Help a newbie?

[waterbear]

Hi Evan,

I just wanted to ask if there's any possibility of the greenish color coming from sand? We don't live far from Lake Michigan, and the soil around here is sandy... shot in the dark, but wanted to ask
Don't have a clue. Sorry. Kinda doubt it though.
And also in case it matters - the orange rusty stuff did wipe off of the basket, I just had to rub it vigorously - (otherwise, I would've tried the vitamin C thing).
Might be from iron or something else.

We live out in the sticks, so I'll have to try and find a nearby pool store for testing... might be difficult, but I'll find out today.
You could purchase test kits for iron and copper but they are probably an unneeded expense. Once you know what is in your water you will know what to treat it with to keep it under control.

Thanks - Glen

Hope this helps.

[GlenKlein]

Hi Evan,

First - thanks for your patience with me... you've been VERY helpful.

Second... after giving some thought to your answers, I am convinced that my water is YELLOW and that you were right... the blue in the liner makes it look green.

I went to Walmart yesterday and bumped into another guy on well water... he said to get muriatic (sp?) acid and that would clear it up????

I looked online for your suggestions to clear up the iron and the Jack's stuff had a pink and a blue version? I'll go back this morning and read the descriptions again, but it didn't appear to be clear to me - which one to order?! I think I want the Blue Stuff (because it's stable in high chlorine and removes iron) but it sounds like that was designed mostly for plaster pools?!

Thanks again... I'm learning a ton if that's worth anything!

[GlenKlein]

no reply necessary... I found the Proteam Metal Magic nearby. I'm gonna give that a shot first.

I'll let you know what happens.

[waterbear]

no reply necessary... I found the Proteam Metal Magic nearby. I'm gonna give that a shot first.

I'll let you know what happens.

Metal Magic will work fine. As far as the Jack's....the Pink stuff is what you want. the Blue Stuff is stronger and works better on high copper concentrations in the water.

[Chaotic]

Thanks again... I'm learning a ton if that's worth anything!

You cant help but learn a ton with these folks. They really know what they are doing and will help you with just about anything pool related.

Reading this thread brings me to a question: I too am on a well, but I cannot take water to a pool store to test for metals because the results always involve selling something and they dont actually give you the results of the test, its just "put this in and it will fix you up". Is there a test kit available for metals to end users?

[JohnT]

Reading this thread brings me to a question: I too am on a well, but I cannot take water to a pool store to test for metals because the results always involve selling something and they dont actually give you the results of the test, its just "put this in and it will fix you up". Is there a test kit available for metals to end users?

http://www.poolstore.com/store1/welc...per/index.html

[Chaotic]

Thank you. I assume the copper and iron reagents have a 1 to 2 year life?

[waterbear]

http://www.poolstore.com/store1/welc...per/index.html

These are Taylor kits and are excellent. Reagenys should last at least a year if you store them in the house and you can get the refills directly from Taylor Technologies.

[GlenKlein]

ok... I'm a little frustrated. Maybe for no reason?

It's now been 24 hours since adding the Metal Magic and my water is still greenish (or yellow with the blue'ish liner).

A couple of things I've noticed that may clue someone in:

We have dogwood trees - with the cotton things flying everywhere lately. In the bottom of my skimmer basket are the cotton things - but they are orange.

It reminds me of the rust stains in our sink/toilet if I let the salt pellets run low in our water softener. We use the "rust removal" type pellets in our water softener and the stains go away - the "rust" stains are the identical color of the dogwood cottons in the bottom of my skimmer.

Is there a correlation here?

Am I being impatient and expecting results from the Metal Magic too soon?

Thanks...

[GlenKlein]

New numbers -


5/30/06 - Chlorine/Bromine test = ORANGE (off the chart - the chart ended at yellow - my color was almost like a peach orange)
6/3/06 - Chlorine = 1 (a few days ago it was off the chart - see above)

5/30/06 - Alkalinity = 330ppm total alklinity as calcium carbonate
pH = 7.5
6/3/06 - Alkalinity = 300ppm

5/30/06 - Hardness = my water didn't turn red as the test said it should.
6/3/06 - this time the water did turn red - so Evan, you were probably right. The high chlorine was messing with the hardness test.

5/30/06 - CYA = 30ppm - the solution never got cloudy enough to hide the black dot.
6/3/06 - still the same as above.

I think the metal magic may be working btw. It is a little clearer this morning - not quite so green (see post right above this one for orange stuff comments).

I followed the directions on the bottle of the metal magic. 16oz for 5000 gallons... I'm wondering if I can go ahead and dump the remaining 16oz. and hopefully clear it up even more?

Also my Chlorine level really went down in a matter of a few days - so maybe it is an algae thing afterall?