Totally lost - PH and TA high, pool green

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CoolHome

CoolHome

Well-known member
Jun 6, 2020
72
Crawfordsville, IN
Pool Size
6000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hello,

I am a brand new pool owner. We set up an above ground Coleman 18x48 metal frame vinyl pool on Saturday and started filling it from our well. I knew we had high iron so had done some research and used a Hydrolife Pool filter on the hose to try and filter some of it out and added two quarts of Metal Out while it was filling, it took a day and a half to fill completely. It did look decided yellow in the beginning, but after it got about halfway it took on a more aqua cast, but was otherwise clear. I'd been unable to find a decent test kit so had bought an HTC "opening kit" which included a few test strips and other chemicals. We put the HTC Shock pack (which said it included softeners and built-in clarifier) in and the water immediately turned cloudy, left the pump going all night. The next morning it looked clearer but more green, I did a test with the HTH strip and based on my best interpretation I had:
FC - 0
pH - somewhere between 7.8-8.4
TA - 240
CH - It gave a "total hardness" that I have been completely unable to determine because the color is lighter than the "ideal" and "high" ranges but nothing like the color of the low range so guessing maybe on the high side
CYA - looked to be right in the middle of the ideal range so about 55-60

I was shocked at the 0 chlorine so started researching. Went and bought some liquid chlorine 10% and 20% Muriatic Acid. Added 26oz of the MA and my PH seemed to go down to 7.5-7.8 so an hour later I added 40oz of the chlorine. The pool did get much clearer looking though still green-ish but my levels seemed to come within acceptable (barely) so I let the kids swim in it, and checked again that night and chlorine back to 0. I found this site and decided to try the SLAM. Using the Pool Math calculator and my best guestimate with the stupid test strips I added 18oz MA and 136oz chlorine. This morning my results were:

FC - 10
pH - 8.4
TA - 240
CH - still no idea
CYA - looked like 70

I tried texting the strip to the HTH text number hoping for some numbers but all I got was that my chlorine was high and don't get in until it comes down and TA was really high and to add 18lbs of their PH decreaser! That totally threw me because it didn't even seem to be close to equivalent what the MA suggestion from the pool calculator was. I put in another 20oz of MA, waited and hour tested, it was the same 8.4 for just added another 26oz MA. Not sure if I should chlorinate or not.

I've got so much going on and this seems to be taking all my time, I'm supposed to be getting ready for my parents to arrive tomorrow and all I've done is pool the house is a mess! I live in the country so there is no place to get a good test kit (or any other supplies, I haven't been able to get a brush pole either) and the soonest I can get one from online is early July, my parents are coming from FL so I'm going to see if they have time to get me the recommended Taylor K-2006 one. To complicate things we'll be out of the town for 5 days starting Saturday, so I'm not even sure I can get this pool in shape by then, and even if I do what then? Is it all going to become undone while we're gone? If there something I can do to simply keep it from getting worse while I get the supplies and need and the time to do it right? I was frustrated when we bought the pool at what a hard time I was having to find information about taking care of it, and now I'm even more frustrated. I did not realize it would be this complicated, I wish I'd been better prepared. :(
 
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I just went and looked at it and it actually is starting to look more brownish than green now, don't know if that's a good thing or not, and still cloudy compared to yesterday. First picture yesterday when the levels seemed ok and second picture this morning about about 46oz MA added/chlorine 10
 

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Slow down!

You don't have algae, you have Iron. Unless you filled from a pond, there's no way you could have that much algae that fast. Adding a bunch of chlorine oxidized the Iron into rust particles hence the brown cloudiness. First scroll through these and look at the pictures. If they look familiar, read the text

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 www.troublefreepool.com

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

Now, I question that CYA result. You would have had to add a LOT of powdered dichlor or trichlor shock to get that much CYA that fast. Which is just more proof that test strips are unreliable.

Ph Strip vs drop test, severe discrepancy (pic)

Took a Ph test of my pool with both the strip and drop test and they seem to be very different. I imagine the drop test is more accurate, but why the discrepancy? If I'm matching the color right on the drop test, it looks closest to 7.5. How would you interpret the color? Also took the FC test...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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Oh my gosh Richard. Thank you so much! I knew I might battle iron, but I didn't know it would be green, I expected the color I saw this morning, so I thought algae was forming already. I skimmed the posts you sent, we might be able to try that polyfil filter method after we get back next week. I'll have to look at the logistics more closely. Meanwhile, I'm assuming if my other levels are in range its ok to swim in the pool? (Currently chlorine is way too high.) What about using a flocculent and vacuuming, does that work at all or not worth it?

