Water Has Green Hue But Clear

[lisa1965]

My pool located in Atlanta is a 18x38 salt water pool using 4 lg cartridges, this past winter my Jandy pump went out so when we took the cover off we had a mess, the water was blackish, within the last 10 days I have replaced the pump motor and followed instructions from the pool store so it is now only a green hue but clear but can't seem to get rid of the green hue. I thought it was maybe copper because I am seeing staining on my liner, stairs and polaris. The pool store says the copper is not high enough to cause the green hue but the stains can be taken care of once the water is clear. I do not completely understand the analysis so I just follow what they tell me but nothing seems to be improving, any help or ideas would help.

Analysis, 24000 gals

Date of Analysis 4/20 4/24 4/27 4/29

Sat Ind -1 -1.7 -1.5 1

TDS 3100 3200 3900 4100

CYA 40 40 not tested not tested

Tot Chl 3.5 10 9.5 10

pH 6.9 6.5 6.4 8.8

Tot alk 92 73 100 102

Hardiness 104 97 113 122

Borates 17 11 40 41

Salt 2200 2200 3200 3200

Pool Store instructions:

4/20 5lbs banish, 15lbs super soluable, clean filters daily, brush liner

4/24 5bags mineral springs salt 4lbs balance 100, con't cleaning filters every other day, brush sides

4/27 4lbs balance 200, 2lbs super soluable, 2lbs banish, con't cleaning filters

4/29 3lbs Lo'N Slo, con't cleaning

when cleaning filters, they look great no matter on them but they are starting to stain, pool bottom is clear of matter so are pool sides, I have been brushing them every other day

any help on why the pool is not clearing, I am almost to the point to drain and refill

Thanks,

Lisa

[rbdeli]

If I knew something about salt water pools, I could be of more help.

I would want to know what your FC (Free Chlorine) readings are. Since Total Chlorine is the sum of combined and free chlorine, it doesn't really indicate the purity of your water.

If it were my own pool, I'd measure the FC and if it were low, I'd simply shock the heck out of it. With fresh water pools, shocking them with chlorine usually turns the water crystal clear within 2-3 days.

Richard???

My pool located in Atlanta is a 18x38 salt water pool using 4 lg cartridges, this past winter my Jandy pump went out so when we took the cover off we had a mess, the water was blackish, within the last 10 days I have replaced the pump motor and followed instructions from the pool store so it is now only a green hue but clear but can't seem to get rid of the green hue. I thought it was maybe copper because I am seeing staining on my liner, stairs and polaris. The pool store says the copper is not high enough to cause the green hue but the stains can be taken care of once the water is clear. I do not completely understand the analysis so I just follow what they tell me but nothing seems to be improving, any help or ideas would help.

Analysis, 24000 gals

Date of Analysis 4/20 4/24 4/27 4/29

Sat Ind -1 -1.7 -1.5 1

TDS 3100 3200 3900 4100

CYA 40 40 not tested not tested

Tot Chl 3.5 10 9.5 10

pH 6.9 6.5 6.4 8.8

Tot alk 92 73 100 102

Hardiness 104 97 113 122

Borates 17 11 40 41

Salt 2200 2200 3200 3200

Pool Store instructions:

4/20 5lbs banish, 15lbs super soluable, clean filters daily, brush liner

4/24 5bags mineral springs salt 4lbs balance 100, con't cleaning filters every other day, brush sides

4/27 4lbs balance 200, 2lbs super soluable, 2lbs banish, con't cleaning filters

4/29 3lbs Lo'N Slo, con't cleaning

when cleaning filters, they look great no matter on them but they are starting to stain, pool bottom is clear of matter so are pool sides, I have been brushing them every other day

any help on why the pool is not clearing, I am almost to the point to drain and refill

Thanks,

Lisa

[toadlife]

Lisa,

I think rbdeli is right that it's just a matter of not enough chlorine.

I just went through this with my new house. I got the water to be clear but the green hue persisted. I finally figured out that I was just not adding enough chlorine. After I finally declared war and nuked my pool, turned to sparkling blue in a matter of days.

I would recommend going down to walmart or some other big box store and buying about 20 gallons of scent free 6% bleach. Start by adding about 5.5 gallons to your skimmer while the pump is running. According to the thepoolcalculator.com, this will raise your FC level to about 15 - an appropriate shock level for your CYA level.

Bleach (liquid chlorine) has a very high pH so it will have the added benefit of raising your pH, which is too low.

