I opened my pool for its second season. I topped off the water with well water from my hose. I now realize I should’ve filtered it as it was filling my pool. All was good for the first few weeks, just added shock and the water cleared up pretty fast. I thought I was keeping up with it but as the temperatures rose I noticed some algae appearing on the walls. I brushed during the day and doubled the dose of shock every night for 3 days. The water didn’t improve at all. I used a green to blue product, followed all instructions and used a flocculant. I ran the filter constantly. After another 2 days still sitting with green water. I took a sample in to a local pool store to be tested. Total chlorine was 2.99 ph 6.4 total alkalinity 14 and large amount of copper at 1.2. They told me any algae in the pool is most likely dead and the copper is the main concern and the cause for the color of the pool. They sold me a bottle of stain remover for the metal and told me to get the ph level up to normal. I first got the ph level up and the water turned from a darker to lighter green. Then I added the bottle of stain remover and ran the filter. 30 hrs later nothing has changed. I wen back to the store and the levels were still the same except for the ph level up to 7.5. They told me to try another bottle of the same remover. I added that and another 35hrs has passed while filter running and still have not seen any improvement to the water. It’s a cloudy light green color.
Oxidized minerals causing green pool?
- Thread starter 4Moutdoorlife
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,776
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome to TFP.
Stop going to the Pool Store. You now have a chemical soup and the Pool Store has your money. Who do you think is better off?
There is no undo button and no quick fix at this point where we can tell you add this to your pool and it will be clear and blue. It is going to take some work.
Get a good test kit from TFT Test Kits
Tell us about your pool by creating your signature with details of your pool and equipment.
Download PoolMath
Add 5PPM of liquid chlorine in your pool daily until you get your test kit. Do not add any other chemicals to your pool. NONE! NADA!!
Show us pics of your pool equipment pad and pool water.
When you get the test kit post your test results.
With the amount of copper in the water you are probably going to need to do a sulfamic acid treatment to lift the stains and then drain your pool and fill with fresh water. Read Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading
Once we understand about your pool we can discuss further how to proceed.
www.troublefreepool.com
Stop going to the Pool Store. You now have a chemical soup and the Pool Store has your money. Who do you think is better off?
There is no undo button and no quick fix at this point where we can tell you add this to your pool and it will be clear and blue. It is going to take some work.
Get a good test kit from TFT Test Kits
Tell us about your pool by creating your signature with details of your pool and equipment.
Download PoolMath
Add 5PPM of liquid chlorine in your pool daily until you get your test kit. Do not add any other chemicals to your pool. NONE! NADA!!
Show us pics of your pool equipment pad and pool water.
When you get the test kit post your test results.
With the amount of copper in the water you are probably going to need to do a sulfamic acid treatment to lift the stains and then drain your pool and fill with fresh water. Read Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading
Once we understand about your pool we can discuss further how to proceed.
Pool Care Basics Archives
Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!
www.troublefreepool.com
Welcome, sorry its on those terms but its why we dont trust pool store water testing or advice. If youde like to make it cheaper and easier, follow the TFP guidelines by testing your own water with one of these kits.
Swimming Pool Test Kits Compared
What pool test kit should I buy? Why shouldn't I use test strips? Our recommended test kits will pay for themselves in no time!
www.troublefreepool.com
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Because pool store testing has proven over and over to be VERY incorrect, you need to do your own testing to figure out what is going on.
The tests in the kits you can order from the suggestions above, unfortunately, don't test for metals.
For those, we have to depend on pool stores, or real water testing labs.
The odds are VERY high that your issues are related to algae. So don't panic, yet. When you get your kit, testing and help here, can firmly decide whether it is algae or not.
If it turns out to actually be a problem with copper - the question is "Where did it come from?" That would be either your well water, or products you added - mineralizers attached to the plumbing, some algaecides or clarifiers, other pool store magic water additives (basically, most things with "Blue" in the name). To eliminate one possible worry - take a sample of your tap water to the store now, don't tell them it is tap, and have them test. If it shows copper, that's one possible source. And I'd start thinking about finding out more from you local/regional health departments, and talking to commercial companies that deal with testing and treating well water. If it has low or none, you can remove that item from the worry list, and we can carry on with getting your pool back to pristine condition.
As advised, besides getting your tap water tested, adding daily 5 ppm daily doses of liquid pool chlorine (WalMart, Home Depot, etc) (NOT Clorox!) will help keep algae down until you get the kit. If you list your pool details in your signature (especially gallons), we can even give a rough guestimate of how much chlorine to add to make 5 ppm right away.
The tests in the kits you can order from the suggestions above, unfortunately, don't test for metals.
For those, we have to depend on pool stores, or real water testing labs.
The odds are VERY high that your issues are related to algae. So don't panic, yet. When you get your kit, testing and help here, can firmly decide whether it is algae or not.