I only ever added one 1lb bag of the HTH "Ultimate Shock" (see photo). I am not trusting the tests at all, plus the colors seem to keep getting darker so I'm trying to get the reading as close to 20seconds as possible. I just retested and the PH looked to be between 7.5-7.8 and the CYA looked like 40. My husband works out of the town, I'm going to see if he can get a good test kit on his way home. If he can't find one I'll just have to order and wait and limp along with these.
 

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That pool shock is Cal Hypo. It has no CYA in it.

If you haven't added any other powders, and no pucks, you haven't added any CYA to your water yet. Your chlorine won't last but an hour or so in full sun without some.

If you think you're stressed now, see what happens if you add floc. We discourage its use heavily here. The catastrophes so far outnumber the successes that it's just not worth even trying.
 
CoolHome said:
Yay! I found the Taylor K2006 Complete kit that I can get delivered by Thursday!
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Note - if that's a K-2006 and not a K-2006C, you will probably end up needing more of the FAS-DPD tests. It doesn't come with very much. It also only has enough CYA reagents for a couple of tests. So - you may want to get refills on those now.
 

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Mguzzy - Ok, as soon as I can get to town to get some I will. Thanks!

Dustin - The test is: Taylor K2006 Complete Swimming Pool Water Test Kit for Chlorine, pH, Alkalinity. I'll look for CYA refills right away. Thanks!

Any thoughts on the Metal Out anyone? I'm watching the sides of my pool turn yellow as we speak, but don't want to keep adding random stuff if it won't help either.
 
@CoolHome , consider getting the TF-100 from TFTestKits.net. They use the same Taylor reagents but in proportions more consistent with the way residential pool owners test. Like a huge bottle of CYA reagent. Test Kits Compared They ship fairly quickly as well. If you already have a K-2006 you can augment the other test you need... but if you are starting out I recommend the TF-100 and you won't have to buy other tests.
 
CoolHome said:
Mguzzy - Ok, as soon as I can get to town to get some I will. Thanks!

Dustin - The test is: Taylor K2006 Complete Swimming Pool Water Test Kit for Chlorine, pH, Alkalinity. I'll look for CYA refills right away. Thanks!

Any thoughts on the Metal Out anyone? I'm watching the sides of my pool turn yellow as we speak, but don't want to keep adding random stuff if it won't help either.
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There are treatments you can do. For now, put 5ppm of FC into your pool daily until your test kit arrives. You can also put paper towels, polyfill, an old t-shirt, etc. into the skimmer and try to capture out some of the iron. Some people have a lot of luck with the polyfill-in-skimmer and it really helped them get a lot of the iron out.
 
Also, in addition to the CYA reagent, you're going to need more FAS-DPD powder and drops. R-0870 and R-0871 are the Taylor reagent numbers for those.

Read this thread for the polyfill:

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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Like I said, if you haven;t added any powders or pucks other than that one nag of cal-hypo, you have zero CYA so you can safely add some without fear of overshooting. Using poolmath, enter zero as the now and 40 or 50 as the goal and add what it calculates using the sock method. Fill a sock and tie it off and set it in the skimmer or dangle it this.


sockmethod

sockmethod


Don;t add metalfree until after you've filtered out what you can. What it does is sequester the Iron. Like the hard candy shell sequesters the chocolate in an M&M. It'll hide it and it won't filter out.
 
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IceShadow, when you say add 5ppm each day do you mean if I put 5 as the goal in the PoolMath calculator, with 0 as a start and it tells me to put in 38oz of liquid chlorine then I should put in 38oz every day until I can do a real test? Still new to the chemistry of this, but I'm thinking the ppm is the goal.

Richard, I'll try the t-shirt or polyfil in the skimmer until I have time to try one of those bucket methods, with guests coming and planning on being gone the first part of next week there just isn't time to figure it out. If I'd realized how complicated this was I'd have waited until next week to start all this (oh yeah, and have water trucked in!)

Thank you both so much for giving me a plan! The hardest part has been not having a clue what to do and second-guessing everything I was doing (for good reason). Running in circles and accomplishing nothing.
 
The kit will be the real game-changer - knowing your chem levels is important. Polyfill in the skimmer can be a huge difference too. I've seen threads where they go from brown to blue in a matter of days when they were careful about changing out the polyfill as it got full of brown rust.
 

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