NEW user

We are new to PoolForum and new to owning a pool. We bought a new house with an in-ground, 24000 gallon painted concrete pool with a gas heater and cartridge filter about a year ago. We've spent the last year blindly following the advice of the pool store and pouring cash into the water. We started to question the judgement and advice of the pool store people when they told us the copper in our pool (was 1.0, now 3.0) resulted from filling the pool with the end of the hose submerged. The clerk explained that the chlorine in the water reacts with the brass in the hose tip and results in a copper spike in the water. He recommended that we ignore the balance of the pool and focus on getting the copper out first. So, we spent three weeks with an out-of-balance pool, adding gallon after gallon of metal-free, while the copper levels continued to rise, and the chlorine, pH, total alkalinity levels sunk.

I finally called the company that services our Hayward pump for a second opinion. They scoffed at the idea of a tiny hose end raising the copper level of a 24,000 gallon pool, and suggested that the copper levels are almost always due to the off-balance water corroding the heat exchanger and will not improve UNTIL the pool is in balance and the heat exchanger is replaced. This is an expensive way to learn my lesson - but I'm glad I found pool solutions and the PoolForum.

I tested the water we use to fill the pool (from the hose - which has a BRASS tip, by the way - it's not even copper) and there is no copper in it. I raised the pH of the pool water using Borax (was <7, is now right at 7.8), and the alkalinity using baking soda (was undetectable, is now at 90ppm). Chlorine is undetectable at this point - I will add more as soon as the sun sets.

We are closing the pool soon, so we're planning to replumb the water flow to bypass the heater over the winter and will replace the exchanger in the $$$$spring.

I'm still not sure what to do about the copper. I'm using a test strip to measure the level and it's turning a vivid violet. Help?