shock.

Hopefully someone who has done this process before chime in

 

[duraleigh]

Chlorine will cure the smell and cloudiness but as linen says, you must bring it back slowly according to the Pool School article he referenced.

 

[texaspool2013]

I did not use an Algaecide.

 

[texaspool2013]

It has been 10 days since I did the stain removal with ascorbic acid. I started trying to bring the Chlorine back slowly by turning the chlorinator on 3; however, each day I test for CL and it is 0 and my skimmers were getting slimy.

Each day for the last 3 days, I have put 1 lb of shock in the water (3 lbs total) and left the pump running 24/7. As of today, my Taylor K-1005 Test Kit shows 0 FC and 0 TC.

Day 1, 1 lb shock turned pool light green and then cleared to blue.
Day 2, 1 lb shock turned pool medium green and then cleared to blue.
Day 3, 1 lb shock turned pool very dark green within a couple of hours.

Finally assumed that the CL must be hitting the iron to cause this reaction. Put 2 more bottles of Metal Out in the water. (Had just used 2 bottles during stain removal process) 24 hours later, pool has clear blue/gray water. Still not the crystal clear blue that I am accustomed to seeing in my pool but I think that it will continue to clear.

I am thinking now that the smell I referred to earlier was probably from the iron in the water after the stain removal.

I have some questions:
1) Why am I reading 0 chlorine? Do I really have no Chlorine?
2) Am I always going to have to sequester the iron in the water before adding shock so that the pool doesn't turn green? Is that even going to work?
3) 3-4 years ago I found 4 metal sparklers in my pool from New Years Eve. I found them several weeks later after they were rusted. Could this have been the source of my iron problem causing stains over the last 3-4 years? If so, should I consider a partial drain now that the stain removal is complete?

Today's Test Results:
FC = 0 TC=0
PH = Between 7.2 - 7.5
TA = 60
CH = 230
CYA = 30

 

[Stuamurr]

1) how are you testing your pool, we cannot answer your chlorine question until we know the answer to this important question, we need to know make, model and reagent information for your testing regime.

2/3) ill leave to better informed members on metals as I do not know

Observation 1
You claim to be using an inline chlorine feeder, are you using Tri-Chlor tablets?

Observation 2
You say your dumping shock into the pool. Why are you not using plain bleach?

Sorry, just noticed you listed your device, I am unfamiliar with Taylor equipment, however note it uses DPD reagents, which will bleach out over 10ppm fc. So you could either have zero or above 10ppm fc, when you test for fc, fill your sample tube, then empty, leaving only a couple of drops in the tube, then add your DPD tablet and crush, if you see pink there's chlorine present, immediately fill the sample tube and if it bleaches out you are above the range of the tablet, if it bleaches out, in order to get a 'ROUGH' idea of what the fc is do a dilution test starting at 1:1 tap/pool (remember most tap water has chlorine though! Then if necessary 3:1 and so on.

The other thing you can do is add the FAS-DPD reagents and powder to your kit to give you a more accurate testing facility and ability to test above the range of DPD someone else can tell you what o get from TFTestKits.com but its not an exuberant outlay.

 

[duraleigh]

2013,

The best way to manage your FC is with bleach. Running the SWG at different settings and tossing "shock" (we don't know what you are using) in the pool does not give you the precision that will be very helpful in bringing your pool back. YOu have gone too long letting your chlorine slip to zero and the slimy pool walls are an indication of that.

To answer your questions...

1. Yes, you have 0 chlorine...it is being consumed byorganics in your pool and you are not keeping up.

2. You are always going to have to sequester the iron....it never comes out.

3. Sparklers won't produce enough iron. The most common source is filling from well water.