Confused about Metals in water & TC & maybe even Phosphates

[Natnem]

Hello all! It’s been a few weeks and it’s been going pretty good for the most part. I’ve had a few issues that I think I’ve taken care of as much as I can by searching and reading here without asking any questions.
I discovered a few things at the end of July. When buying the pool the frog System was part of the package. I discovered exactly what that was through you guys and didn’t want to have it installed. However I had an appointment the day the installer came and my dad was here and It was added to the plumbing of the pool. However we thought since we didn’t plan to use it and didn’t put any of the stuff that came with it together that it was just something else attached and I was going to remove it whenever. WRONG! The mineral reservoir was preinstalled. So we were push copper and silver into the pool until I discovered this on July 20. I removed it. Got the PH, TA, & cloudy water taken care of and it’s been beautiful since!
I took the water to leslies on July 21 to get the water ran to see what the metal test read since I don’t have anything to read that. My dad brought it to be tested again on Tuesday because my little boys hair is greenish!
The pool looks great even with the downpours the past few weeks. But I’m feeling a little questionable about the water because of his hair and the amounts of rain we’ve faced!
I also spilled my last CYA test Tuesday while testing so unfortunately I am using the pool store’s results because of the amount of rain and backwashes I’ve need to do since it Was a steady 50. So don’t get on me too bad!
Test results below
Leslies July Metal numbers
Iron- .2
Copper - .8
Phosphates- 622

Leslies Results from This week
Iron- .0
Copper - .3
Phosphates- 976
CYA- 35
TC- 1.18
My results this morning after yesterday’s storms. I Brushed and vacuumed to waste so I could bring my water level back down again.
FC 0. Added 43oz lc to reach 6
PH 7.2 Added Borax to reach 7.5
TA 70
Also added around 11 oz of stabilizer to increase CYA to 50ish
Have the outlet aerating and the kids will be in the pool so I didn’t add anything to increase TA will double check tomorrow and add recommended 13oz of baking soda if it needs it

With all the rain I know my FC levels haven’t been correct daily because of the rain. I did put a floater in the pool and got the pool essentials pucks from Walmart. Knowing all this I’m just nervous that I need to worry about the high TC, Copper, & phosphates.
Id like to get the green hair to stop is that the copper?
Please help!
Sorry for the book! I just wanted to be as descriptive as possible!

 

[AndyTN]

At least the hair is pulling the copper out of the pool for you! Are you actually seeing stains on the pool surfaces? I would try to keep your ph in the area you are in now to help keep the metals from precipitating in the pool. Get some polyfil (pillow stuffing) from a craft store like Hobby Lobby and put it in the skimmer for the next few weeks. The polyfil will help absorb some of the metals just like the hair.

Get your FC levels up to go with FC/CYA chart for SLAM if your FC was 0 but CC was 1.8 and follow that process. Phosphates are like fertilizer but your chlorine is like Round Up. It doesn't matter if you fertilize something which is already dead so maintain the proper FC and you will be fine. Go get a good test kit and stop going to the pool store. The copper is coming from products, like the Frog, and the iron is usually coming in micro amounts in your fill water.

 

[Natnem]

Well I was coming to see if I had any replies to see I didn’t post my reply!
I’m sorry about that I can’t believe that happened! It was a little lengthy too! So I won’t go backwards but my main question was how do I add the polyfil to the skimmer if I don’t have a hairnet or stocking on it? I’m scared the pump will suck it in. Should I add a stuffed animal or something to keep that from happening? I always thought the polyfil was for iron didn’t realize I could use it for copper!

 

[ajw22]

Polyfill will not help with copper. The differences in test results are probably due to variability in pool store testing. If you have had pool water overflow into your overflow drain due to heavy rains you probably dumped some of the cooper in the pool water.

Phosphates at 1000 are not high.

Read Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading