hello everyone - Questions about copper conversion

[JasonLion]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

Ideally, you want to get the copper level down to 0.3 or lower. How much water you need to replace to do that depends on just how high the copper level is right now. Medium copper levels can be managed by keeping the PH down and adding sequestrant.

High copper levels, and medium levels without sequestrant, tend to cause staining any time the PH goes up or when you add bleach.

 

[fatheroffive]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

Ideally, you want to get the copper level down to 0.3 or lower. How much water you need to replace to do that depends on just how high the copper level is right now. Medium copper levels can be managed by keeping the PH down and adding sequestrant.

High copper levels, and medium levels without sequestrant, tend to cause staining any time the PH goes up or when you add bleach.

I do have a copper test at home - I will test it this afternoon. If its low enough, Should I start chlorinating asap? Kids will be starting school in 2 weeks, Should it be safe enough to use until then?

 

[Guest]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

You do not have to 'convert' the pool like a baqua pool. i'ts already a chlorine pool (from your shocking). It's just a chlorine pool with bad water balance, very little to no chlorine, and a lot of copper in the water. Do some drains and refills to get the copper levels down ( and realize that any staining you have is copper that can rediissolve in the water in the future ). Once your copper levels are below .5 ppm (.3 ppm is better!) add a dose of metal sequesterant (I would recommend Jack's Magic Blue stuff since it has a high chelation index for copper) and then shock the pool and rebalance the water as per pool school. After that remember to add a maintenance dose of the sequesterant every week to month (testing for copper is the key. If you test copper in the water then add sequesterant. Sequestered copper won't show on the tests.)

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

School in two weeks? What the?

BTW, for the green hair, you might be able to pry Waterbear's secret green hair treatment from him, or Wal-Mart sells "Nexxus Aloe Rid" shampoo, which I used on my kids and my green dog and it worked like magic.....

 

[fatheroffive]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

Tested the copper, and there was next to none in the pool. like .01 according to the test.

Just using some 6 way test strips right now until my kit arrives.
TH 0
FC 0
PH 7.2
TA 80
CYA 30-50

added a gallon of bleach (according to the pool calc) and some borax (ph was a little low). cya is 30-50, so that looks a little low so I am adding water.

How long should I wait until testing again?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

First thing in the morning, then compare the two results. Post them here...

 

[fatheroffive]

Well, Tested this morning and most of the results where the same except PH was up to about 7.7 or around there and the CYA seems to have increased. STILL showed 0 on the FC and that was after a bag of crystal shock and gallon of bleach.

Added another gallon of bleach this morning and tested it about an hour afterwards and the FC looked off the charts and the water seemed quite a bit clearer. Seems the sun should lower it some today seeming its going to be in the mid 90's out.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Once you get your test kit, test the CYA asap, I'm going to guess here and say its probably higher than you think. Just keep adding bleach to bring you to shock level and HOLD IT THERE by frequent additions of bleach. Can you test often throughout the day? If you noticed it dropped, use the pool calculator to figure out how much more bleach it will take to add, to bring it back to shock level.

Does that make sense? You have to hold your shock level, not letting the FC drop back to zero in between, otherwise you won't stay ahead of things. Once you get your shock level to hold overnight, you'll be able to let it drop back down to normal levels. Until then, you won't make any progress.

So keep adding bleach, frequently, testing, adding more if necessary. Assuming your CYA is 50, your shock level is around 19. Without your test kit, it's going to be impossible to tell if you are reaching that mark or not. Hope you get your kit soon! :-D

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

Just shocked it last night according to our 2 weeks maintenance manual and Just had it tested at the pool place and here are my results:

ph 7.3
ch 50
ta 30
cya 10
cop. 1.06

cya is 30-50, so that looks a little low so I am adding water.

Edit (after review of entire thread)~

Just so you know 30-50 is perfect, and you don't want it higher. However, the test strips are very unaccurate.

On a related note, back when I used strips they said my CYA was 30-50 and it was actually over 100+ (this is bad).

On the earliest post, your copper was high. Did you do a draining of the water? As your last pool store said it .1.... I'm guessing the 1.6 is the chem you had been using....

But on that same test, you show CYA as 10. Did you add CYA, and if so, how much did you add?

So we'll get this figured out! You can do this, and we're here to help you!

 

[fatheroffive]

Re: hello everyone - Questions about conversion

Just shocked it last night according to our 2 weeks maintenance manual and Just had it tested at the pool place and here are my results:

ph 7.3
ch 50
ta 30
cya 10
cop. 1.06

cya is 30-50, so that looks a little low so I am adding water.

Edit (after review of entire thread)~

Just so you know 30-50 is perfect, and you don't want it higher. However, the test strips are very unaccurate.

On a related note, back when I used strips they said my CYA was 30-50 and it was actually over 100+ (this is bad).

On the earliest post, your copper was high. Did you do a draining of the water? As your last pool store said it .1.... I'm guessing the 1.6 is the chem you had been using....

But on that same test, you show CYA as 10. Did you add CYA, and if so, how much did you add?

So we'll get this figured out! You can do this, and we're here to help you!

