green tint in algae free (pretty sure) pool help

[mknauss]

Some products claim they 'bind' the metals and can be filtered out. Reality is much different.

From Stains in Your Pool - Trouble Free Pool
Generally, there is no practical way to remove iron or copper from the water short of replacing the water with new water that doesn’t have any iron or copper in it. You can use a sequestrant to prevent metal stains. Sequestrants bind to the metal and prevent them from depositing as stains. Sequestrants slowly break down in the pool, so you will need to continually add more sequestrant on a regular basis to maintain sufficient level to keep the iron or copper sequestered.


Sequestrants based on HEDP, phosphonic acid, or phosphonic acid derivatives are the most effective. ProTeam’s Metal Magic and Jack’s Magic The Pink Stuff (regular), The Blue Stuff (fresh plaster), and The Purple Stuff (salt) are some of the top brand sequestrants. There are also other brands with similar active ingredients, some of which are noticeably less expensive.

 

[Yev]

One tip, seeing you live in NY, and you do get rain. Let the rain replace your existing water. So as you get heavy rain, and your pool is overfilled and needs to be pumped down, this will dilute your Cu, and help over time. Slightly more effective, but a bit riskier in execution as you have to trust the weatherman is this. Next time you expect a forecast of rain (the good old fashioned get an inch of rain in an hour kind), drain your pool down an inch, so it is near the bottom of the skimmer. Then let the rain fill back up to normal. This will replace more water that the above technique and help get Cu down. So even if you cant filter the Cu out, you will eventually replace it with rain water

 

[outpost]

@Yev - thanks for that tip I will definitely be doing that before any heavy rain forecasts.

@mknauss - the one I used this morning was phosphoric acid derivative based. While I don't have any stains anywhere obviously as this is a new pool.. it still solved my issue with the greenish tint to otherwise clear water - within hours of adding it this morning it removed the green tint problem in my water completely. My two daughters are thrilled and noticed the difference immediately without me saying anything about what was going on. So I guess add "fixing copper tinted water" to the potential uses of phosphoric acid sequestrants, and thanks everyone for all your help. I will update over time as to whether or not the maintenance dose keeps the green tint from returning.

Thanks all!

 

[AndyTN]

Did you ever try the vitamin C test to see if it lifted the stain? The yellowish-brown tint in the picture looks like iron and the color of the pool has a hint of green due to it mixing with the blue in your liner. Drop in a couple vitamin C tablets to see if these lift the stain to see if it is iron.

The metal sequestrant isn't going to last forever so don't be surprised if the stains come back in a month or so.

 

[outpost]

Did you ever try the vitamin C test to see if it lifted the stain? The yellowish-brown tint in the picture looks like iron and the color of the pool has a hint of green due to it mixing with the blue in your liner. Drop in a couple vitamin C tablets to see if these lift the stain to see if it is iron.

The metal sequestrant isn't going to last forever so don't be surprised if the stains come back in a month or so.

Pool is a week old, I don't have any stains on anything, ladder, liner, skimmer, nothing. It was just that the water was a green tint and was not algae related and I was looking to figure out how to get the green tint out. As of now after the sequestrant addition the water is as blue as can be. I'll add the 8 oz maintenance dose next week and see if it continues to stay this way.

 

[outpost]

Looking at the picture from this morning I can see where it looks like there is some yellow/brown staining on the floor - I don't know if that is just a lighting thing or a result of having just put the sequestrant in or what - but there are no stains on the floor and there werent any over the last week, just the greenish tint. In any event all good right now - no stains, no green tint water, happy pool owner!

 

[duraleigh]

I have only skimmed this thread. I would put chlorine (use the pucks if you like) in the pool, go swimming and leave your chemistry alone.

I see no indication yet that you have iron or copper in your water. Copper does not manifest by turning the water green......it precipitates out as a dark blue/blackish stain and you will be essentially unable to remove it.

Iron does present as turning the pool a clear green but the polyfill shows NO INDICATION there is any iron in your water. It sounds like you might be trying to fix something that isn't broke!

 

[duraleigh]

Oops! I guess you did have some iron if your pool is now blue. Interesting that the polyfill did not capture any of it.

 

[outpost]

Oops! I guess you did have some iron if your pool is now blue. Interesting that the polyfill did not capture any of it.

I know my municipal water supply has both iron and copper in it - see levels I posted earlier from last safety report. In any event, the sequestrant did the trick, so I'm going to keep that up weekly and see how it goes. Ive been following the tfp methods otherwise and pool is looking great, and I have a big smile on my face in the pool store knowing I dont need 95% of the junk they push.

 

[duraleigh]

Nice work!

Ive been following the tfp methods otherwise

Using sequestrant is certainly not outside the realm of TFP methods. Knowing how to use sequestrant (and you do) and applying it in the correct situation is TFP 100%