Keep your FC level high at about 10-15 for a couple of days and I bet that green hue will vanish.

Good luck!

[lisa1965]

Thank you both for your replies. Since I last wrote we have had a ton of rain down here so I haven't checked any of my levels since 5/6. I can see that the green hue is going away but I have a very brownish color coming out of my cartridges when I clean them. I cleaned them 3 days in a row and the brownish color seems to be going away but any white areas on the liner, polaris, stairs, ladder, skimmer, etc all have a brown stain to them. After some research through this site I thought it was my copper or iron level but the salesperson at the store checked my copper level and she said it wasn't high enough to cause all that. She had me add some more pH up and stabilizer.

My last reading said:

Free Chlorine 7.5

CYA 49

pH 7.2

TDS 4300

salt 2900

CYA 49

I think the chlorine is still too high but at least I'm not itchy anymore after swimming, I was having everyone shower after swimming. If I add more salt will my pH raise or do I need to keep adding pH UP. I will clean the filters again in 2 days and see how the brown coloring is doing but we are expecting rain again all weekend so I'm guessing I'll need even more salt and possibly pH UP if the salt won't raise the pH.

[chem geek]

Salt will not raise pH, but continued operation of your saltwater chlorine generator (SWG) probably will so I'd leave things as they are as the pH will likely rise on its own if you've got the SWG running. Just lower the SWG on-time for now to have the Free Chlorine (FC) level drop and then turn it up a bit to keep it steady. You don't want the chlorine level to get below 2.5 ppm given your CYA level (basically, you want a minimum FC of at least 4.5% of the CYA level in an SWG pool).

[Pool-newb]

... any white areas on the liner, polaris, stairs, ladder, skimmer, etc all have a brown stain to them. After some research through this site I thought it was my copper or iron level but the salesperson at the store checked my copper level and she said it wasn't high enough to cause all that...

Having just freshly learned about metal stains (thanks agian Richard!) ...

Do you eat citrus fruit? If you have some in the house (I used a grapefruit skin after I had eaten most of it, lemons are more often recommended), cut one in half and rub the half on the stain. If the stain goes away, you have metals. Also try just scrubbing the stain with a brush and maybe some soap if you can do it on a part that won't let the soap into the water.

If the stain removes with the citrus fruit, you have metals - probably iron or copper. If you can remove it with soap or scrubbing, it's probably organic.

The citrus fruit trick also works with some ground up vitamin C tablets. If you do have metal staining you can remove the stains with ascorbic acid and the vitamni C or citrus fruit is simply using the ascorbic acid in those items to test for the metals.

I have severe metal staining but my pool store cannot find any metal in the water either. I'm not certain why but its probably because I used some metal sequestrant before I had them test it. In your case it may be that the metals are all attached to the pool hardware instead of in suspension where they can be tested.

If it is metal the next question is where did it come from?

If you have a heater and have only recently (past year or two) installed the SWG, then your heater may be corroding. SWGs and heaters do not mix well unless the heater has a cupro or some metal other than copper specially designed to resist the salt water. In addition, many heater manufacturers have in their fine print that high TDS (as is in every SWG pool) damage will result in warranty non-coverage.

The other thing I recommend is getting your own test kit and learn how to use it. I first bought one at Leslie's and it works but the TF-100 (link in my signature) is more complete and uses the FAS-DPD test which can more accurately measure higher levels of cl. There is also a Taylor kit with FAS-DPD available. The DPD that Leslie's and my kit use does not accurately show levels over 5 ppm, and can be very misleading if you (or the pool store) tries to guess at levels above that because excessive chlorine can bleach out the color and make it look much lower than it really is.

Which part of Atlanta? I'm in Peachtree City.

[chem geek]

Also try just scrubbing the stain with a brush and maybe some soap if you can do it on a part that won't let the soap into the water.

If the stain removes with the citrus fruit, you have metals - probably iron or copper. If you can remove it with soap or scrubbing, it's probably organic.

The citrus fruit trick also works with some ground up vitamin C tablets. If you do have metal staining you can remove the stains with ascorbic acid and the vitamni C or citrus fruit is simply using the ascorbic acid in those items to test for the metals.

Yes, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) will remove metal stains, but for organic stains an easy way to tell is to rub or hold a trichlor puck on the surface (for plaster pools; not vinyl) and if it fades then it's organic in which case chlorine will remove the stain.