Entire pool surface has changed Color

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Dark plaster can hide turquoise and grey copper stains.

As the stains turn black, people are sometimes confused into thinking that the pool is turning white in the lighter areas due to the contrast.

In my opinion, the darkest parts look like copper stains.

You might also have some sort of scaling or other issues as well.

Do you have pictures of the original plaster or can you get them from the customer to show what the original color looked like?

Did you take pictures of the pool on your first visit to document the condition of the pool?
 
JamesW said:
You said that the deep end darkened.

Is this accurate or not?

It might be scale, which might be calcium carbonate or maybe calcium phosphate.

Did you test for phosphates?

Can you show the system?

Is the pool SWG or tabs?

Can you show a sample of the white film stuff?

Put a drop of acid on the sample to see if it bubbles up, which would indicate calcium carbonate.

Put 1 gram of the white material into 4 liters of distilled water and allow the stuff to dissolve and then test the water for calcium and alkalinity.

If it is calcium carbonate, then the TA and calcium will be about 250 ppm for each.
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It seemed like it might have but it's really hard to tell if it darkened or not. Once I am able to get rid of the film then I should be able to tell if it darkened or not. I will test phosphates and get a picture of system tomorrow. The pool is tabs. I will also try those tests tomorrow to see if it's calcium . Thank you for those ideas, I never would have thought to do that.
 
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Here you can see how calcium hypochlorite makes a black copper stain.

They use aluminum sulfate to remove the stain, but I have never heard of that being used before, so I do not know how well it works.

It seems to work in the video.

Other possible stain removers are sulfamic acid, ascorbic acid, oxalic acid and citric acid.

Some might work, some might do nothing and some might make things worse.


This might be the reaction of aluminum sulfate and the copper (II) Oxide.

Al2(SO4)3 + 3CuO --> Al2O3 + 3CuSO4

Aluminum sulfate + Copper (II) oxide --> Aluminum oxide + Copper sulfate.

Aluminum oxide is usually white, so, if the copper oxide is becoming aluminum oxide, it might be a white stain, which will be ok for a white pool but it might be bad for a darker color plaster.

Darker plaster usually hides copper stains as long as the stains match the plaster color.

Some plaster is a turquoise, blue or green and that hides turquoise copper stains.

Darker grey or black plaster can hide grey or black copper stains.

Using aluminum sulfate on dark plaster might leave a white stain that looks worse than the darker stain.
 
JamesW said:
Do you have pictures of the original plaster or can you get them from the customer to show what the original color looked like?

Did you take pictures of the pool on your first visit to document the condition of the pool?
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I did not take pictures originally but will most definitely do that in the future. I totally get what your saying but there is most definitely some kind of film in the pool if you zoom in on the full picture of the pool and look at the step you can see the film still partly attached and floating in the water. It's not impossible to remove, I am able to scrape it off if with my fingernail with some force but the brush is not enough to remove it. In the picture of the tile/waterline you can see where I scraped some of the white off the tile with my fingernail. Also if you look at the water line you can see that the color of the pool tile changes right at the water line. Do you think this could be a bio film ? The customer does have 2 small plants that sag into the pool a little bit.

The tabs I use are form SCP.
 
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What are the ingredients listed on the label of the tabs?
That resembles white water mold (which is actually a bacteria) but it seems awful thick! Does it rip apart?
Did you inherit this problem when you took the pool over or did it just begin?
If inherited there’s really no telling what the sanitation was like prior so it’s very possible it developed & your maintenance fc levels aren’t enough to keep it at bay anymore.
Using liquid chlorine to do the
SLAM Process along with aggressive brushing should rectify it if it is white water mold but that’s a tough go with a cya of 90.
FC/CYA Levels
Much more feasible with a cya of around 40.
This pool will need water replacement anyway if you wish to continue using tabs in it.
This will also help dilute any metals that may be contributing to your staining.
Perhaps its some kind of liquid cover product Or maybe a weird algaecide That has left a film? But that wouldn’t grow over time like that unless they’re putting it in & not telling you.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
What are the ingredients listed on the label of the tabs?
That resembles white water mold (which is actually a bacteria) but it seems awful thick! Does it rip apart?
Did you inherit this problem when you took the pool over or did it just begin?
If inherited there’s really no telling what the sanitation was like prior so it’s very possible it developed & your maintenance fc levels aren’t enough to keep it at bay anymore.
Using liquid chlorine to do the
SLAM Process along with aggressive brushing should rectify it if it is white water mold but that’s a tough go with a cya of 90.
FC/CYA Levels
Much more feasible with a cya of around 40.
This pool will need water replacement anyway if you wish to continue using tabs in it.
This will also help dilute any metals that may be contributing to your staining.
Perhaps its some kind of liquid cover product Or maybe a weird algaecide That has left a film? But that wouldn’t grow over time like that unless they’re putting it in & not telling you.
Click to expand...
I am ably to rip it apart, it feels like plastic and has no smell.

Is white water mold extremely hard to remove from pool walls and floor?

I currently have the chlorine at a 20 and a wire brush will not remove it from the walls yet it falls off the tiles in the pool all on its own.

The customer left her dogs out that bite in the pool cage for 3 weeks in a row back in june so i was not able to service the pool those three weeks.I was only able to put tabs in the chlorinator. I showed up to service the pool after those three weeks and it was like this. Something happened within those three weeks but i dont know what.
 
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Really sounds like someone spilled something in the pool that is leaving that film. Maybe some type of acrylic floor cleaner or polish.

Maybe the customer had a cleaning person who spilled something in the pool and was afraid to admit it.

Make note of the areas where the film has fallen off. If it does not return then it is a one time event and you just need to get the film peeled off the surface.
 
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Kudos to you for your efforts! My daughter’s pool guy? Didn’t think it was important to tell her their skimmer basket was all broken. Never looked at the salt level (4200). Pool guy now gone and I now have two pools to maintain. Home was owned by an older couple that couldn’t use it. Paid $150 a month for them to come brush a caged pool once a week and add muriatic! And to make his life easy, had SWG set at 100%. Levels off the chart!
Back to my compliment. You are to be recommended to others!
 

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