Extremely high FC and stabilizer

[Jennifer8]

Hi all,
My husband used to deal with the pool and now our levels are messed up and I’m trying to take over and understand the pool chemicals. Had my water tested at pool city and they say FC 17.62 and another place says 15.
We’re draining about 2 ft of pool to replace and reassess. High copper too. He put in pool life shock and now we have these black stains. Help !

 

[Bperry]

Hi all,
My husband used to deal with the pool and now our levels are messed up and I’m trying to take over and understand the pool chemicals. Had my water tested at pool city and they say FC 17.62 and another place says 15.
We’re draining about 2 ft of pool to replace and reassess. High copper too. He put in pool life shock and now we have these black stains. Help !

It’s probably not actually too high. What is the stabilizer (CYA) level?

 

[Jennifer8]

It’s probably not actually too high. What is the stabilizer (CYA) level?

1 ppm on pool city and the other says it’s good … on test strip it reads high… I guess it’s not. Low alkalinity though .. 100

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! You have a few issues and we'll start with the following:
- You need to test your own water. Advice on this forum is based on accurate home testing with a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit. Store testing (and advice) is often incorrect.
- Copper-based products should never be used. The only way to remove copper is by exchanging water. Copper stains are very difficult to remove.
- See our FC/CYA Levels. It speaks directly to FC levels as related to the current CYA reading. If your CYA is 40 or above, I'm sure the FC level is still safe.
- Bookmark our Pool Care Basics page. It is a great one-stop shop for everything TFP.

 

[Jennifer8]

Welcome to TFP! You have a few issues and we'll start with the following:
- You need to test your own water. Advice on this forum is based on accurate home testing with a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit. Store testing (and advice) is often incorrect.
- Copper-based products should never be used. The only way to remove copper is by exchanging water. Copper stains are very difficult to remove.
- See our FC/CYA Levels. It speaks directly to FC levels as related to the current CYA reading. If your CYA is 40 or above, I'm sure the FC level is still safe.
- Bookmark our Pool Care Basics page. It is a great one-stop shop for everything TFP.

Thank you ! So my husband made a diy copper coil heater to filter pool water through. Could this be the reason?

 

[Texas Splash]

So my husband made a diy copper coil heater to filter pool water through. Could this be the reason?

Certainly could be, especially if the water chemistry got out of range a bit.

 

[mknauss]

He put in pool life shock and now we have these black stains.

If actually black, that implies silver.
Any Frog or other ionizers used?

 

[Jennifer8]

If actually black, that implies silver.
Any Frog or other ionizers used?

There’s high copper in the water. We put in chlorine shock last night and then this was pictured was this morning. On July 10 We did alkalinity ph plus and qt stain and iron control… maybe that’s what it was the shock interacted with where that iron control was dumped ?

 

[Texas Splash]

Chlorine can cause changes in stain color, but at this point it sounds like it's all water under the bridge. Now's the time to exchange the water, remove the copper product(s), and stick to a proven sanitation method of properly balanced chemicals the TFP way. With the right test kit, it's easy and we can help walk you through it.

 

[Jennifer8]

Chlorine can cause changes in stain color, but at this point it sounds like it's all water under the bridge. Now's the time to exchange the water, remove the copper product(s), and stick to a proven sanitation method of properly balanced chemicals the TFP way. With the right test kit, it's easy and we can help walk you through it.

Thank you! I agree it’s time to do this on my own !
I’m heading to a store to buy one of the inexpensive drip tests to use for now. We cannot afford one of the 2 recommended right now … we just spent $60 in product the other day

 

[Texas Splash]

We cannot afford one of the 2 recommended right now … we just spent $60 in product the other day

Understand, Something your local stores will not have is the FAS-DPD portion of those kits. If you can at least get that, it would help provide very accurate FC and CC testing. Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

[Bperry]

Thank you! I agree it’s time to do this on my own !
I’m heading to a store to buy one of the inexpensive drip tests to use for now. We cannot afford one of the 2 recommended right now … we just spent $60 in product the other day

If you end up sticking around here, you won’t ever have to buy crazy bundles of expensive products from the pool store anymore. Most of the stuff they sell (if it’s actually needed) can be purchased much less expensively from places like Walmart and Home Depot.

 

[wireform]

This purchase can be your last pool expense on the chemistry side of things for the year along with following TFP methodology by knowing what problems exist in the water and treating that one without creating new ones.

 

[Mdragger88]

Your ph/ alkalinity increaser was possibly an unnecessary purchase.
A ta of 100 is fine.
You mentioned iron control- are u on a well?
There are other ways to deal with iron if so.
The only tests tfp recommends getting done at a pool store are metals tests.
Do u know those values?

You will find that even with the price of the kit you will spend much less following tfpc than the current dump & pray method with the pool store & strips leading u astray.

 

[Jennifer8]

Your ph/ alkalinity increaser was possibly an unnecessary purchase.
A ta of 100 is fine.
You mentioned iron control- are u on a well?
There are other ways to deal with iron if so.
The only tests tfp recommends getting done at a pool store are metals tests.
Do u know those values?

You will find that even with the price of the kit you will spend much less following tfpc than the current dump & pray method with the pool store & strips leading u astray.

Thank you I agree. We are going to make the purchase! There was high copper from my husband making a diy heater with copper coils.

 

[Mdragger88]

Thank you I agree. We are going to make the purchase! There was high copper from my husband making a diy heater with copper coils.

Many other products also add copper aside from imbalanced ph eroding copper lines.
Trichlor & dichlor products w/ the word blue in them or 3 in 1, 4 in 1, etc.
Along with many algeacides , green to blue products etc.
the only way to reduce the copper is to exchange the copper laden water for fresh water.

Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Add 5ppm of liquid chlorine to the pool per day until your kit comes (pour it slowly infront of a return jet & brush the area. )
Use PoolMath to calculate dosage.
Don’t add anything else.
When the kit comes do all the tests & post the results here.

 

[Jennifer8]

Many other products also add copper aside from imbalanced ph eroding copper lines.
Trichlor & dichlor products w/ the word blue in them or 3 in 1, 4 in 1, etc.
Along with many algeacides , green to blue products etc.
the only way to reduce the copper is to exchange the copper laden water for fresh water.

Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Add 5ppm of liquid chlorine to the pool per day until your kit comes (pour it slowly infront of a return jet & brush the area. )
Use PoolMath to calculate dosage.
Don’t add anything else.
When the kit comes do all the tests & post the results here.

Thanks !
So we have very high free chlorine. Last test at pool city yesterday said 17. We drained 18 inches of water added 20 in then drained another 2.5 inches. Retreated with strips that were have currently and free Chlorine is super high but stabilizer is dropping

 

[Mdragger88]

Thanks !
So we have very high free chlorine. Last test at pool city yesterday said 17. We drained 18 inches of water added 20 in then drained another 2.5 inches. Retreated with strips that were have currently and free Chlorine is super high but stabilizer is dropping

Fc Anywhere between minimum & slam level for your cya is ok & safe to swim in so long as u can see the bottom of pool for safety purposes. Depending upon your current cya level your fc might not actually be that high

FC/CYA Levels
Unfortunately the cya test is one of the tests that the pool store & strips get wrong more than right but when your kit comes u will be able to get a more accurate reading.