Help guys! Black pool water!

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Hi y'all,

I've been doing well with our pool in the last 2 years. However, since yesterday the pool looked darker than usual. I thought it could be because it was dark and gloomy outside due to the clouds and rain, but this morning it's gotten worse. We're in Houston, TX.

Does anyone know what this is? How can I fix this. This is happening at an inopportune time since my wife and I are leaving tomorrow for a 4 night trip out of town.

Or, do I need to call a pool servicing company?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Texas Splash]

Do you have any water testing to share? That's step #1. How are you chlorinating each day? Any new chemicals been added to the pool lately?

 

[JamesW]

Highly likely to be copper stains from the heater.

Do you use copper products like algaecide or an ionizer?

The liquid from the tab feeder can get into the heater and eat up the copper from the heat exchanger.

Get a stain ID kit to see what helps.

Put a vitamin C tab on a spot to see if anything happens.

You should remove the tab feeder.

Stain ID Kit | Jacks Magic

jacksmagic.com

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Actually I hardly ever use pucks, only 10% LC. Only time I use tablets is when we're leaving for a vacation. No new products used at all.

Recently treated my lawn with fire ant killer but don't think I got it anywhere near the pool water.

Here is my testing results from yesterday evening. The Chlorine level was low so I put in 128oz of LC following the tests.

The CYA was also seemingly high but maybe I made myself believe I could see the black dot so got it to 70. Realistically CYA was 90.

I'll test again and post more here.

We ran the heater maybe 2 weeks ago with no issues.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Btw, recently the Pool Essentials LC seemed to be different from what I'm used to getting. I couldn't smell the chlorine like it typically smells and the color of it also looked more clear than the usual yellow tint. Think the LC was bad?

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

The black seems to be on the surface of the water, not on the plaster. I can move the water around and it swirls. The pics earlier were standing water from the pumps being off last night. Let me post more pics in a minute.

 

[Texas Splash]

Hummm. Nothing jumps out yet. We'll wait for more pics and that new testing results. You might consider opening the filter at some point to inspect one of the carts to see if they are discolored as well.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Yeah unfortunately I slacked on cleaning my filters. Last time was about 12 months ago. Was going to do that after our trip. But the pressure gauge always showed within a healthy range and we didn't have much plants to anything nearby for the longest time. Hardly ever we get leaves or plants in there.

 

[JamesW]

Remove the filter and show a picture.

 

[JamesW]

To me, it looks like the black is coming out of the pop-up heads, which points to copper coming from the system.

Look carefully at all pop-up heads to see if it looks like there is staining or darker areas coming from the pop-up heads.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Here's some pics with pumps on.

I'll check if the sun shelf pop up is spitting out dark water when it's rotates to that zone.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Remove the filter and show a picture.

We're so busy with the flights tomorrow that I'm afraid I won't have time to go thru the opening of the filter. I've only done it a couple of times being a new pool owner (2021) so not confident I'll get it put back together in a short amount of time. Last time I opened it I had a difficult time ensuring there's a good seal when closing the lid.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Pop-up on pic.

 

[JamesW]

The new pictures don't really show any problems.

I am not sure what the issue is.

I would want to see the cartridge and I would want to see what the stain ID kit shows.

Is the dark only on the water surface or is it on the plaster?

 

[JamesW]

Your plaster color has typical copper stain colors, so it is really difficult to detect copper stains.

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Here are the latest testing results. Keep in mind I put 128oz of LC yesterday evening so this morning the chlorine level is high but could go down if it's algae. Could this be black algae?

I'm using the K-1000 and TF-100 test kits for my chlorine pool (no salt water).

 

[JamesW]

Is the dark only on the water surface or is it on the plaster?

 

[Bperry]

Here are the latest testing results. Keep in mind I put 128oz of LC yesterday evening so this morning the chlorine level is high but could go down if it's algae. Could this be black algae?

I'm using the K-1000 and TF-100 test kits for my chlorine pool (no salt water).

Your chlorine isn’t high. It’s at the bottom of the acceptable range. (See the 7-12 range shown on the tab)

 

[travelfeedsthesoul]

Leslie's test results. My FC and PH match closely.

He said Total Alkalinity (TA) was very low and he hasn't seen it that low in a long time.

In my recent quest to lower TA, I've been dumping Muriatic Acid without really measuring at all. Could my testing TA results be messed up?

Also, what about Phosphates? It looks really high according to the Leslie's test results.

Thanks!

 

[Bperry]

Leslie's test results. My FC and PH match closely.

He said Total Alkalinity (TA) was very low and he hasn't seen it that low in a long time.

In my recent quest to lower TA, I've been dumping Muriatic Acid without really measuring at all. Could my testing TA results be messed up?

Also, what about Phosphates? It looks really high according to the Leslie's test results.

Thanks!

Uh oh. Did you forget that Leslie’s isn’t good at testing and that you should never listen to any of their advice? What does your TF-100 test kit say the water test results are?