Pool turned green after adding chlorine - fertlizer?

[pskkd930]

Tested my pool yesterday and got the following
FC - 0
PH - 7.8
CYA - 50
TA - 60
CH - 300

Water temp is about 40 right now but will be warming up and the water was crystal clear. I added 2 gallons of bleach and 14 lbs of Calcium. Came home 4 hours later and the pool turned green after adding the chemicals. Water is still clear, but a green tint to it. I have been at this for about 3.5 years and have never had any issues and I follow the recommendations from this site. I'm assuming it's iron. I did not add any fill water or anything else recently and we use city water when we do.. As I was racking my brain trying to figure out what could have caused this I remembered our fertilizer company was here last week.

I'm I correct in thinking the FC was probably 0, he got fertilizer in the pool and now the chlorine is oxidizing the fertilizer? If so I will address it with the fertilizer company. We have had issues in the past with runoff, but I feel like it's under control and we haven't had anything major lately that I've noticed.

It's been green for about 24 hours now and the FC is at 8. Hoping it will clear up without an other issues. Appreciate the feedback

 

[Newdude]

Some fertilizers have iron, and if you've reached your pool's threshold for it, you'll remain perfectly clear but go emerald tinted as you describe.

Get some polyfill in the skimmers to see if you can collect any of it while it's out of solution. If so, go all in with a bucket rig as seen here :

Iron Fill Water Filter - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Or here:

From brown to 😍😍. Thank you polyfil!

We filled our pool from our well. We knew the risks and knew we would have a battle when the water was 12" deep as it looked green from the metals. Our fears were confirmed when we added chlorine and the water turned brown almost immediately. Enter 5 gallon polyfil filter. It worked...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[pskkd930]

Some fertilizers have iron, and if you've reached your pool's threshold for it, you'll go perfectly clear but emerald tinted as you describe.

Get some polyfill in the skimmers to see if you can collect any of it while it's out of solution. If so, go all in with a bucket rig as seen here :

Iron Fill Water Filter - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Or here:

From brown to 😍😍. Thank you polyfil!

We filled our pool from our well. We knew the risks and knew we would have a battle when the water was 12" deep as it looked green from the metals. Our fears were confirmed when we added chlorine and the water turned brown almost immediately. Enter 5 gallon polyfil filter. It worked...

www.troublefreepool.com

Thank you! Walmart will be delivering 10lbs tomorrow.

 

[Newdude]

Walmart will be delivering 10lbs tomorrow.

So, like 50 bags ?

 

[pjt]

Tested my pool yesterday

How are you testing?

FC - 0

Run an OCLT.

2 gallons of bleach

Was it pure liquid chlorine or did the bleach have any additives?

Any other metals in the water, such as copper? What kind of salt do you use?

 

[pskkd930]

How are you testing?


Run an OCLT.


Was it pure liquid chlorine or did the bleach have any additives?

Any other metals in the water, such as copper? What kind of salt do you use?

I have the TF-PRO.
OCLT was 0 (just did it this morning)
Bleach is Clorox from Costco. None of the negative additives I've read about, but let me know if there is something I should be looking for
No other metals that I'm aware of. We use pool salt from HD. Haven't added any since probably September.

 

[pjt]

I have the TF-PRO

Excellent. Add that to your signature.

OCLT was 0 (just did it this morning)

Does that mean you lost no chlorine (and passed the OCLT) or the FC was zero?

Bleach is Clorox from Costco. None of the negative additives I've read about, but let me know if there is something I should be looking for

Don't use Clorox. Use pure liquid chlorine (sometimes labeled "shock") widely available at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and pool supply stores. You don't want any additives.

We use pool salt from HD

Which specific product? Some salts are better than others in terms of purity and additives (which you don't want). Diamond Crystal Solar Naturals (blue bag) is a good product.

 

[Newdude]

Bleach is Clorox from Costco. None of the negative additives I've read about

That's no good. All chlorox has "chloromax technologies' which are polymers that eventually cause foaming once your pool's threshold has been reached. Similar to metals, every pool is unique how quickly it matters.

On the plus side it's only foaming to worry about, but stick to chlorinating liquid from the pool aisle in Walmart or the pool store. It's 10% to the 6% chlorox for a similar price.

No other metals that I'm aware of.

Copper would usually be from tabs, shocks or 5 in 1 mystery cure alls. If it says blue or Xtra blue, it probably has copper in it.

We use pool salt from HD.

So far, chlorox salt is the only one that gave several people iron issues.