Well, When we tested the copper level OUR kit showed very little to none in the water. We have only been using the start kit they gave us, so I have used very little of their chemicals in our pool - Maybe 32-64 oz total.

I did backwash until the pool went down to the "low" indicator on our skimmer and refilled it to "high" level.

Did not add any CYA but added water and it did seem to raise it somewhat. I still need to buy some pool conditioner to raise it more.

Unfortunately I am at work until later this afternoon and dont really want the kids messing with bleach so I will have to retest when I get home later and then stay on it night and day throughout our 100 degree weekend.

So I will keep it maxed on the strips until my kit arrives and hopefully that will be enough.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I just want to emphasize that if your CYA is really 30-50 that is perfect, don't add more. Conditioner is the same thing so you should really wait till you have an accurate test to be certain of your test number.

Test your tap water (fill water) I've never heard of it containing CYA. Adding water should not have raised it, it's more likely some sort of testing error.

 

[fatheroffive]

When I got home the father in law commented on how clear the water was....It looks amazing now! Wife agrees now that BBB is the way to go.

Tested and the FC was 0 again, But everything else appeared normal (according to test strips) and was super clear......I added another gallon of bleach and it jumped up to around 4-5. Kids went swimming about an hour after adding.

I will test again before heading off to bed again and post results.

 

[fatheroffive]

Tested again last night and the FC held to around 4-5 and again this morning is was down to 0 again! :grrrr: Is this going to be a gallon a day to maintain, Or do I need like 4 gallons in at once to get to shock levels and it will maintain easier?

Looks like I am off to the store to get more bleach.

btw, still looks amazing.

Before BBB

AFTER BBB

 

[Butterfly]

Well, you need more bleach.

You are done shocking when you meet these three criteria:

The process is complete when:
A. You hold FC loss to 1.0 or less overnite
B. Your CC's test .5 or less
C. Your water is sparkling

 

[fatheroffive]

well our FC has not been holding lately and keeps going to 0 overnight. Wife commented on it maybe cheaper to by actual chlorine then bleach because of how much we have been using. Maybe actual chlorine will hold the FC better?

Well tonight I plan on bringing the fc to shock levels and hope that helps. According to the pool calc, It will take about 2 jugs or about 322oz of bleach in order to bring it up to 15.

Still looks crystal clear, But to be safe I want the FC to stay around 4-5 and right now that takes about a jug of 174oz to do.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

well our FC has not been holding lately and keeps going to 0 overnight. Wife commented on it maybe cheaper to by actual chlorine then bleach because of how much we have been using. Maybe actual chlorine will hold the FC better?

Well tonight I plan on bringing the fc to shock levels and hope that helps. According to the pool calc, It will take about 2 jugs or about 322oz of bleach in order to bring it up to 15.

Still looks crystal clear, But to be safe I want the FC to stay around 4-5 and right now that takes about a jug of 174oz to do.

Correct in your plan of attack...if your FC is going to 0 overnight, organics are consuming your chlorine, and you need to kill them by shocking. It may take more than one night.

Does your wife understand that bleach is "actual" chlorine? Bleach is 6% sodium hypoclorite, and "pool store" or "liquid chlorine" is either 10% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. You have to figure out the unit price to decide which is more economical. If you can get a jug of Walmart brand bleach on sale that's probably cheaper than a gallon at the pool store at regular price. Sometimes however, the pool stores run specials and you can get the stronger stuff on sale, then it's a better buy. Just depends.

 

[fatheroffive]

well our FC has not been holding lately and keeps going to 0 overnight. Wife commented on it maybe cheaper to by actual chlorine then bleach because of how much we have been using. Maybe actual chlorine will hold the FC better?

Well tonight I plan on bringing the fc to shock levels and hope that helps. According to the pool calc, It will take about 2 jugs or about 322oz of bleach in order to bring it up to 15.

Still looks crystal clear, But to be safe I want the FC to stay around 4-5 and right now that takes about a jug of 174oz to do.

Correct in your plan of attack...if your FC is going to 0 overnight, organics are consuming your chlorine, and you need to kill them by shocking. It may take more than one night.

Does your wife understand that bleach is "actual" chlorine? Bleach is 6% sodium hypoclorite, and "pool store" or "liquid chlorine" is either 10% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. You have to figure out the unit price to decide which is more economical. If you can get a jug of Walmart brand bleach on sale that's probably cheaper than a gallon at the pool store at regular price. Sometimes however, the pool stores run specials and you can get the stronger stuff on sale, then it's a better buy. Just depends.

Well added over 2 gallons of bleach and the FC is over 10 now, But the PH looks to be over 8.4 for some reason. Granted this was only about 10 mins after adding the bleach and I am still just using the strips for testing. Should I add some ph lowering product I picked up?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

No, adding the bleach will raise the PH - at FC that high the PH test result is not accurate.....check your PH when you are done shocking and FC is below 10. That will give you a more accurate reading on your true PH.

 

[fatheroffive]

Well tested this morning and the FC looks like it held to shock levels overnight! The PH still looks jacked up though.

FC Should drop once the sun gets on it today and I will have my father in law test before the kids jump in this afternoon.

 

[JasonLion]

Great!

When the FC comes down below 10, test the PH again and adjust as needed.