Switching from Triclor Pucks to Liquid Chlorine and now have green looking water in my inline chlorinator

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holdup1time

holdup1time

Well-known member
Jun 15, 2019
77
Houston Texas
Ok so it's been 3 days since I started making the switch from Triclor pucks in my inline chlorinator to 10% liquid chlorine.

My goal was to try and reduce my inline chlorinator setting to 1.5 (0 is no flow and 5 is highest flow) to keep just a little stablizer going into the pool but to get the main chlorine from the liquid chlorine I've been adding.

Added 32oz of 10% of liquid chlorine 3 days in a row now. FC tests have showed that is the right amount to keep my at 6 to 7 each day. (CYA has been 70 ish)

So today, I opened up my inline chlorinator to check on the Triclor tabs to see if I needed to add any.

To my surprise, the water at the bottom of the chlorinator looked green....has never looked like this until I started adding the liquid chlorine and reducing my chlorinator setting to 1.5

I was thinking how could that be algae in the container that is holding all the chlorine? Maybe it's not algae....but what could that be?

Have made no other changes to pool and water and results look good. Any thoughts on the green water color in my chlorinator?

Oh am using 10% liq chlorine from Home Depot....date was good and could smell chlorine while I was adding each time to I don't question the chlorine strength...plus my FC is holding steady after very hot days.

Also, last 3 days I've gone from running pump 24 hours, to timed cycle of 10 hours (new pool so still trying to dial in my timed run cycle)

FC between 6 and 7 each day
CC - 0
Ph - 7.6
TA -180
CYA 70 to 80
CH 190
Water temp 86 (hot in Texas right now)

Should've took a picture but was in a rush to get ready for work....speaking of work...gotta get busy...but will check back later....any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!
 
What are the trichlor tablets you are using? Do they have copper in them?

You are only adding 1.5ppm FC per day. That is really low for this time of year in your climate. Be aware of that.
 
Hi mknauss
They are Leslie's Triclor tabs....3"...99% Triclor...no copper that I'm aware of....again, have not seen this at all till I started adding liq chlorine....seems odd
Correct, pool math says 32oz will raise FC 1.5....and it's been very hot last several days...still trying to fine tune my method and amounts.
Pool looks great though...no signs of any issues...my goal is to never have algae :)
But I might need to add more Liq Chl than 32 oz....I had done the math and figured it would cost me $30/month for liq chlorine using 32 oz / day...thought that was a good monthly price....but may need to add more....just so curious about the green water in my chlorinator that only showed up after using the liq chl.
The ingredients say 10% sodium hypo and 90% other
Wonder what is in the 90% other?
 
mknauss said:
What are the trichlor tablets you are using? Do they have copper in them?

You are only adding 1.5ppm FC per day. That is really low for this time of year in your climate. Be aware of that.
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Just found the SDS for the HDX Chlorinating Liquid....nothing really stands out except the Ph is 12.5...quite the change from the Trichlor pucks of Ph of 3. HDX Liq Chlorine SDS
 
Liquid chlorine is pH neutral. The raw product is alkaline but as it is consumed in your pool water the pH remains neutral.

Not sure about the green. It is not algae. I would suggest flushing the chlorinator thing and not using unless you are on vacation or your CYA drops below 50. Your CYA is right now pretty high for a non-SWCG pool.
 
mknauss said:
Liquid chlorine is pH neutral. The raw product is alkaline but as it is consumed in your pool water the pH remains neutral.

Not sure about the green. It is not algae. I would suggest flushing the chlorinator thing and not using unless you are on vacation or your CYA drops below 50. Your CYA is right now pretty high for a non-SWCG pool.
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Thanks MK
Yes you are correct....my CYA is higher than I would like....but better late than never....you now have me worried about copper in the liq chlorine :unsure:
Certainly don't want to be adding copper to the pool....I have been using 8oz/week maint does of Magic Jack's Magenta to try and prevent metal stains
 
There is no copper in liquid chlorine.

