Green tint after light ascorbic acid treatment

[C3Cl3N3O3]

I filled a sock with a handful of Vitamin C tablets, about a tennis ball size, and whitened up the stairs and skimmer. They weren't even that badly stained. I've done that once or twice in the past, and never had an issue. Now my pool went from sparkling blue to having a green tint. I was not expecting that. Do I really have to go down metal sequestration rabbit holes for this? Or can I wait it out? The water is all new water company fill water from last year and was topped off maybe once or twice. I was expecting perhaps a slight hit to my chlorine, and indeed it dropped from 5 to 3 (already brought back up). This really should not have been some big dramatic event. ARGH!

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

The pH had risen to 7.8, I'm pulling it back down to 7.5

 

[mknauss]

Put polyfill into your skimmer to try and capture some of the iron while it is in the water.

 

[borjis]

Ya probably from the high pH.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

I've read a few polyfill threads. I have questions but will revisit if this continues much longer. It may have lightened up a bit.

I had issues with metals a couple years ago. Since then, there was a city water refill last year. I topped off through a metal trap with city water. There were some old stains on the stairs and skimmer, but really not much. And not much ascorbic acid was needed. I was perfectly fine up until 2:00 today when all heck broke loose.

I'm just dumbfounded. Hopefully this event doesn't stain my liner noticeably. Is it possible I released old metals from the sand filter?

It doesn't look so bad in the photo. But it's pretty bad.

 

[mknauss]

Not sure on the filter thought.
Get some polyfill in there and see if you can trap it.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Well, I don't have any pillow stuffing (why would anybody have that?) but this thread mentions paper towels:

getting rid of iron and rust

hello newbie here. bought first pool little 16 foot Intex above ground pool filled it up with my hose (drilled well). i know we have strong iron and rust so i filled the pool and was cloudy and little brown. So now i have to figure out how to get the iron out i made a bucket filter 5 gal bucket...

www.troublefreepool.com

I laid down three in the skimmer and can report back tomorrow.

 

[mknauss]

Paper towels will give you an indicator. But will not pick up as much. Give it an hour or two and look at them. If brown, put new ones in.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Will do, thanks!

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

They definitely picked up some brown staining already. I'll keep at it. What a mess!

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

OK there's a Walmart nearby so I have "Poly-Fil" in the skimmer basket now. The paper towels were impeding the flow and there was pooling. I was getting a brown film on my hand from reaching in. This is unbelievable.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Well, I'm back in the Blue Camp. The green tint is down dramatically from yesterday. There is still a blue-green tint to the deep end. So that's encouraging. I've done two rounds of Poly-Fil, both browned up. I'm on a third run now.

What is it? Where did it come from? Where did it go?

I'm thinking the skimmer line did me in. Whatever staining was on the skimmer probably was on the PVC interior as well. Scrubbing the skimmer would have directly hit it with the ascorbic acid. The lesson there is to wait for the pool to be overfilled and run the pump to waste when you do that. I'm not sure what you do with the stairs though. It's not that often that I need to clear up stubborn stains.

The Poly-Fil got some of it but couldn't have gotten all of it. If the liner is darkened, it isn't noticeable. In any event, we're making progress.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Looking fine today, nice light blue without any of the blue-green tint from yesterday. The Poly-Fil is still discolored, some of that has to be normal debris. I'll probably leave that in for the rest of the week.

The crisis has come and gone, so that's good. Still dumbfounded.