If it turns out to actually be a problem with copper - the question is "Where did it come from?" That would be either your well water, or products you added - mineralizers attached to the plumbing, some algaecides or clarifiers, other pool store magic water additives (basically, most things with "Blue" in the name). To eliminate one possible worry - take a sample of your tap water to the store now, don't tell them it is tap, and have them test. If it shows copper, that's one possible source. And I'd start thinking about finding out more from you local/regional health departments, and talking to commercial companies that deal with testing and treating well water. If it has low or none, you can remove that item from the worry list, and we can carry on with getting your pool back to pristine condition.
As advised, besides getting your tap water tested, adding daily 5 ppm daily doses of liquid pool chlorine (WalMart, Home Depot, etc) (NOT Clorox!) will help keep algae down until you get the kit. If you list your pool details in your signature (especially gallons), we can even give a rough guestimate of how much chlorine to add to make 5 ppm right away.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,776
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
The copper likely came from the green to blue product and other chemicals the pool store sold. I would not worry about the copper source.
Thank you for your help. I’ve ordered a test kit, I’ll be anxiously waiting for it to arrive. In the mean time I’ve been learning a lot just from reading, there’s a lot of great content on here, I only wish I found this site sooner.Welcome to TFP.
Stop going to the Pool Store. You now have a chemical soup and the Pool Store has your money. Who do you think is better off?
There is no undo button and no quick fix at this point where we can tell you add this to your pool and it will be clear and blue. It is going to take some work.
Get a good test kit from TFT Test Kits
Tell us about your pool by creating your signature with details of your pool and equipment.
Download PoolMath
Add 5PPM of liquid chlorine in your pool daily until you get your test kit. Do not add any other chemicals to your pool. NONE! NADA!!
Show us pics of your pool equipment pad and pool water.
When you get the test kit post your test results.
With the amount of copper in the water you are probably going to need to do a sulfamic acid treatment to lift the stains and then drain your pool and fill with fresh water. Read Copper in Pool Water - Further Reading
Once we understand about your pool we can discuss further how to proceed.
Pool Care Basics Archives
Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!
For your pool, if the liquid you get is 10%, that would be 2/3 gallon per day until the kit arrives.
Perfect, thank you. Do you think it’ll be a good idea to let things settle and vacuum to waste anything that sits on the bottom? I do have a filter for my hose now in case I need to add fresh water.
Your call, always good to get junk out, and if it is algae then you may have less chlorine use later to kill it. But, going to waste and replacing does effectively lower your chlorine concentration. Wasting a few inches of water may be unnoticeable. Depends on how much and what you have accumulating. Can you post a picture?
- Jul 21, 2013
- 64,776
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
What is your fresh water situation?
I would drain that soup and fill with fresh water and start over using only TFP recommended chemicals.
www.troublefreepool.com
www.troublefreepool.com
I would drain that soup and fill with fresh water and start over using only TFP recommended chemicals.
Recommended Pool Chemicals
Which should I buy? TFP's recommended pool chemicals are cheap, easy, and won't unbalance your pool water.
www.troublefreepool.com
Just Filled Your Pool with Water? Here's What To Do Next - Further Reading
www.troublefreepool.com
You may have elevated copper - can't know without testing. But that picture is pretty much a pure algae soup. No sense vacuuming right now - you can't see what you may be getting out. Get the pool store test on the tap water for copper (my guess is very little or none). Then decide if your water supply can handle draining and refilling. That would be the fastest/cheapest. It will still need additional treatment (you won't be able to get all the algae out), but will give a leg up on getting back to swimming sooner.
If your water supply is suspect, you may consider draining and having clean water delivered. Depends on pricing in your area, and nearby companies that can do it. May be semi-reasonable in cost, or outrageous. It will still need that additional treatment.
Ask here if you want to go the drain/replace route - there are a couple of different ways, mostly depending on how well or poorly your pool construction can support not having water in it.
If you go with what you have, you will need to end up getting lots of liquid chlorine (many cases). And spend very frequent quality time with your test kit. Many, many have gone through the SLAM process and it does work extremely well. But it is a process.
If your water supply is suspect, you may consider draining and having clean water delivered. Depends on pricing in your area, and nearby companies that can do it. May be semi-reasonable in cost, or outrageous. It will still need that additional treatment.
Ask here if you want to go the drain/replace route - there are a couple of different ways, mostly depending on how well or poorly your pool construction can support not having water in it.
If you go with what you have, you will need to end up getting lots of liquid chlorine (many cases). And spend very frequent quality time with your test kit. Many, many have gone through the SLAM process and it does work extremely well. But it is a process.
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It would prob cost me around 800-900$ to fill with fresh water. I just received my test kit in the mail. I think I’m gonna go through the SLAM process and see what happens.
FC-2.5
CC-1.0
CYA-72
TA-70
- Jun 24, 2021
- 15,628
- Pool Size
- 29000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Round your CYA up to the next 10. Your CYA is 80. I have not seen a successful slam with CYA of 80. I would replace 25% of your pool volume to get it down to 60. At 80, you will chew through A LOT of chlorine.
I got the water tested for minerals and there is still a lot in there, I want to go ahead and drain the pool but people are telling me I will ruin the liner if I do so. I have a hard metal sided AG pool.