Green Hair Problem After Using Bioguard Smart Shock

[waterbear]

Thank you so much for the comments about the clarifier and the info on the green hair remedy. We used ketchup, and it did work somewhat. I will try the salt suggestion if we have more problems.

Ketchup will overtone the green coloration somewhat with a reddish orange stain from the lycophene (which acts as a vegetable dye) but not really remove it. Citric acid will reduce the metal (change its oxidation state and make it soluble and colorless) so it will rinse out of the hair. I was a hair colorist for many years in Miami and we saw a lot of green hair since there were a lot of pools there. This is more or less how we removed the green (and was also what I taught when I was a cosmetology and barber instructor in later years)

[SnoopysGirl]

It's possible -- even likely --that you have BOTH iron and copper in your pool. Brown stains ARE iron (or if dark coffee brown, manganese, but that's unlikely unless you have well water).

If you keep the pH above 7, it's unlikely you are dissolving copper into the pool. But, iron's another matter. Is your pool water exposed to iron or steel anywhere?

Well, I HAD thought that possibly iron was entering the pool via our city water (we've had drought conditions this year), but now I am thinking that perhaps there is an exposed screw or something else that might be causing the staining. Earlier in the summer I noticed that there was some staining under one of the skimmer intakes. Also, around the steps there are some darker reddish spots (like rust), and those could be coming from something near the steps. Thanks for the suggestion - I'll investigate a little bit further and see if I can find the source.

[PoolDoc]

OK. Let us know what you find.