 

[pskkd930]

Thank you both.
The OCLT was 0 loss. FC was at 7 this morning. Pool still very green and very clear.
I have never used Chlorine tabs in the pool, only SWG and Clorox and have never had the need to shock.
I mentioned in the original post we initially had a big issue with runoff. Rain storms would cause runoff into the pool turning it brown, but it would settle out over a few days and I would vacuum it all out. I have since changed the landscape to avoid 95% of the runoff, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of that is at play now. We don't see a ton of evaporation but get decent rain so we have a good bit of replacement water. Maybe not so much this year.
Salt we are using is the Diamond Crystal from HD. Link here: Diamond Crystal Splash Ready 40 lb. Pool Salt 110002702 - The Home Depot

Note taken on the bleach. Will switch over.

 

[Newdude]

I have never used Chlorine tabs in the pool,

Did you build the pool or could there still be residuals from the last owners ?

The OCLT was 0 loss. FC was at 7 this morning. Pool still very green and very clear

GREAT. At any whiff of an algae issue, don't even come ask, just OCLT. Come tell us why you're OCLTing and we'll high 5 you for knowing and help pass the time waiting for the results. Obviously if you see actual algae, skip right to SLAM Process.

if you fail the OCLT, you have your answer and the red flags let you nip it in the bud before it got way worse. If you pass, we know we are afforded the time to fiddle with anything else.

I have since changed the landscape to avoid 95% of the runoff, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of that is at play now

You got the dirt out all those times but any iron probably would have remained. Or it's just slowly been accumulating from fill water and you finally found your threshold, possibly with the recent fertilizer. Either way, get that poly fill going once it arrives. Rinse it out well once or three times a day and put it right back in service. You'll know we are on the right track when you ring it out and sweet tea comes out.

Salt we are using is the Diamond Crystal from HD.

Thats been great so far.

Will switch over

Home depot has HDX chlorinating liquid in the pool aisle (Lowes has pool essentials), but both are a few dollars a jug more expensive than walmart 10% ($5.67). Pool stores, ace hardware, ocean state job lot may be all over price wise for 12.5%.

Poolmath has a bleach calculator in the upper left menu so you can see if any is a deal or at least reasonable.

 

[pskkd930]

Did you build the pool or could there still be residuals from the last owners ?

We built it

GREAT. At any whiff of an algae issue, don't even come ask, just OCLT. Come tell us why you're OCLTing and we'll high 5 you for knowing and help pass the time waiting for the results. Obviously if you see actual algae, skip right to SLAM Process.

if you fail the OCLT, you have your answer and the red flags let you nip it in the bud before it got way worse. If you pass, we know we are afforded the time to fiddle with anything else.

Thanks! I read a ton on the site when I built the pool and try to follow the recommendations on here. Pool was built primarily by a builder, but I was very specific in how I wanted it done and built out the equipment pad myself so I knew exactly what I was getting. So far, so good

You got the dirt out all those times but any iron probably would have remained. Or it's just slowly been accumulating from fill water and you finally found your threshold, possibly with the recent fertilizer. Either way, get that poly fill going once it arrives. Rinse it out well once or three times a day and put it right back in service. You'll know we are on the right track when you ring it out and sweet tea comes out.

Yea, that's what I'm hoping it is. Will get it put in as soon as it arrives today.

Poolmath has a bleach calculator in the upper left menu so you can see if any is a deal or at least reasonable.

Use that as well. Added to signature

 

[pskkd930]

Just wanted to follow-up here on my experience and results. First off, thank you all again for all of your assistance!

Put the polyfill in the skimmer in around noon on Monday. I simply stuffed as much polyfill in the skimmer baskets as I could. Around 3pm I checked and realized the buoyancy of the polyfill caused my skimmer baskets to float so I added a large rock to each skimmer to get it to stay seated. That evening there was a noticeable difference in the color of the water and and obvious brown and grey tint to the polyform. Continued to run the pump over night

Next day I replaced the polyfill and noticed the chlorine had dropped so I added more in an attempt to keep the iron out of solution. I kept the second batch of polyform in the skimmers and as of today the water is completely blue again. The polyform had some odd brown water droplets that didn't seem to evaporate over time. There was also some brown stains on the polyform and and overall dingy grey look. The second batch of poly looked almost perfectly white after 2 days in the skimmer.

As and FYI - I bought 10 lbs of polyfill and will probably end up using 2% of that. If you are sticking to the skimmer you don't need much. 10lbs was roughly $32 on Walmart delivered

 

[Newdude]

Glad you made a dent in it. It may come out of solution again with normal swings in the chemistry, such as a higher FC or Ph. If it does, you know what to do and you have a lifetime supply of polyfil.

Mguzzy had quite the battle and documented the how and why very well.

What I thought were old iron stains on my cartridge filters, is iron my water!

Hi all Amazingly I found no posts on the forum about this. So I was the victim of the dreaded Iron contaminated Clorox Pool Salt about 3 seasons ago. Apparently it was worse than I thought. There is a nice darker area in my mottled dark plaster in the deep end from salt additions from that...

www.troublefreepool.com