Help!!! My water is Black and liner looks black & burned

[Gwendolyn]

Hello! my husband has really messed up our pool! We came home today and it was black!! the liner is black and the shock he put in the pool is black and just laying in the pool. Our wedding cake steps which are plastic are black and look burned!

He has been putting copper sulfate in the pool. I've been trying to tell him to stop because my daughter gets in for a few minutes and her hair turns green, but for some reason he thinks it is helping with what he thinks is black algae.

Anyway, he shocked the pool yesterday and when we came home it was black.

He called the pool store and they were clueless. Is there any hope??? Can it be fixed? Does anyone know what we need to do?? Please help me!!! Thank you!

Gwen

[CarlD]

YOWTCH!!!

You'd better take a sample to the pool store and post numbers.

I suspect you are having extreme metallic staining, but I could be wrong.

Copper sulfate is NOT a good thing to put in your pool.

But if your hubby won't listen, there's nothing we can do to help.

You may have to drain and scrub your pool.--you can't drain it all the way, either--you must leave 6" to a foot of water.

[Gwendolyn]

Yes - I think you are right about the staining. Can you point me to where I can find out more about why copper sulfate is bad just so I can read more about it?

We took a sample to the store the yesterday and they said everything was good. When he called them today after coming home to the black/gray pool he asked the store what the copper reading was and they told him they didn't test the copper. I don't understand why they didn't test that! I know he put some type of algecide and shock in it last night before the drastic change. Before that it just had some dark spots on the liner, but was not completely black/gray.

What should we scrub the pool with? Will it clean the liner or will it always stay stained? Is there some place I can find out the best fix?

I really need some detailed advice, since our pool store was clueless. I promise he is going to listen now!! beleive me!!

[waterbear]

oxidized copper (the black and grey staining you see) is one of the hardest ones to get rid of. I am not sure it can be done safely in a vinyl pool without destroying the liner! (I assume you have a vinyl pool because you said you have plastic wedding cake steps) I would contact Jack's Magic www.jacksmagic.com (http://www.jacksmagic.com)
for advice on what to do. I wouls also STOP adding the copper sulfate, find a store that does test for copper (and if it's over 1 ppm DO NOT GO IN THE WATER!) or get a copper test kit (not strips) from Taylor or LaMotte and test it yourself.

In any case I wouldstart draining and refilling the pool to get the copper levels down.

You can try ascorbic acid to see if it will help but I don't think it will (hold a vitamin c tab on the stain and see if it goes away, if it does you might be able to use ascorbic acid to remove the staining but this usually does not work on oxidzed copper stains)

YOu might have to replace the liner and the steps.

Even in a plaster pool the process to remove this type of staining can take weeks to complete (or the pool is acid washed in really bad cases)

[Gwendolyn]

Just an update on the condition of our pool...

First I need to say "DO NOT USE COPPER SULFATE!!!"

Anyway we drained our pool and tomorrow (Monday) we are having a new liner installed. It ate our liner up! There are spots where you can rub the color off. It is really gross!

We were going to get a new liner next year, so now we just are doing it a little earlier than planned.

My husband thought that copper sulfate is no different than the algecides you buy in the pool store, but I do believe he was wrong! I'm not sure where he got his information from.

Hopefully no one who reads this will make the same stupid mistake!

[CarlD]

We only recommend two algaecides:
1) Chlorine. Yeah, chlorine is still the best. We prefer it in bleach or liquid chlorine (same thing) because it has the least side effects to watch for.
2) Polyquat 60%. If it says "Poly...<something>..." 60% and the rest is inert ingredients, that's the stuff. Polyquat is really an algae PREVENTER, an inhibiter, not a cure.

But when you fight an algae bloom you do it with chlorine.

Start reading here and at the sister site PoolSolutions.com for any and all information.

More importantly, get your other half to read here--or let you take over the chemistry of your pool.