Green Pool Due to Copper

[Rocco]

I am currently maintaining one of my relatives pool for them and go over every 3 days. Yesterday I elevated the chlorine level to make sure that the chlorine would be sufficient until I returned in 3 days. Last night they added some water (they are on well water) and left the hose on accidentally throughout the night.

The pool now has a green tint to it, I assume this is from copper in the water.

Does anyone know how long the water will retain the green tint? Would the green tint go away once chlorine levels are lowered?

 

[Texas Splash]

More than likely the green is from iron in the well. Regardless, once a metal is in the water the only way to remove it is by changing the water with fresh water. If that is not possible, all you can do is try to filter the water with a material from the skimmer that has a slightly better filtration capability (i.e. Polyfill, cotton T-shirts, etc) and hope you remove enough of the iron to lower the level in the water so that it doesn't react to the chlorine. Owners who live with well water also use a good sequestrant throughout the season to keep the iron in solution form to prevent it from changing the water color or causing stains. Also understand that an elevated FC and pH can both cause iron to react in the water.

Also see:

From brown to 😍😍. Thank you polyfil!

We filled our pool from our well. We knew the risks and knew we would have a battle when the water was 12" deep as it looked green from the metals. Our fears were confirmed when we added chlorine and the water turned brown almost immediately. Enter 5 gallon polyfil filter. It worked...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JohnT]

Likely from iron in the water rather than copper. Iron adds a yellow tint which looks green with a blue pool surface. Copper is pretty rare in well water.

Impossible to guess about how the water will behave. If they ran the hose overnight, I’d bet the FC level is already down. A good metal sequestrant and 24/7 filtering is about all you can do. Jack’s Magic products are good.

 

[Rocco]

Thank you both. You are correct it was much more yellow in color than thought and there are iron stains in the dishwasher and other places within the house.

Added two bottles of Metal Out from Leslies and 20 hours later the color has faded a significant amount, however it is not completely gone.

Any idea if I should wait longer or if I need to add another bottle of Metal Out?

 

[Rocco]

Got to the house and backwashed the sand filter and the water ran dark brown/brick red for about a 90 seconds. Went through the backwash / rinse cycle a few times until the water coming out was clean.

Added another bottle of Metal Out and added Polyfil to the skimmer basket (Large box of Polyfil was found at a local Walmart for under $30).

Will check in over the next couple of days to see if the Polyfil is absorbing anything and changing colors.

 

[Rocco]

After 3 days things are back to normal. The poly-fil was still white after the first day but was mostly brown after the 3rd day.

 

[Texas Splash]

Glad to hear you got things under control.

 

[picchu55]

Do you put the poly-fil directly in the skimmer basket? Or should it be contained somehow? Also, should I switch to only pulling from the skimmer while I have poly-fil in there? Reason I ask is I'm starting to think my pool's greenish tint is due to iron in the water since my OCLT for the past few nights has been 0.5 or less, so I'm thinking about trying poly-fil to see if that helps.

 

[Rocco]

I did put the poly-fil directly in the skimmer basket, I did not use anything to contain it but I will use a skimmer sock next time just to make myself feel better.

I also isolated to pull from the skimmer only, you will want to check it every day as debris will also get stuck to the poly-fil.