Need help! Crazy high copper

[Hojo76]

Vinyl chlorine pool. Use a mix of cal hypo shock, liquid chlorine and pucks in a floater. The only things I ever add other than that is muriatic acid and baking soda. My ph tends to lean high quite a bit but not a big pain. We recently had a massive rainstorm and I had to dump probably 8 inches DURING the storm because it was up to the concrete and still rising. My college aged son is working for a pool company this summer so I’ve been getting my water tested off and on but also still using my Taylor kit. I was kind of interested to see how they differed from each other. In general, they aren’t far off but I still don’t add a lot of the stuff that is “recommended” by the software. After dumping all that water, I wanted a reading on my CYA. It had dropped quite a bit obviously, but I noticed that my copper was at 2.3. That kind of freaked me out after reading a bit about it. So today, I took a sample in of my pool and a sample from the faucet that I use to fill it with. The pool sample is now at 2.6! The faucet was .2. I have history readings from the last couple of months and they were always 0 for the pool. Like I said, I don’t add extra stuff so I know there has never been algecide added. We don’t have a heater either. The pool water looks fine. It’s really warm so I get some green on the walls and floor if I let the chlorine get too low and don’t brush for a while. But after brushing and making sure the chlorine and ph are good, it’s fine.

I know I’m not supposed to worry as long as it looks good, but I don’t want to ruin my equipment or liner by neglecting this copper thing.

My levels are:
FC 2 (Taylor and store readings)
CC 0 (store reading)
pH 7.6 (Taylor and store readings)
TA 90 (Taylor) 97 (store)
CYA 28 (store)
CH 91 (store) I’ve never added any because of what I read on TFP
Copper 2.6 (store)
Phosphate 0
Iron 0

The history from store readings have copper at zero until the last couple of days. The last time I had a 0 reading was from a couple of weeks ago. My question is what on earth would cause it to jump that much in such a short time? Shouldn’t I be seeing some brown water or staining if I have that high of copper? And lastly, what should I do? I didn’t want to add anything in a panic when my water looks fine. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[PoolStored]

You would see green water or staining with copper.

Trust your test kit.

If your water is not green, and have no staining, ignore the pool store testing.

There is nothing from the environment that would add 2.6ppm of copper.

 

[Bperry]

Vinyl chlorine pool. Use a mix of cal hypo shock, liquid chlorine and pucks in a floater. The only things I ever add other than that is muriatic acid and baking soda. My ph tends to lean high quite a bit but not a big pain. We recently had a massive rainstorm and I had to dump probably 8 inches DURING the storm because it was up to the concrete and still rising. My college aged son is working for a pool company this summer so I’ve been getting my water tested off and on but also still using my Taylor kit. I was kind of interested to see how they differed from each other. In general, they aren’t far off but I still don’t add a lot of the stuff that is “recommended” by the software. After dumping all that water, I wanted a reading on my CYA. It had dropped quite a bit obviously, but I noticed that my copper was at 2.3. That kind of freaked me out after reading a bit about it. So today, I took a sample in of my pool and a sample from the faucet that I use to fill it with. The pool sample is now at 2.6! The faucet was .2. I have history readings from the last couple of months and they were always 0 for the pool. Like I said, I don’t add extra stuff so I know there has never been algecide added. We don’t have a heater either. The pool water looks fine. It’s really warm so I get some green on the walls and floor if I let the chlorine get too low and don’t brush for a while. But after brushing and making sure the chlorine and ph are good, it’s fine.

I know I’m not supposed to worry as long as it looks good, but I don’t want to ruin my equipment or liner by neglecting this copper thing.

My levels are:
FC 2 (Taylor and store readings)
CC 0 (store reading)
pH 7.6 (Taylor and store readings)
TA 90 (Taylor) 97 (store)
CYA 28 (store)
CH 91 (store) I’ve never added any because of what I read on TFP
Copper 2.6 (store)
Phosphate 0
Iron 0

The history from store readings have copper at zero until the last couple of days. The last time I had a 0 reading was from a couple of weeks ago. My question is what on earth would cause it to jump that much in such a short time? Shouldn’t I be seeing some brown water or staining if I have that high of copper? And lastly, what should I do? I didn’t want to add anything in a panic when my water looks fine. Thank you in advance for your help!

Pucks in the floater would be the only potential thing with copper in them. They’de be labeled “xtra” or “blue” something and likely be from clorox.

But your pool woild be a stained mess if it have 2.6ppm copper. This is why TFP doesnt recommend ever having pool store test the water. Its not just the copper test that isnt reliable.

 

[Newdude]

My question is what on earth would cause it to jump that much in such a short time?

Their stated variance is 0.3 at 0.3 for iron and copper. So basically 0.0 to 0.6 is sus. A 0.2 (still ok) could test a 0.5 (probably not ok) and vice versa. Basically it's useless for anyone on the fence, who needs to know immediately if corrective actions are needed. At 0.6+, where the 0.3 variance still leaves one with issues, they likely have irrefutable proof with staining to not need the test.



I broke down their other tests and why they're problematic here

Any experience with the AccuBlu or LaMotte Spintouch test setups?

I am a chemist and have been able to get my hands on one of these if I wanted. I know a lot of pool stores use one of these 2 or something similar, while I don't trust pool stores themselves the tech seems to make sense. It would seem to be a spectrometer that reads in the visible light range to...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Hojo76]

Thank y'all! I will ride it out as long as everything is good.