Green hair & copper... I'm confused

[spyder850]

My platinum blond daughter now has green hair. No amount of clarifying shampoo has worked. I found a thread regarding other products to try so I'm going to do that. Now how did this happen?

I think I understand that it's not chlorine or algae or anything else that causes green hair. Just copper. What I don't understand is where the copper came from? I read somewhere about SWGs having a copper plate and by adding bleach to my pool (which I do to top up the FC if I need a quick "boost"), I could get some copper leaching off that plate. Also, read it could have come from the city water I use for auto-fill. Also I took over the pool maintenance myself late last year, so there is always the chance my pool company added an algeacide that contained copper. Anything else I'm missing?

I have a Taylor K-1730 test kit on order to determine the copper level, but what am I looking for? What copper level is acceptable 0ppm, 0.5ppm, etc?

Lastly, how do I get rid of copper in the pool? I've read about metal sequestrants and drain/fill. Being in CA in a drought... drain & fill is not going to fly So it seems like a sequestrant is the way to go. Jacks' Blue Stuff (whatever that is) or something else?

I feel like all my numbers are in line:

FC: 4.0
CC: 0.2
pH: 8.0 (just added 76 oz 20 Baume acid this morning for this)
TA: 70
CH: 300
CYA: 90
Salt: 4600
Borate: 50

Anything else I should be doing ? My daughter is in the Wizard of Oz, but my wife doesn't really want her looking like the Wicked Witch of the West

Thanks !

 

[JasonLion]

Copper comes from some kinds of algaecide, low PH and a gas heater (copper heat exchanger), "mineral" systems, ionizers, one brand of "3 way" trichlor tablets, and a few products with "blue" in their name. There are only a couple of brands of SWG that include copper ionizers, mostly Intex. The IntelliChlor does not contain copper.

 

[Hawk]

It's not the chlorine that causes the green hair. The chlorine only oxidizes the copper metals in your pool.
Jacks Magic makes a couple excellent products to deal with this.

 

[Isaac-1]

As far as your numbers go, if they are accurate your CYA is a bit on the high side even for a pool with an SWG, we generally suggest around 70 ppm CYA for a pool with an SWG, and your FC is low for your current CYA level. The FC minimum for a SWG pool with a CYA of 90 is going to be about 5 ppm, and your target level should be around 6 or 7 ppm.


Sorry I can't add anything to the copper issue, but my guess is it mostly likely came from an algaecide or a magic in a bottle, as to getting rid of it the only option there is water replacement, the Jacks Magic stuff can treat it in a ongoing fashion, but it is not a cure.

Ike

 

[spyder850]

Copper comes from some kinds of algaecide, low PH and a gas heater (copper heat exchanger), "mineral" systems, ionizers, one brand of "3 way" trichlor tablets, and a few products with "blue" in their name. There are only a couple of brands of SWG that include copper ionizers, mostly Intex. The IntelliChlor does not contain copper.

Low pH and a gas heater... the combination of the two ? I have a gas heater for the pool (not sure if the heat exchanger is copper or not, but I can find out). When I went through the process of adding Borax to the pool I'm sure the pH was low (6.8-7.0) during at least part of the time although the heater for the pool was not on at that time.

OK, if I test for copper and eliminate it. I can keep an eye on these things. I'm really happy with the TFP method. Now that I'm controlling what goes in the pool, I can avoid most, if not all, of those things.

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

I think the pH has to be much lower than 6.8-7.0 for a significant amount of time for very much copper to be pulled out of the heater.

 

[Hawk]

...
Sorry I can't add anything to the copper issue, but my guess is it mostly likely came from an algaecide or a magic in a bottle, as to getting rid of it the only option there is water replacement, the Jacks Magic stuff can treat it in a ongoing fashion, but it is not a cure.

Ike

Is that correct? I always thought that metals/copper could be removed permanently using a quality sequestrant?

From their website:

The Blue Stuff does everything "The Pink Stuff" does and more. "The Blue Stuff"'s proprietary blend actually removes copper from the water. "The Blue Stuff" is also very stable in higher chlorine levels and can be used in many fountain and water feature applications.

 

[Charlie_R]

+1 Jblizzle.

For copper to leach even from cupronickel tubing, the pH must be in the 6.4 or lower range for an extended period of time (weeks/months) before a significant amount is transferred to the water. The only exception I know of is by passing a dangerously high current (in pool terms) through the water using an anode/cathode arrangement. Think electroplating and electrical etching. Both would require low pH, though.

 

[spyder850]

OK. Sounds like I don't need to worry about pH leaching. I'll test my fill water and my pool water once my kit gets here. Once I figure out how to eliminate the copper, I'll just add the copper test to my periodic test suite.

Thanks!