Metals in pool?

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lauren_bourgeois

lauren_bourgeois

Active member
May 25, 2019
43
Pineville, LA
Pool Size
19000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I’m at a complete loss. I am just starting up my pool because I had a baby May 25th. Got my pool water tested at the pool store and the copper was 0.4 and iron was 0.1. I had never dealt with this so I asked them what I needed to do with that and she said I didn’t have to worry about it right away. I bought some CYA, muriatic acid and liquid chlorine and left. Got home, turned on pool pump, adjusted pH, and added CYA. I added 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine and my pool immediately went from green swamp to dark brown swamp. I did not immediately adjust this and kept slamming pool. Every time I added chlorine the color would go from bad to worse. 2 days later I went to different pool store and had water tested. Copper was 0.5 and iron 0.1. I bought a bottle of metal out and added it that night, following the instructions on the bottle. The next day my pool was a light green and I was resumed slamming, it again turned dark brown. Water test at pool store showed metals at 0.0. At this point I decided to just let my filter work for a few days before adding anything else because I don’t want to continue to dump money into water I’ll have to drain. 5 days later the pool water was a very light, cloudy green last night. I had hope! Slammed last night, I just went and checked it and it’s dark brown again. WHAT DO I DO?! below are last nights levels before adding chlorine. I know a couple of the numbers are a little off but again I don’t want to dump a bunch of money if I need to drain it. Please help. Pic of my water attached. Thanks for reading and any suggestions welcome.

FC : 1
CC: 0.6
PH: 7.0
TA: 70
CH: 150
cYA: 30
 

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lauren_bourgeois said:
I’m at a complete loss. I am just starting up my pool because I had a baby May 25th. Got my pool water tested at the pool store and the copper was 0.4 and iron was 0.1. I had never dealt with this so I asked them what I needed to do with that and she said I didn’t have to worry about it right away. I bought some CYA, muriatic acid and liquid chlorine and left. Got home, turned on pool pump, adjusted pH, and added CYA. I added 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine and my pool immediately went from green swamp to dark brown swamp. I did not immediately adjust this and kept slamming pool. Every time I added chlorine the color would go from bad to worse. 2 days later I went to different pool store and had water tested. Copper was 0.5 and iron 0.1. I bought a bottle of metal out and added it that night, following the instructions on the bottle. The next day my pool was a light green and I was resumed slamming, it again turned dark brown. Water test at pool store showed metals at 0.0. At this point I decided to just let my filter work for a few days before adding anything else because I don’t want to continue to dump money into water I’ll have to drain. 5 days later the pool water was a very light, cloudy green last night. I had hope! Slammed last night, I just went and checked it and it’s dark brown again. WHAT DO I DO?! below are last nights levels before adding chlorine. I know a couple of the numbers are a little off but again I don’t want to dump a bunch of money if I need to drain it. Please help. Pic of my water attached. Thanks for reading and any suggestions welcome.

FC : 1
CC: 0.6
PH: 7.0
TA: 70
CH: 150
cYA: 30
Click to expand...
First step might be figuring out where copper or iron might have come from. Are you on a well? Have you used any Clorox chlorine tablets or copper based algaecides?

The only way to get rid of copper is to drain the pool and replace the water. The “metal out” is just a sequestrant that holds the copper in solution and doesn’t get it out of the water. The name should be changed IMO. Then once you add chlorine back to the pool, it consumes sequestrant and the problem returns. But you don’t want to replace the water if it’s just going to have the same problem.

Do you have one of the TFP recommended test kits? The pool stores are really bad with their testing and get measurements wrong more often than right.
 
Bperry said:
First step might be figuring out where copper or iron might have come from. Are you on a well? Have you used any Clorox chlorine tablets or copper based algaecides?

The only way to get rid of copper is to drain the pool and replace the water. The “metal out” is just a sequestrant that holds the copper in solution and doesn’t get it out of the water. The name should be changed IMO. Then once you add chlorine back to the pool, it consumes sequestrant and the problem returns. But you don’t want to replace the water if it’s just going to have the same problem.

Do you have one of the TFP recommended test kits? The pool stores are really bad with their testing and get measurements wrong more often than right.
Click to expand...
Yes I have Taylor test kit. The copper is from a copper based algaecide last season. I had a terrible case of mustard algae I couldn’t get rid of after slamming for 2 weeks straight so I broke down and bought it. So as long as I don’t use that anymore there shouldn’t be anymore copper in it. Should I drain the whole thing or partially?
 
lauren_bourgeois said:
Should I drain the whole thing or partially?
Click to expand...
If you have reasonable drainage and replacement water costs, it's far easier and cheaper to start over.

Well. Mostly. You have to leave about a foot of water to keep the liner from shifting. Pay attention to it around 18 inches and stop immediately if you notice any movement for the next 6 inches. When you refill you'll only have 25% of the battle left.

Draining because of the swamp will fix the copper problem as well.
 
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Newdude said:
If you have reasonable drainage and replacement water costs, it's far easier and cheaper to start over.

Well. Mostly. You have to leave about a foot of water to keep the liner from shifting. Pay attention to it around 18 inches and stop immediately if you notice any movement for the next 6 inches. When you refill you'll only have 25% of the battle left.

Draining because of the swamp will fix the copper problem as well.
Click to expand...
My husband is going to insist on draining at start of season from now on 🤣 last year we had to drain because of chlorine lock and this year because of copper. My water costs are low, thankfully.
 
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lauren_bourgeois said:
My husband is going to insist on draining at start of season from now on 🤣 last year we had to drain because of chlorine lock and this year because of copper. My water costs are low, thankfully.
Click to expand...
You don’t have to do that if you follow TFP process, though a small enough pool can make sense sometimes. The “chlorine lock” thing is a term made up by pool stores to get you to buy stuff from them to fix the problem of sky high CYA that they cause by telling you to keep using trichlor pucks. If you manage the CYA per TFP guidelines you won’t ever have to worry about that again.
 
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Newdude said:
If you have reasonable drainage and replacement water costs, it's far easier and cheaper to start over.

Well. Mostly. You have to leave about a foot of water to keep the liner from shifting. Pay attention to it around 18 inches and stop immediately if you notice any movement for the next 6 inches. When you refill you'll only have 25% of the battle left.

Draining because of the swamp will fix the copper problem as well.
Click to expand...
Well I drained it. Refilled it. It finished yesterday. I turned the pump back in and slammed the pool and it’s brown again.
 
comparing it to the first pic I guess it does look more green than brown. I guess I’m just used to seeing that big color change. In the past when opening a green pool the next day it was blue! I’m gonna continue with the SLAM process. I’ll update you all.
 
Have you done an OCLT test since refilling to see if it is algae? Is there iron in the city water?
 
How much did you drain ? Was it all or just partial ? Half ? 3/4 ?

Brown from fill water is likely iron, providing it was a bill drain. Let's call in @duraleigh and @Texas Splash for their eyes on it too. :)

If you’ve got iron in your fill water, use Polyfill to remove it

EDIT: Found out this method only works if your iron is oxidized already, meaning it’s got a dull or bright green tint to the water, or a nasty brown tint. If you know you have iron in your fill water, but it isn’t oxidized yet, bring your pool to shock level and it’ll turn the telltale green...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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