Do check the tablets. It is fairly difficult to not find a '4 in 1' or whatever tablet anymore.

You are using sequestrant? Do you have iron? That might be the green too ----
 
mknauss said:
There is no copper in liquid chlorine.

Do check the tablets. It is fairly difficult to not find a '4 in 1' or whatever tablet anymore.

You are using sequestrant? Do you have iron? That might be the green too ----
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Yes using the metal sequestrant Magic Jacks....our water has small amounts of manganese, lead, and copper according to the city's water report.
Probably has iron too but was not mentioned in report....I had a couple of small rust looking color spots that I figured were from iron....I used a vit C tablet and got 90% of it to go away.
I'll try to find more info on the tabs...Leslie's website doesn't have any info saying it has metals....only says 99% Trichlor and 90% available chlorine...see no info regarding tabs containing metals
 
holdup1time said:
Yes using the metal sequestrant Magic Jacks....our water has small amounts of manganese, lead, and copper according to the city's water report.
Probably has iron too but was not mentioned in report....I had a couple of small rust looking color spots that I figured were from iron....I used a vit C tablet and got 90% of it to go away.
I'll try to find more info on the tabs...Leslie's website doesn't have any info saying it has metals....only says 99% Trichlor and 90% available chlorine...see no info regarding tabs containing metals
However, I have not added water in weeks due to rain we were getting.
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I doubt you need the metal sequestrant. Your city water does not have levels of those items to be of concern.

Have not heard of other members in your area using sequestrant.
 
I'm wondering if having the pucks in the clorinator, but only open at such a small level, is not allowing much water to go thru and carry the dissolved puck liquid out? And somehow this is discolored?

Just a thought. I've seen pucks with blue flecks in the puck.

Maddie :flower:
 
I switched from pucks to liquid and just left the setting at 5 during. The chlorinator is empty now and has been for a while and the setting is still set to 5. I see no reason to change it to 0 water just circulates in it anyway, no big deal.
 
The green/yellow is chlorine from the tabs. It indicates that the concentration is super high. You can probably smell it when you open the feeder. Don't let it get like that. Reduce the number of tabs in the feeder and keep the flow rate higher.
 
Holdup,

I did the same switch as you're doing 5 years ago when I switched to TFP. I only used tablets after that for vacations as Marty recommended. Never had any green your seeing but I can't imagine it's algae with any tablets in the chlorinator. All said, you seem to want to be beyond doubt on chance of having algae but you're running the bare minimum of FC for your CYA level. That's asking for trouble because any little thing that is not optimal such as localized less-than-perfect mixing or debris that gets in the pool puts you at risk of algae. Running high on CYA is not a conservative approach. It's the opposite relative to algae in a liquid chlorine pool. I'd get rid of the tablets for anything other than vacation and get your CYA below max recommended level. You may want to wipe the chlorinator out to see if the green is removable.

I hope this helps.

Chris
 
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again, have not seen this at all till I started adding liq chlorine
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There is absolutely no connection. Don't dwell on that. As mknauss points out you are running pretty marginal adding FC.......I would suggest keeping it higher and, for sure, stop using the pucks.......your adding CYA making your FC/CYA relationship worse.

You are doing the right things and you understand the chemistry but you are mis-applying some of the ideas.......just a little.

Please read "The "ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. It's ALWAYS good to review that article.
 
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Thanks to all for chiming in. I've been on the liquid chlorine now for weeks...no more tablets...it has been VERY hard to keep the my chlorine at 7-9 where i should be for my cya level of 70-80...one problem seems to be the liquid chlorine needs to be very new to work well. In Houston, Tx and it's been in the 90's for a while now...so I'm using a lot of liquid chlorine everyday and it's hard to keep up the chlorine level up where it should be...10% strength ....my plan is to just keep managing it this summer...so far so good...no algae and pool looks great....this winter, my plan is to slowly replace water with new water over several months to lower my CYA....then next summer, it won't take me near as much liquid chlorine each day
 

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